"A candle burns itself out while giving light to others" and do you what else fascinates me about this one phrase? Its the fact that this one applies to more than a candle and u know what that is? guess....... no clue? keep guessin.....still no luck..ok here goes.. a teacher.. aint that the most beautiful thought ever for a teacher??well this post of mine is dedicated to all the candles who marked a circle of light in my life in their own sweet way. ok ok ..i know not every teacher gets the credit of being a candle in our life..i am not generalising anything.. i can talk on my life experience..aww come on... i am done with schools and colleges for this lifetime so i am eligible for voicing my opinions and coming to conclusions.
My teacher at kindergarten. Usha maam at TVS school madurai.. i just have a faint memory of her.. but i dont know what..but i still can never forget her name or the fact that i really adored her.. i was hardly 3 or 4 years of age when i was in her class..i cant even really remember her face.. but shes been one of the few teachers i have always adored in my life...
Now to school...teachers at school.. mmm i never gave them more thought.. they were never burning themselves to give me light..they were burning to get themselves paid.. atleast i never came across a teacher i wanted so badly to be like..until i had the good fortune of having omana teacher teaching me..
coming from tamilnadu i was hopeless at malayalam..cudnt even write a single word of it. i had taken hindi at my previous schools in TN so the realisation that i had to learn malayalam and actually take exams in it to pass to my next grades was pretty shocking for me and even more shockin for my folks who were totally lost when it comes to teachin me..my mother tried her hand in teachin me but it always ended in me and her fightin and me gettin my head banged with watever she cud get in her hands.. and since my father adored me to be his "papa"(meanin baby in tamil)..he decided to refrain from tryin to teach me so that v wud still b sharing the loving bond.. well so moral of story.. need tuition for malayalam.. in 3'rd std(can u blive that???) i was so against it..i mean come on..i was hardly 8 yrs of age..and to be spending one or two hrs in another class after comin back from school while the rest of my friends enjoyed their evenings was too much for my lil mind.
Many persuaions later and after badly flunkin all the malayalam papers in my 3rd grade and with the threat that unless i clear malayalam for my final exams i wud b detained in the same grade i put down my ego and conceeded to have my freedom for two hours given up. We were in an apartment complex with like five floors in all and each floor having 10 houses ..pretty huge i know.. :).. Omana teacher was in the fifth floor.. on my first day i dragged myself to the house..tuk the stairs from the second floor..delaying myself that much more..reached my destination.. promised to get this over with asap and rang the bell.. aunty's maid opens the door.. i have seen aunty once or twice before.. a quiet spoken lady with the face of an angel.. she was teachin in a local school.. and i always wondered what she was like with her students..was she the angel she luked like or was she different.. well well i told myself that i wud find out very soon... her maid tells me aunty is in the kitchen and that i can go sit in the room.. off i push myself to go and seat myself obediently in a chair by the side of a huge table filled with books and papers and pens and pencils and inkpot and rulers and cane chairs in the side of the room.
More voices..i turn around.. who else.. but my friends in the apartment itself. two of them.. i was overjoyed..so they come here too..they are as surprised seeing me there as i was to see them..three 8 yrs meeting in a tuition place.. u can imagine.. the guy amongst us shows us how he learnt to make a paper robot that day in class.. v were watchin him make it when in walked our next tuition mate..a student from aunty's school..a chubby guy with big huge specs.. i was the stransger there for him..the other two promptly introduced me to him.. at tht moment aunty walks in..shes happy to see that v have all made friends with each other..i was takin out my books to start learnin... in walks aunty's maid with four big glasses of steamin hot drinks and cookies in a plate.. man..i was never this glad.. she starts teachin..v start eating. but i learnt more that day than i have learnt in my school the whole year..
she was the most interestin teacher i have ever come across... the most patient teacher.. she understood us kids..she encouraged us in our classes.. yet she managed to get across the subject..i started loving malayalam.. i started loving the way she narrated the malayalam poems we had in our textbooks..even today i can recite the poem of a caterpillar which turned into a beautiful butterfly and flew out..poem in page 13 of std 3 malayalam textbook. CBSE board. Days passed...aunty's house was like our heaven for us.. v used to go to her kitchen..she always had something or the other pickled in salt..it was a delicacy for us..to date whenever i see a salt pickled mango or 'lovelolika' i think of u aunty.. my classes with u.. the poems..the essays.. the speeches. the fun.. the smile on ur face.We were too young .. she knew it.. she became our age to teach us..
and for the finale.. i scored full marks for my final exams in malayalam.. filmi ending.i know.. but true.. from that day i loved the language and i realised how one teacher can change a student's like or dislike for somethin.
1 comment:
Hey Deeps,
Very good rendering. As you said, even i remember my teacher of nursery. I was so attached to the teacher that if she is on leave I will not be there at the school that day. I always got a seat near to her chair. Some special consideration. :)
You write very well. Do keep posting. Love to read it.
Cheers
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