Mallika Krishnaswami
A career spanning over several decades, might leave you wondering what’s been in it. On the surface, nothing much. A deeper look and you will realise, a significant bit! Never mind if you haven’t been able to impact the thousands that pass out every year. A handful will do.
Not that it doesn’t come with its share of despondency – when your attempts to make the teaching learning process a delightful one is met with passivity or when you fail to get the desired results after earnest efforts. But the exuberance and vitality that is second skin to the youth of today makes you bounce back quickly, to cherish the good moments.
The joy when while waiting at the bus stop, a passerby suddenly stops to say, “Hello ma’am, do you remember me? I was your student twelve years ago. I’m an ayurvedic doctor now. My clinic is just next door. Why don’t you drop in?” Or when you are at the supermarket and this chap in his thirties with a pretty woman and two little girls in tow, accosts you to introduce himself, his wife and his twins. And behind the salt and pepper beard, you recognise him by his sparkling eyes. Or at the PTA meeting, where a parent comes forward to tell you his son is now your student and wants to take a pic with you.
Or when you are about to cross the road and a not so young man catches up with you to express his regards and present his wife, both doing well in life. No, no, not to take credit for being who they are now. Just a good feeling that you may have had a hand in the making of a fine human soul. Or yet another day when you are taking a stroll in the park and you hear your name called out loud. A little embarrassed, you turn, to see a burly figure taking long strides up the cobbled path and you know that this is a face you surely have known. The excitement on his face as he recounts to his wife those lively class interactions, make you relive the nostalgic moments. What about the lady at the bakery whom you never taught but who remembers you fondly, or the consultant who recollects the times he was let off with just a chiding for the naughty pranks in class.
Add to this the scene that meets you after the last class, to find your wall decorated with post – it stickers expressing words of gratitude, complete with a beautifully crafted pen holder to store away the love notes so painstakingly put up or the huge greeting card filled with lovely messages in every possible space, that makes your eyes moist as you read them, not to forget the bouquet of crimson roses.
As you reminisce, you know that you have been true to your calling, a calling that takes you beyond the placid mask, to touch the soul and leave an imprint in the hearts of the youth who will rule the world in the days to come. And as you heave a sigh, you are convinced that you have done your bit in making the world a better place to live in, much more than what money can do!
