A for Apple

It was a Monday morning, yet Sagarika got up with a palpable sense of excitement. It wasn’t her new work life or the new project she had got that was the reason for this excitement. In fact, the reason wouldn’t even mean much to most of the people. Today was the first day she was going to teach in a nearby school as a part of community service. She had always in her heart of hearts wanted to do something like this but never really got the opportunity. All set to be a role model she got ready, put on a decent salwar suit to give her the look and feel of a ‘serious’ teacher .

The time set for the class was 10:30 but when she reached the school, the students were still hanging outside the school gate as the guard had taken the liberty of arriving late. There were not many of them, about 20-30 students of which most of them were boys. Some were hanging from the gate, some just jumping about on the pavement, some jumped over the boundary of the school and were enjoying a good game of ‘sudden catch’ in the school compound. Standing on the pavement, Sagarika’s anger seemed to be rising by every minute. The delay meant she had to stay away from work longer than she had anticipated and that meant staying till 10 or maybe 11 at night to complete the pile of documents which still needed formatting like a normal girl needed make-up to hide the shortcomings. Just then, a loud horn broke her train of thoughts. A long traffic of vehicles had been formed on the road ahead and just in front was a school bus full of students who were clearly from one of the elite schools of the city. However, she noticed that the students in the bus waved and shouted mindlessly at the students waiting at the gate and they returned the ‘courtesy’ by equally pressurizing their vocal cords. The easy banter between the two groups of students irked a mixture of emotions in Sagarika. She had expected the elite students inside the bus to scorn at the students standing at the gate but to her surprise there existed a unique friendship between them which was very pure and innocent, something that you hardly find in the highly qualified professional world that we live in.

Between all the honking and shouting, the guard had arrived and students started running inside their respective classes. She too hurried along with others and had to ask someone where was Std. 6th classroom where she was supposed to take an ‘English’ class. Finally she reached the classroom where only 5 students were sitting- 2 girls and 3 boys. The girls were neatly dressed with their hairs tied in perfect pony tails. The boys were, well as expected shirts out and as if they had landed here right from their bed. That was one thing common to boys irrespective from which class of society they came from (Wanted to omit this Line but couldn't :P). Just then someone asked, “Madam what’s your name?”. Sagarika replied with a smile. She didn’t want to be the strict teacher everyone was afraid of. She asked the students to introduce themselves. Students kept coming in within gap of every minute or so and soon the class was half full. Sagarika was all of a sudden scared of what to do next. The only experience she had in teaching was solving her brother’s homework problems. She didn’t know what topic to take up or what to teach. So she started up with basic grammar- Nouns, and Pronouns. Atleast that was something she still easily recollected from school, especially after all the software models and business processes had corrupted her memory that made it tough for her to remember her name at the end of day. For next 15 minutes she was busy giving the students all fundas she remembered about nouns and pronouns and when she stopped she saw the blank look on face of every student. She knew that it was just like she had taken up an Advanced JAVA session for .NET developers.

Having lost the mission, Sagarika thought that she had lost her long cherished dream of helping people less fortunate than herself. Probably she just didn’t have the right attitude towards helping these people and maybe she would have to suffice with the petty donations she could manage off her meager salary. Just then she heard noises outside and went to check out what was the problem. The adjoining class had no teacher and some students were just jumping up about on the benches. When they saw her, they just felt uncomfortable standing on the bench and got down to greet her. She just asked them to be careful and started walking back to her class when she heard them whisper among themselves, “Ye madam Tata Consultancy Services se aayi hain English padane” (She has come from Tata Consultancy Services to teach English), they couldn’t even pronounce the company name properly but just that statement stirred something deep in her. She was here not as Sagarika but as a representative of the society of people who were fortunate enough to get the good things of life yet who kept complaining for more. It was then that she realised that anyone could be a teacher but what these kids needed was a person who could just encourage them to move ahead, show them the direction they needed in life. They didn’t need to be perfect in English or for that matter neither in Maths or History. Not all of them could be software engineers or doctors of tomorrow but they could be taught to live a life full of dignity. They needed a strong hand to guide them and instill in them the confidence to face life, not just to face life but to walk alongside and ace in life.

We are in a country where sim cards come for free but books are to be bought, where advices come in randomly for no cost but teaching is a profession. Where chicken chilies served at the road side stall seems just too tempting because it has been roasted along with the future of a child. Infact, India has more aliterates than illiterates and at times I too become a part of it. We batten down the hatches for developing a software service but we need an advertisement to inspire people to work for developing the life of a kid. We have always failed to realize that there is more hunger for love and guidance than for food. The aim of education is not to make one understand why to use an "an" before every vowel but to replace an empty mind with an open one and apparently me and the numerous people like me having been focusing on the former aspect. All this time we have just been filling the pail instead what we had to do was ignite the fire. Someone had once said that education is a companion which no future can discourage, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate and no nepotism can enslave. What i think he missed was the impact of ignorance towards education :)

I am able to write the post and for this I thank my teacher, why seize the same feeling from someone less fortunate to thank his teacher when he/she does something good in life.

Original Composition & Foundation by http://livinatcrossroads.blogspot.com