MY TEACHER--- RESPECTFUL REMEMBRANCE

The owner of the house/s was entering one by one to collect the rent. There were in all fifteen houses inside that compound of which 13 could pay rent immediately, one with some delay and the other with great delay. As the delay grew from ‘some’ to ‘great’ the language and respect with which the owner spoke deteriorated. It also used to get singular in address and would confirm the disrespect with unparliamentarily bad words. The episode sometimes used to end in sad note with the owner taking away a huge vessel as collateral for the rent. The whole population of the fifteen houses would watch this drama and the affected man and his family would hang their heads in shame.

 

The affected man was otherwise holding a very respectable position in the society, a teacher in the middle school. Krishnamurthy vadyar  KM for short, was a teacher almost sixty years ago and was my teacher when he was about fifty years. He was my teacher for mathematics, science, social studies, Tamil and also English. He was also a teacher for most of the children in the fifteen families that lived in the compound and in some cases also to the parents of the children. He was a teacher in the school and also in the compound. When more than one student has the same doubt in any subject, the scene would shift to the common area of the colony where he would discuss the reasons for more than one student not grasping his teaching. Performance appraisal, 360 degree appraisal and other management mantras that measure/rate quality of work were self imposed without any compulsion on his service condition as a teacher but as sheer sense of duty towards the profession.

 

 

  Education was not for sale in his time and he was one among those many teachers who would teach any subject that they knew and would compete to know more subjects and also more lessons in the same subject. There were no performance incentives/bonuses but sheer respect for knowledge. Tuition and special classes were unknown in his days as the art of hoarding knowledge and selling at a premium in private were considered more unethical and shameful than the shouting of the house owner for rent. The only occasion when tuition classes were held was during the agitation against imposition of Hindi for three months. It was for all his students from in and out of the colony with no payment and even against the threat from language chauvinists only to ensure that portions are completed.

 

KM had four children one of whom died for want of money for treatment of the then dreaded disease typhoid. He also struggled hard to marry off the elder daughter with two hundred rupees becoming the bone of contention. Though his salary was paltry his commitment was total and there were no visibility of TV or other electronic media to at least convey appreciation of his good work. But he had justice done to him a decade ago when he died at the age of ninety in his elder daughter’s house. His elder daughter who struggled for her marriage for want of money married off her daughter who became Finance Head of a multinational company.

 

Among the many invitees to the marriage were NRIs, some of whom remembered this teacher. The discussion centered round his life and the quality of his teachings. No formal awards yet very many informal in the form of respectful hand shakes. Almost all from the groom and bride side made it a point to take leave of him as they left. The teacher too left the world after he saw the standard of living of his grand daughter who built house and let it out  not only in India but also abroad.

 

Though I did not attend the marriage, I was very happy when I heard that my teacher who deserved the nomenclature for all the commitment that he displayed had smiled in full satisfaction and contentment to see his surviving children and their children flourish before he left us for good.

 

 

                               **********************   

 

Moral of the story : Even today teachers in many places are not fairly paid though it in no way is justification for hoarding and black marketing knowledge.