Writings
The first on this list is my mother Mrs. Sharda Sharma. I learned selflessness, generosity, faith, giving unconditional love, values of kindness, humility and truthfulness, patience and fearlessness from her. She has shaped all my beliefs and actions. She taught inS.V.S.High School (it was a Primary, minority school then.) and completed her B. Ed alongside, spending the whole day in commuting from one end of the city to the other, looking after her home, studies and her duty with great aplomb. Then when she became Principal of that same school, she strived to get a new grade added to her school each year and brought it up to the Junior College level.
It proved to be a thankless job for her, even as she patiently and systematically went about the Government offices, (with myself as a small kid in tow!) struggling to get all the requisite sanctions with meticulous paperwork and lots of initiative and persuasion; because the school, in its golden jubilee celebrations, didn’t even acknowledge her unparalleled contribution to its growth, in a newspaper report. She had voluntarily retired by then. All the credit was hogged by the new Principal who was recommended by my mother for the post,before her retirement. The subsequent Principals (previously mentored by my mother) also never acknowledged my mother's invaluable contribution to the school and for bettering their working conditions. So much for gratitude!
When we told my mother that she should report this grave injustice and let the facts be known, she smiled and said graciously, “As long as I know what I have done for my school and my students acknowledge me, I don’t care! God is there!” Yes, it is this forgiving quality of hers and the ability to take everything in her stride; that make her not just a great teacher, but also a great human being.
No wonder then, that my brother has founded an NGO and built a school named ‘Sharda English Medium School’ after my mother. A fitting tribute to a wonderful woman who has shaped not only her children’s but so many other children’s lives!
Then comes the name of my beloved father Mr. Ramesh Sharma, the person who taught me and my siblings to be brave and confident, while struggling against all odds. He was a wonderful support to my working-mother. It is always said that behind every successful man there is a woman. In our case, my father was behind the success of my mother. He was like a rock of support for her, always helping her out with the chores, guiding us in our home-work, availing leave for our Board Exams to ferry us to and from our respective exam centres and attending to his work at his office. He ensured that we didn't only study, but had hobbies and other recreation too.
He is also a great multi-tasker and shows us how life must be lived and enjoyed. He is great pals with our friends too and they envy us for having such an easy-going and friendly father. We are never scared of him and always look up to him for any advice, and he has never ever failed us. He is a living example of how a person can be a constant source of joy for everyone around him! He is very helpful, dependable and doesn't thrive on any ego. He takes equal pride in my mother's and our achievements. He never boasts about his accomplishments, which are quite a few! He has always encouraged us to be forthright and fearless, honest and just, in our dealings and interactions with others.
Thanks to these two great teachers, we children have become well-balanced individuals and always strive to make them proud of us. For them, we are three gems and for us they are our heart and soul! We owe everything to them.
The next on my list is Mrs. Kalpana Chatterjee. She taught us English in our school. One day she happened to ask me the answer to a question from our text-book. I repeated the answer that I had learned by rote. She asked another girl to answer the same question. She gave the answer in her own words. Impressed, the teacher remarked, much to my embarrassment that I had replied the answer only by rote and not like that girl who had used a lot of new words drawing from her enhanced vocabulary. This criticism in front of the whole class humiliated me to such an extent that I vowed to better my vocabulary. I started writing new words and learning their meanings. I filled note-books with words, words and more words! I read all the books and written matter that I could lay my hands on! I became a bookworm!
Now I am proud to say that I have an impressive vocabulary, can speak and write English very lucidly and have many published writings to my credit in reputed magazines. If only I could show them to my teacher, she’d be so proud of me! I owe my success as a writer to her criticism. Indeed, as the saying goes, “A critic is a man’s best friend!” In my case she was my best friend.
Then comes the name of the unforgettable Ms. Nalini Deshpande who taught us Hindi in our school. She was often surprised that I wrote so well in Hindi. She appreciated my essays and told me that I must continue writing in Hindi whenever I could manage time in-between my studies. Thanks to her insistence, I read many Hindi novels and wrote a lot. I won many Hindi essay-writing contests at school and even when I worked in the LIC of India. Now I am proficient in speaking and writing both in English and in Hindi!
To her credit, she made the lessons come alive with her insightful description of the characters and the stories. The manner in which she spoke fluent Hindi and her expressions as she taught; will always be fresh in my memory.
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(To be continued)
The copyright of this article is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.
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