A BEAUTIFUL STORY

A BEAUTIFUL STORY There once lived a mathematics teacher in a prestigious school who was known for her unconventional pedagogy techniques. Very often amidst the game of numbers she would come up with something out of the ordinary, out of the box which would intrigue the minds of her students. Such processes engineered greater bonding between the students and reduced the levels of competition and fostered friendship among them. One day the Maths teacher, as was her inimitable style asked her students to jot down the names of the other students in the class on a sheet of paper with adequate spacing between each name. Thereafter she told them to seriously pause and ponder about the most amazing, enriching, and positive thing they could say about each of their classmates and pen it down faithfully. “Mind you class, the choice of candidate is essential to conduct this exercise, therefore be extremely honest while choosing the name of the candidate and penning your remarks about the person,” she was to add. It took the students remainder of the period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers to their maths teacher. The students were quite stupefied about the exercise, which was so different from taxing their brains on solving problems on algebra, geometry or questions on probability and statistics. The maths teacher had conducted this unique assignment on Friday and had planned to check the response of her students the following morning. That Saturday, as the sun rose from the depths of the sea the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each of her students his or her list. Upon receiving the sheets, the entire class was smiling. “Really? Is it so,” the teacher was to hear excited exclaims. “I never realised that I meant anything to anyone!” and, “I didn't know others liked me so much,” were the most common comments. “I spent a fortune to look good, but these comments have made me Miss Universe,” gushed a girl. “All these years, my family condemned me and referred me to as jejune and pedestrian, but today I have rediscovered my mojo upon surfing the comments,” another student was to say. “My mother and neighbours were always critical about my physique, but today I feel like Mike Tyson,” opined a relatively light weight student. There was all round enthusiasm and the classroom was bustling with unprecedented bonhomie. Her purpose was achieved and the joy of the mathematics teacher was unrivalled and unmatched. No one ever mentioned about the feedback and the experiment again, though the teacher continued with her unique dummy runs. She never pondered if her students ever discussed them after class or with their parents, but it did not matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. And that group of students moved on with their lives. Tragically, several years later, one of her students was martyred during the Kargil war. It was a catastrophic moment in the life of the teacher. And it was the misty-eyed teacher who attended the funeral of the deceased Major of Indian army. She had never attended any funeral service of an army man; someone who was felled by enemy bullets as the brave heart was guarding the frontiers of the country. The student/soldier clothed in baggy greens and draped in the Indian tricolour looked so serene as he had met his maker. The place was choc-a-bloc with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless the departed soul. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. “Were you Sanjay's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded, “Yes.” The pallbearer said, “Sanjay always spoke about to you and the unusual practices which were part of your pedagogy.” After the funeral, several of Major Sanjay's former classmates subsumed by grief assembled while maintaining a stony silence with moist and teary eyes. Major Sanjay’s parents were also present waiting to speak with his remarkable teacher. “Madam, we wish to show you something,” his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket “They found this on Major Sanjay’s body when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it,” the father was to say. Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded, and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's classmates had said about him. “Thank you so much for doing that,” Major Sanjay’s mother said. “As you can see, Sanjay treasured it.” All of Sanjay's former classmates had assembled and this added an air of nostalgia and poignancy to the atmospherics. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, “I still have my list. It is in the top drawer of my desk at home.” Prithwiraj's wife uttered , “Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our treasured wedding album.” “I have preserved mine too with great care,” Rashmi said. “It is a permanent fixture in my diary.” Then Deepali, yet another classmate, dug deep into her pocketbook, and took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. “I always carry this with me. This is my lucky talisman,” Deepali said and without batting an eyelid, she continued, “I think we all saved and preserved our lists.” This is when the teacher finally sat down and cried inconsolably. She cried for the departed soul and for all his friends who would never see him again. She thought aloud, “In the humdrum of life, with constant action all the time, we forget that everything in life is transitory and the truism that impermanence is the only permanent thing in life. Humans tend to forget that life will certainly terminate one day.” As the teacher walked away misty-eyed her only words were to love and care for everyone and tell them that they are special people in our lives before it is too late. The mathematics teacher blessed all those present and asked them to share the blessings with everyone. “It is so tragic, poignant, yet a beautiful moment in my life,” mused the teacher. The deceased Major was one of her favourite students, who was mocked to be a puny character, but felt like Mike Tyson after the experiment was conducted. He went on to join the Indian Army and sacrificed his life. The gamechanger note was a source of inspiration for Major Sanjay to metamorphose into a robust individual, wear army fatigues and eventually sacrifice his life. The positive feedback which he received years back transformed his life.