A victory in defeat

 

I was a teacher in a Matriculation school in a small town. As a teacher, I strived hard to impart knowledge to my pupils sincerely and to the best of my ability. I tried to kindle their interest in the subjects taught in different ways. I spent more time on the slow, admonished the laggards and encouraged the bright. My mission was to ensure that the gap between the best and the weak boy was abridged by raising the latter's level. It was a tough job but I never gave up on my objective.

I felt good knowledge of lessons alone is not adequate for students to learn at the school. I tried hard to inculcate in the children that the richness of life is not measured only by the high marks scored, degrees acquired, the wealth owned or the positions held but largely by the moments spent in wiping the tears and touching the hearts of the needy, in helping the aged and disadvantaged, in sharing the knowledge and in making the world a better and safer place to live in.

In one particular class, I had a challenge in the form of Karthick. A well-built boy of about 15 years, gruff in tone but pleasant by disposition and endowed with high stamina, he excelled as much in sports as he failed in his studies. All my special attention on this young boy was unsuccessful as he continued to get poor grades. I used all methods in vain to kindle his interest in studies by cajoling, threatening and even punishing him. I could not accept defeat but knew no way to resolve the matter.

In desperation, I talked to a colleague of mine who was teaching that class earlier and mentioned how Karthik posed a great challenge to me. She laughed and comforted me saying that I was not alone in such a predicament. She added that the boy’s father was an alcoholic and his mother an illiterate woman. There were daily quarrels and beatings at home in the evenings between the parents in the presence of their only boy. The conditions at home were far from salutary and it was a wonder the boy had not turned into a vagabond and wrong ways in that uncongenial atmosphere.

 I sympathised with the boy and doubled my efforts to make him a better student by coaching him freely in the evenings. But no matter how much I struggled, he stood at the bottom of the class.

It was recess time one day. There was a sense of defeat in me. I was cursing myself for my inadequacy in motivating him to succeed and felt that I too along with his parents should share the responsibility if he failed to come up in life. It was then I heard a commotion outside in the veranda by the side of the staircase. When I came out, I saw a crowd of students around someone on the ground.

One boy came running to me and said “Vignesh fell while he was walking on the parapet wall and has broken his leg and arm. He is writhing in pain. “ Even as he was narrating what happened, I saw Karthick rushing towards the crowd and coming out with the boy, who had hurt himself, in his strong arms and walking towards the gate. He had run to hail an auto before he came to lift the boy. That he took the boy to the nearest clinic is not so important for me to relate as the singular point that amongst all the brighter boys who stood curiously watching Vignesh in pain, it was only Karthick who came to his assistance on his own and acted as a leader with compassion. It struck me that he may not be bright in his studies but he excelled himself as a compassionate and helping person in times of need, unlike the others of his age.

There was another instance about Karthick that I came to know very soon. There was a big school function where all the parents and students participated. The dais was a little away from the gate and involved walking two hundred feet. There was a big crowd as was expected. Some of the boys chosen to help the invitees as volunteers in white uniforms with a big coloured ribbon to distinguish them were seen standing at the gate guiding the visitors.

One frail old lady past eighty with a hunch back came in a rickshaw with her grandson. With a walker in hand, she struggled to move even a short distance and was seen pleading with her grandson that they better return home. The boy was reluctant and refused to go back even as the uniformed boys in ribbons were watching them with amusement.

 I learnt Karthick appeared from nowhere asked her to get into the rickshaw and himself pulled it close to the dais. He lifted her bodily and made her sit in a comfortable seat. This was beyond the call of his duty as he was not one of the uniformed boys. What impelled him to act as he did was his compassion.

 From that day onwards, I stopped worrying about the poor grades of Karthick. He may not become even a graduate and may not even be the type of boy that the school would expect of its students to come up with high marks in the final board examination. But he stood tall in comparison to others in his class in compassion and kind ways.

 None of my teaching the prescribed lessons would have given him these God-endowed gifts. No university degree would announce these sterling qualities that Karthik had in immense measure. He might not have scored a centum in mathematics or high marks in physics but he had scored an A plus from my heart. I felt my heart swell with pride and the sense of defeat had vanished. I was determined to make him the class leader from the next day.