DEATH AND GOOD MEN

I am not speaking of him because he was my uncle, but because he was what he was in his own capacity and because of his exceptional moral uprightness, courage and extraordinary sense of humour. You can’t help falling in love with his persona, such a charismatic man was he. He started in the army as a major and reached the rank of colonel. His loyalty and love for his profession was unquestionable. But somewhere down the line, he must have felt the subtle force of politics affecting his morale and he was not a man to compromise with his principles. He must have stood by his love for his country and the organization that ensured the safety of the people of his country to a breaking point, then the crusader would have thought of quitting. Also, his old mother was eternally sick and he would have thought of standing by the family and serve the nation and his own conscience some other way. After opting for voluntary retirement from the army, he sought employment in many renowned private and government institutions. But being a man of strong principles, he couldn’t work very long in any of these because of the sloppy and compromising attitude of all these organizations. Last he was working in Odisha Govt’s disaster management cell; when he died in a mishap.I think he would not have got much pain while he died as it was a very sudden death.
He was a man, around whom no one can remain gloomy or sad. His hearty resounding laughter was enough to disperse darkness and spread light. Whatever dissatisfaction or personal grievance he may be having, he kept it hidden in the deep recesses of his heart. Anybody who saw him saw a man who was a hard taskmaster and a very cheerful man who made people laugh. In his late fifties, he was fit as a fiddle. He walked morning and evening, and did power Yoga to keep his body in excellent working condition forever. The feudal and traditional man that he was, because of growing in the land of his ancestors, he never revealed it before others.
He used to tell that he would do something of his own, after his only son gets admitted into a professional course, something that will give him a feeling that he has given back to his people, his society, and the society he grew up in. He had plans and dreams. But he died suddenly. A man who was really capable of doing something for the society went out of existence.
The afternoon was oppressive, and my thoughts drifted towards this uncle of mine who had a dream. How unpredictable and unreliable is this life of ours. It seems all the more so, when it takes away somebody who is not ready yet, whose dreams have not become realities yet.

LOVE FOREVER

The flowers were taken back
suddenly,
The stunned eyes gazed upon
the path, that took the receding steps
to a distant nowhere,
Fleeting truths
were hurled like rocks,
hit hard,
and it bled everywhere
for long.
The exhausted self coiled itself
into its cocoon
and mourned the death of
tender moments.

At the end of everything,
Love still stood
at the threshold of eternity
surrounded by the corpses of old dreams,
waving and smiling,
Its innocent eyes
bearing the marks
of the untold and
the unexpressed.

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BEING ALONE

I started living alone only a few months ago I as I took up a job in another city.Before that, I had a rather flimsy idea in my mind about living alone. That
it was running away from something very disturbing,an act of courage, also a kind of self-imposed punishment for living a very sheltered life with my parents or a determination to move out of my comfort zone and see, if I am able to survive and grow.

I found out that in a city that is alien to you and where you don't know many people, living alone can be oppressive. Humans are social beings and living in seclusion can give a suffocating feeling. When you go out you feel one with everyone you meet if you have developed a spiritual attitude of thinking of everybody as humans and different.

Sometimes you start thinking that it's true that loneliness kills people. Sometimes you enjoy people telling that it's great to live without strings. Nobody would be pulling you back anytime you want to do something. You know in your heart that nothing between these two is absolutely true. Yet, the summer afternoons with their eerie silence and warm wind make life so solitary and forlorn. But I will tell you a truth, it's very very normal to feel so. Even people who have got everything of their heart's desire also feel this way.

The truth is that all of us are lonely inside. A part of us remains alone. If we are fortunate enough, we get people who understand this loneliness and be balm and also respect it at the same time.

At times I have felt it strongly that if you need to do something productive or creative like writing or doing research,loneliness can be a gift.The quiet moments that you would have found oppressive become a spur to reflect on things and induce creativity. You start getting insight into things which, otherwise would never have entered your head. You start using loneliness to rise above the commonplace and the ordinary and bringing out whatever gift God has sent you with and sharing it .If you are being pulled apart by a thousand obligations and numerous people, you cannot do too much, may be. That's why loneliness has remained a blessing for gifted people or people with some talent.

Excess of nothing is good. And finding a middle path has been the greatest ordeal of the human race. Many a great men have learnt to live with loneliness and have been able to turn it into aloneness. Many others have learnt to remain lonely in the crowd. Many others have learnt to balance between the two. The mystery lies in recognizing yourself who you are and how are you destined to act.

Love

ON BEHALF OF CHILDREN, TEACHERS AND EDUCATION

Children are just children. You cannot judge them. They will remain restless, tantalizing, noisy, fickle, restless, blabbering things. And they can be cute! You would keep falling in love with their innocence now and then. Sometimes they would so heartbreakingly loving that you would not know what to do. Especially small children. Nothing escapes their notice, may it be your clothes, your speech, your way of reprimanding them, your love and care, your excesses if any etc, etc.
-Ma’m, you have got so many pimples!
-Why don’t you tell me to write on the board anymore?
-my father is a great editor!
-You look beautiful today.
It’s their world where interaction and responses are spontaneous, natural and uninhibited. That doesn’t mean that no sins are committed at all. They have their own quota of meanness and wrongs. You do find bullies, big- sisters and big-brothers among them who often make rules for the rest of the children.
It’s the world of children.
Handling very young students who are less interested in studies and are usually very restless and naughty can be exhausting and difficult, especially with children whose manners and sense of discipline is not a product of healthy home environment. In a crowded classroom, it can be hard to handle them and teach at the same time. Sometimes queer and unpleasant things happen because of miscommunication. Take this- A boy was not listening or writing in the classroom. The only thing he was doing was getting up from his sit and distracting and disturbing other children. The exasperated teacher threatened to punish him with a certain number of ups and downs if he didn’t relent. Three lovely and brilliant girls were sitting on the front bench. It usually happens that the bright and the well-mannered often hang together. The loudest among them, the monitor, toed the speech of the teacher-
-Ma’m, if he still does not behave , you will make him do up and down, a hundred times.
The teacher dismissed it as a casual remark and nodded smilingly. And to her horror and dismay, it turned out to be an issue later when she was summoned to the Principal’s office. Moments later, she was being asked why she had punished a small child with a hundred times of ups and downs. She was ill at ease because she had done nothing to earn the reprimanding. She was informed that the class monitor had executed the punishment according to her instructions. She had to explain that she had not done anything like that and it could have been a miscommunication on the part of the child monitor, and she had to pacify the angered father of the punished child who genuinely felt aggrieved. Then she recalled the casual remark of the monitor and was shocked at the profoundness of the situation.
The situation in school is growing becoming complicated, especially in private English medium schools. Schools are mushrooming and survival and growth is an issue. Parents are important and are not to be displeased. The notion of good teaching has already been revised as securing good marks. Other things like gaining real knowledge and growing into balanced personalities is not the important goal anymore. The Principals are under pressure. They have to ensure the growth of the school and a consistent money inflow too so that the institutions grow and strengthen. The teachers are under pressure to act, not necessarily to the tenets of ethics and morality which may mean remaining sincere to certain principles that facilitate real education, but to please and to compromise. The immediate goals have become growth in terms of money, marks and advertisement.
Nobody can deny that commercial viability is very important in a time of tough competition among institution to draw in the maximum number of students. But shouldn’t we start thinking in terms of acquiring knowledge along with marks and turning our children into great human beings and future citizens with not only a balanced approach to life but also being instrumental in opening up new vistas and avenues for numerous aspects of life and being courageous enough to transform their knowledge and perception into reality in full view of the world. Doesn’t their evolution as classified zombies in specified sectors or money-making machines hurt our sensibility? Our children can be all these and much more. So, let’s start thinking beyond our limited spheres and make the wishful dreams of our great forefathers, a reality.