BACK IN SCHOOL

[RW -4. [Random Writings. Book 7.Part 38. Pages 08.to. 16]


At 10.00 am, I sit in a corner, the moola, an angle, a star, simply a corner of my staff room and write. The school is deserted except for The Principal, The AO, the Office staff and a lone tractor ploughing the ancient pond. They had filled it with laterite soil which carried little vipers of the land. Traditionally there were many water snakes around. I mentioned a little past which detailed the boy’s relation with the school and asked the Principal ‘ Sir, who will represent the school at the last rites?’ It was not thought about yet. So I explain that like the last rites among Christians, the people of all other religions also had the rites and it is good to have someone responsible there at the announced time.

The President of the PTA looked at his watch, a common sign of discomfiture with time. He said if some one had already kept a wreath, then should he …?
I said ‘No, Sir’, knowing fully well how some one could easily call some other one and get a wreath placed there earlier to save time. But, Mr. President seemed concerned and I show him the way and return saying, ’Now you can’t lose the way’. I had planned to go with the CS [Campus Supervisor], because I was CD and know the job well.

00.30 hours to go. So I sit in staff room. No other teacher, no supervisors, no others except The Principal, all alone, I sit under the fan with tube light on and write. Writing, an academic exercise like other physical and mental exercises which the MAX man told, is indeed a tedious thing. What Sankara tells is impossible to follow, the Professor agrees. What the western liberal educationists followed was just copied with alterations here this schooling system. I sip the tea I earned carrying a sachet of milk in the morning.

10.30, the CS reminds me and I go with him. The young priest said the mantras very clearly, knowingly, saying the name over thrice causing a tear as pranavam could never die. The songs the ladies sang were very good. The HM, our tall and fair lady with an AS and a few more lady teachers stood attending the rites. About 40 students, half of them girls, were also there. I asked Sanjay the one who could not pass about his future plans. ‘Any school’ he said. I said him to concentrate on his two papers still left. Then I left.

I left the CS in the campus to tend to his ploughing machine and reported to The Principal and said I was going to the crematorium. ‘Anybody coming, my pillion is free’- I said. None came. So I rode alone. The younger brother did the last rites and Pranav was confined to fire wood flames. Then I ride back and report to Principal that it is all over and sit outside sorting my texts.