FLY ON : Happy Teacher's Day

Returning to school after a long vacation is always a hassle because ‘God forbid we actually have to learn!’ Being a child of a teacher, my ability to perceive the already topsy-turvy world is a tad bit distorted so forgive me for today, I wish to speak of the impact a child has on a teacher.

Even during the current pandemic, I see my sister wake up with groggy eyes, wary to take up yet  another online class while my mother wakes up nonetheless because she’s worried that her students with learning difficulties will relapse. While we wait for vacations to start and curse our teachers for burdening us with homework, their answers are seldom in the form of all-nighters and red ink ticks on the very same assignments. I’ve always wanted to ask her why she chooses to do this when she isn’t even being paid for all the extra hours, but it was only yesterday, after 15 years of teaching, when I finally got the riposte written all the same in laughs and giggles. I was sitting in my room when I heard a squeal of excitement from her office and I almost got up to ask if everything was fine but it was at that very moment when she entered my room, hair brazen and happy tears streaming down her face, and she said to me ‘Omar could answer what 5 plus 7 was today!’. I’ve seen my mom be happy on several occasions, yet, none of them can compare to the sheer pride in her eyes yesterday.

In my quest to write about teachers, I realised that it is only with the heart that one can see the right; what is essential is invisible to the eye. And yes, this is the impact a child has on a teacher; this is when the student becomes a master, and the master, it for they both learn from each other, weaving in and out of words and thoughts. They become a perfect patchwork quilt, spun together with threads spun by the fates; a chaotic order that shouldn’t work but does. They become the ‘Nanhe Pakshi’ they wanted to be, with the ardent desire to fly on.

By-Vriddhi Khattar

Quote by - Racheal Bankole