GIVE ME THAT 'INCORRUPTIBLE SOMETHING'...

The party was in a swanky hotel… And, the party was to celebrate the silver wedding.

Gautam*, the smart young-man, hailed from a very well-to-do business family, and, I had taught him some thirty years ago. He got married to his college-days sweetheart, Neha*, immediately after completing their graduation. 

So, you can imagine, how long I have been ‘teaching’! Yes, doing the same thing repeatedly, year after year, batch after batch… and, trying to remain as sincere as I was on my very first day to my profession – teaching – and, trying to remain as fresh, as alive as I was then. Yes, despite the back-breaking fatigue, even irritations, frustrations and anxieties. 

I am still teaching… and, I want do die with my teacher’s ‘sandals’ on…!

And, yes, I want to die feeling as fresh and as alive as I was with my very first student, over three decades ago!

Why this, today?

Because, at the glittering party, that night, Gautam was proudly introducing me to some of the guests. “He was my teacher thirty years ago… and, he was also my son’s teacher five years ago.” 

I felt shy hearing all that. 

“So many years of teaching?” a well-dressed guest asked me, “Aren’t you tired?”

“No, he is not… He won’t,” Gautam answered on my behalf. “I am sure, he will teach my grandson, too, with the same passion… and, I am sure, my son will ask Sir, what I had asked when I had been to him to enroll my own son.”

The other guests were curious. And, honestly, I did not remember what Gautam was referring to. So, I looked at him to ask, “What was that?”

“Sir, I will enroll my son in your class, only if you will ‘personally’ teach him,” Gautam recalled the incident, “I want a ‘teacher’ to teach my son and not a ‘businessman’.”

I felt really honored, though… I was feeling terribly shy in front of those strangers. 

“Come on, Gautam, that’s not a big deal,” I tried to sidetrack the topic, “I love teaching; so, I will remain a teacher, always.” 

“That IS a ‘big deal’, sir,” Gautam did not want me to slip away, so easily, “My pop had lots of money when I came to you, and my son’s pop had even more than that when he had come to you… But, still, we wanted that ‘incorruptible something’ in us… that you have.”

By now, I had really gone numb!

Gautam was raising a toast for his teacher on his silver wedding!

It was too humbling to say the least. It was.

Gautam’s son too has joined their family business and they are really doing well. Fine cars, fine houses… all fine things in life…, and, to beat it all, fine hearts and fine attitude towards life. Yes, fine values, as well.

“May God bless you, honey… all of you… 

with even finer things in life,” 

I had not only wished 


the gorgeous couple and their young son

 through my hands, 

but also through every pore of my being, that night.

  

What more does a teacher long to take to his bed?

That night, I had slept really fulfilled, thanking God for the simple yet immeasurable privilege He had showered upon me.

I remembered this incident, all over again, last evening.

Sanjay* had graduated through my class about twenty-two years ago. Last evening, he was here to enroll his son in twelfth-standard. 

Sanjay’s dad had a small shop when he had come to me for his graduation. Now, I learnt that Sanjay has ‘grown big’… bought many ‘properties’… and, he is really ‘doing well’. Sanjay had come by his beautiful chauffeur-driven Skoda, and he told me that he had ‘bigger’ plans…

All this came from Sanjay’s own mouth last evening. 

He haggled for his son’s fees.

I reduced without much fuss.

“So sir, how many students you have now?” Sanjay asked me looking around.

I smiled.

“How many batches?”

I smiled.

“More than thirty years you have been doing this ‘business’?”

I smiled. 

“So, must have minted a lot, haven’t you? Where do you live?”

Sanjay had done his super-fast multiplications.

The annual fees into the number of students into the number of batches into the number of years… As simple multiplication as that… Bingo! Sanjay had the ‘results’… His sir’s wealth!

I smiled.

It was late evening, and I had to leave for home. So, we left together.

Outside, his car, with its driver, was waiting for him. 

“Goodnight Sanjay, goodnight beta, “I said as both of them, father and son, made their way into their elegant car.

“Still not bought a car, sir?” Sanjay asked, as his driver drove them away.

I smiled, for the last time... as I made my own way into an auto that just happened to be there.

On that silver-wedding night, Gautam had instructed his driver to drop me and my wife home even though we both had kept repeating, “Don’t bother about us, Gautam… we will manage.”

But, that was another night!

Another student!

*All names have been changed.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Gloria Pinto