COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS



















I was, once again, very angry and intense, in the class, this morning. This batch was supposed to be a ‘special batch’… because, the parents of these young kids, and the kids themselves, wanted just a handful of students in the batch and didn’t mind paying for it more than three times the fees of the regular batch! Obviously, these students come from well-off families, study in top colleges in Mumbai… And, yet…

Yes, and, yet, I was very angry with them… almost mad!

Two months now since the classes have started. Many of them don’t touch the books at home… The homework, which would take them not more than half-an-hour to complete, is not done, and, repeatedly so…

And, my options?

Scream at them… Punish them… Send them back home… Call their parents… Throw them out of the class…

Or, be gentle and firm with them… Help them realize their mistakes… Use loads of patience, keep faith in them… be hopeful and motivate them to come on line…

Or, become frustrated and bitter and lose  my own interest in teaching, guiding, mentoring, trusting and living with zest and passion… Declare in my heart, “Pointless… No use… These are ‘Gone cases’… ‘Rotten apples’… ‘Spoilt brats’…” and so on…

Frankly, I have used all these options and experienced their aftermath… the effects.




The best option, invariably, is available 

after all the options have been used. 

Before that, you are 'supposed' to scream, 

rant, threaten, brood, cry and sulk…



They have reasons and justifications for not doing the homework…

“Bloody excuses,” my mind screams…

“Mind you, your justifications don’t change the reality,” I tell them. “The reality is that these two months, you are where you are,” I remind…

“You are the privileged lot… Fortunate to be born into fine families, be enrolled into great colleges… and, this… be lucky to be here in a ‘special’ batch for ‘the chosen few’,” I remind them…

Yes, I remind them in all the languages I am enlightened to speak: the most gentle and trusting, the most intense and blunt… and, yes, the most disappointed and frustrated one, too…

Finally, they all go home… and, I am here, left alone to look back and weigh my options…

Well, I have one more option: “Hey, your justification doesn’t change the reality… The reality is that these two months, you are where you are. Stuck!”

And, the lovely lines from the hymn prompt me from inside:



“Count your blessings…Name them one by one…

Count your many blessings… See what God has done!”



Who is privileged… my students or me?

Who has to do the ‘homework’?

And, yes, I am counting my many blessings… I am naming them one by one…

Happily, I have named one of them, today, as:

‘COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS’!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Malabika Ganguly






Comments

Anonymous said…
Could connect beautifully! Sheela
July 5, 2013 at 9:10 AM
Pallavi Gupta said…
This reminds me of my teaching days in school. Lovely post.
------ Pallavi
July 5, 2013 at 9:51 AM
Anonymous said…
Happiness and gratitude go together; Love.
--- Dinesh Chavan
July 9, 2013 at 12:08 AM
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