GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE

In last one week, I came across two identical situations…

In one of them, an ex-student of mine, who I had not met ever since he passed out T.Y B.Com some fifteen years ago, had come to meet me. The purpose was: he wanted me to teach one of his neighbours’ son. Apparently, the neighbour’s family had been going through a tough time financially. “Sir, I want this boy to be a graduate. I have decided to take care of his fees.”

In the second one, the Good Samaritan was a mother of one of my ex-students. This woman had brought along a newly-married woman from her community. Apparently, the young woman had to leave her college, get married to a Mumbai man (with no enough schooling). My student’s mother was very concerned about the young woman… “Sir, I want her to complete her graduation, learn to speak in English, so that she can raise a good family… I have decided to take care of her expenditure on studies.”

What option do such gestures leave me with? The least, I, a teacher, can do is to teach these deserving students with bare-minimum fees, if not all free. But, fees apart, such humane gestures, leave me, always, humbled… and hopeful.

One reason why I became a teacher was because I was inspired by some of my own teachers… Their humane gestures – almost all of them done quietly – made me feel the power of being a fine teacher. There were the stereotypes… In fact, majority of them… Their way of disciplining never impressed me. On the contrary, such harsh methods only left me more broken inside, more ashamed and guilty. Like the young student in ‘3 Idiots’, who sang ‘Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again’, often, I found myself crying alone. But, then, Viru Shahrabuddhe’s have hardened hearts, you see!

Why teaching alone… Every profession – medical practice, legal practice, administration, training, counselling, sports, coaching, business, acting, singing, dancing, painting, spirituality whatever it is… yes, every profession throws up an opportunity to be kind and humane in our dealings. Only such dealings end up doing what is, often, termed as ‘Man-making’…

Acts of kindness… Acts of trust… Acts of forgiveness… Acts of tolerance… Acts of being least judgmental…

Parents, teachers, superiors, authorities… often, do more harm to offenders than the acts of offence committed by the offenders. This includes the kind of justice handed by the judges of our courts, too…

The law doesn’t transform… Love does. That’s why, Judge Frank Caprio touches all of us… The fact that he is real is simply unbelievable!

We all have been corrected timely by our parents, teachers, and authorities…

I was a little boy when I heard, on one Sunday, the Father in our village church told this Aesop’s story…

A little boy, once, stole a book in his class and brought home. His mother, did not correct his behavior. This encouraged the boy to continue doing such acts, and, eventually turned him into a big-time criminal. When he was taken to the gallows, his mother wailed beating her chest… Moments before he was to be hanged, he expressed his last wish to say something in his mother’s ears… The wish was granted and the mother was taken near her convicted son. The son took his face close to his mother’s ear and bit it off, saying, “Mother, had you corrected me when I committed my first crime, I would not have seen this day!”

Well, the story was for both, the mothers and their offspring… “Spare the rod, and spoil the child.” Yes, there is a powerful moral in the story…

Just as there is a powerful moral in Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son, and in the story when He forgives the ‘sinful’ woman, with His famous line: “The one among you, who has not sinned, let him cast the first stone!” Yes, that act disarmed the hardened men and cleansed the ‘sinful’ woman. But, let’s not forget, that the Master did tell her this: “Woman, go and sin no more!”

Two days ago, my wife sent this amazing video to her teacher-husband. May be to tell him, in her own way: “You are a good man”!

Do we all need such reassurances?

I am sure, we all do.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: 3 Idiots

Videos: 1. T-Series 2 & 3 Caught in Providence 4. Unknown