NOT ALL CLASSROOMS HAVE FOUR WALLS

 

“I am not the same having seen the Moon shine

on the other side of the world.”

Mary Anne Radmacher

 

My mom was 45 when I left my hometown, Mangalore, for better prospects. I was 20… and, it was 1980. I was a lot excited, even though equally anxious. In those days, for young boys and girls from small towns and villages, migrating to bigger cities like Bombay was very natural. The Gulf boom was already underway, and migration to Western countries, too, was quite there. But, for someone like me, it was Bombay that was in store. I came here and lived with my uncle’s family (my dad’s younger brother) for seven-long years. That humble household was to become my launching pad… It couldn’t have been a better one!

Leaving one’s nest is never easy experience, for both parents and their children. Parents know, that their young ones are leaving the nests forever… The young ones end up raising their own nests in faraway cities and countries… as I did here, and my brothers did somewhere else. For the young ones, too, it is a difficult adjustment. Still, it is something that makes them independent and more responsible in life. When I look back at my own ‘leaving-my-nest’ experience, I do it with immense nostalgia…

The memories of my 45-year-old mom coming to see me off from Mangalore to Udipi is so fresh in my mind, even today. We could afford only a bus or a train journey. Train journey, in those days, took nearly 48 hours, and the bus journey took between 24 to 28 hours depending on several factors. I had boarded the bus at the starting point in Mangalore, and the passenger next to my seat was to board the bus in Udipi. So, the driver was kind enough to let my mom sit next to me up to Udipi… For the entire distance, we both spoke through our silences… I knew what she was thinking, and she knew what I was thinking. When she left her son at Udipi, the floodgates were thrown open!

As Shakespeare tells us in Romeo & Juliet, in life, ‘parting’ is, always, a sweet sorrow…

Soon, it would be our turn, as parents… I know.

Yesterday was Dusshera. Krishna, my student from SY BAF, was scheduled to leave for Melbourne (Australia) to pursue studies in Finance. A couple of years ago, he had decided to change from Science stream to Commerce. I was fortunate to lay the Commerce foundation in him when he needed it the most. More than the subject, I had found, that he needed that fire in his belly… He was born into a family of spiritual teachers. So, he was raised with fine values… The only thing, that I wanted to instill in him was that ‘thirst’ to do well in life… be more independent, more responsible… I wanted him to value time, money and his little commitments. I was happy to see those changes happening in him. And, in the middle of his SY BAF, when he conveyed to me his decision to quit studies here and migrate to Melbourne, I knew, the experience of leaving his comfortable nest, here in Mumbai, would help in igniting that much-needed fire in his belly…

“Not all classrooms have four walls,” says the quote from an unknow soul. Krishna will have ample learning to do in these ‘wall-less classrooms’…

Krishna was leaving his nest on the auspicious night of Dusshera, yesterday. In the morning, he had come with his dad to bid me goodbye, express his gratitude and seek my blessings. I had kept a couple of my books ready with me to give him as my parting gift, along with a handwritten letter… This was what I had written in it:

“Dearest Krishna, how I wish I could tell you what the blind mother of Subroto Bagchi’*  had told him, when he was leaving for the Western shores: “Son, why are you kissing me? Go, kiss the world.”

I had concluded, “The world is calling you, Krishna… Go.

Loads of love, wishes and blessings.”

(Note: *Subroto Bagchi was born and brought up in a small town in Orissa. He, eventually, migrated to America to become a management consultant. He co-founded the company - ‘Mindtree’. He writes about the above ‘parting’ experience in his inspiring book – ‘GO, KISS THE WORLD’. I highly recommend this book to all my readers.)

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic's.: Pixabay

 

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