HOW'S MY AUNTY AS A STUDENT?

 

“Courage does not always roar.

Sometimes, courage is the quiet voice,

at the end the day, saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow’.”

Mary Anne Radmacher

 

There are two kinds of reunions… The first kind is the one we get to do after months of meticulous planning. The other kind is the one that just happens, without any planning, just spontaneously.

The second kind is what I cherish the most… It springs from a clean heart… simply childlike.

On this Sunday, my wife and I had to attend the Month’s mind mass of one of our relatives in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. After the  mass, we had to join for a simple lunch at the residence of the deceased family. I had informed friends of mine, Dr. Kumar and his wife Yashoda (a student of my first batch in Atomic Energy Jr. College, sometime in 1981), that we would be paying a visit to them. They lived just a minute away from my relatives’ place. As we were relishing the aromatic filter-coffee, I remembered another friend of mine, Raj, who too, lived in Kharghar. But, he was not responding to my calls. When Raj called back, I informed him about where we were, and expressed our desire to pay a visit to their place as well… Raj and his family, including his elder sister, Shanti ( who, too was a student of my first batch in AEJC), were in the midst of a Satya Sai devotional meet. Being a family of singers and musicians, they were busy with bhajans when I had called. Raj explained that to me, when he called back… “Shanti is with us, too… We will come to pick you up,” he said.

When Yashoda overheard this conversation, she seemed excited. “Shanti is my classmate… Please give me the phone,” she took my phone away. In  next couple of  minutes, the two ladies got into an animated catching-up… and by another ten minutes, we all met at Yashoda’s place…

Raj, his wife, their second daughter Akshara, Shanti, Dr. Kumar, Yashoda, her sister Meenakshi, my wife and I – it was an unplanned, beautiful reunion. 14-year-old Akshara was a trained vocalist and dancer… We prodded her to sing for us some beautiful medley of Hindi retro and English romantic songs. At the end of the mehfil, Akshara said, with all her innocence, “Sir, I want to ask you a question: How was aunty Shanti as a student?”

“Well dear, I don’t remember your aunty’s marks. But, remember fondly how she had helped me when I was a struggler in this city, some forty-three years ago.” I continued, “I was barely 23 and had started an institute in Kalina (teaming up with others). I was full of energy and high on risk-taking… I had burnt the boats behind me (my comfort zone, Anushakti Nagar) and come to a distant place where no one knew me… I had to start from the scratch… I was going house-to-house to promote the institute and I wanted someone to look after the office, handle enquiries etc. Those were tough times for me… No money was coming in. It’s during this time, Shanti and another girl, Ameeta (who now lives in the US) offered their help… Every morning, they would come by BEST bus from Anushakti Nagar to Kalina and return in the evening… They did it for close to three months without taking a single rupee from me… They knew, that I couldn’t afford to…”

Akshara, Shanti’s little niece, was listening along with others in the room. I looked at Akshara and asked, “Does it answer your question, honey?”

    (Little Akshara next to her aunty, Shanti)

“There is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs,” says Zig Ziglar. I had to take long, unwinding stairs; and, along this climbing, I was so fortunate to find help from several simple souls, like Shanti and Ameeta…

“Was your aunty a good student?”… It’s my turn, now, to ask Akshara.

When we visited the residence of Raj, Akshara proudly said, “May I take you on a tour through my room?”

It was, in indeed, a guided tour through a typical teenager’s room… “Thanks to you, my wife and I could enter this room, today,” said Raj, his tongue firmly tucked in cheek. One could sense Akshara’s soul vibrating through that chaos… “This is my Vision Board,” she said pointing to it, and explained in detail what she was having in her head for her future…

(Akshara’s Vision Board and Oxford dictionary)

 

“She is excellent in planning,” Akshara’s mother softly whispered into our ears, “but, poor in execution.”

“That’s okay, Madam,” I thought of consoling the mother… “Sometimes, unplanned things can thrill our hearts more than what the planned things can do… Just like our reunion today.”  

There was an Oxford dictionary on Akshara’s table… I remembered what Vidal Sassoon had said on Success: “The only place Success comes before Work is in the dictionary.”

Raj, Shanti, Dr. Kumar, Yashoda, Meenakshi, I and all who had joined the reunion on Sunday – yes, we all had to find Success only after Work, not before that…

I hope Akshara is satisfied with the answer to her innocent question: “How was my aunty as a student?”

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s:: 1.pixnio.com 2. Meenakshi 3. Rajgopal

 

Video: Dove US