Myths and Legends

Myths, Legends and Folktales

The Day I played a Tough Cop to Some Students…

NIT Past and Present

Memories raise their head from all sorts of things and this time it was a piece of paper that triggered a very memorable incident. In fact it was while cleaning my cupboard, a small paper stumbled down. It had on it names of some students and the date and time. If I tell you the time you would be surprised as how come I had put such a time on that paper. The paper had recorded 2-30 a.m. on it! The paper had some names on it and when I started reading them; all those names transformed into the faces of young boys! The boys some of whom are doing so well in their personal and professional life today but that day they might have written their names with a trembling heart!

It so happened that I got a call from the Hostel one day that a group of students were sitting on the road and singing songs. Now there is nothing wrong with this except that it was 2 a.m.! “Call the security, ‘ i said in a normal manner. “Or call the Chief Warden” I added. On a second thought I realized that it was my job. But how could I walk to the Hostel at this time of the night. I watched outside, it was moonlit night. I walked to the small verandah and could hear faint sound of the singing voice. I decided to walk to the hostel, all alone!

I must have looked like a ghost to the young group as they might not have imagined in their wildest dreams that someone, especially a woman, would walk alone to the hostel. What I saw surprised me. This small group was perching safely on the road and singing in a melodious voice some song. One of the boys had a guitar in hanging from his shoulder and was producing perfect tunes.

A look at me and all of them stopped. They stood up at once. “What’s going on?” I asked in a gruff voice putting on a tough demeanour. “Ma’am, we are leaving in a day or two and are visiting all the places on the campus to have them etched in our memory’ a brave one volunteered. It was the time of departure and farewells at the college and everyone had become sentimental but then it doesn’t make all kind of liberties excusable!

I played tough, acted like a strict cop at that time. “Give me your names, I’ll see to it that you get punished for it.” I said in mock angry tone. I could not let the mask of tough exterior off as these boys would have to learn some lesson. They were afraid. I could see it. “leave this place immediately and meet me in my office tomorrow” I told them stiffly.

They all walked away sheepishly. I came back home where my kids, noticing my absence, had got up. “You are a spoilsport” said all of them in unison. “What was the issue if they were singing songs like that?” they reprimanded me. Even I was feeling bad but I had to teach them that there exists a very thin line between freedom and duties and this must not be crossed.

I took the paper from them and put that in a drawer of my table. I could never even think of doing any harm to the boys who were on the verge of joining a new life. I just wanted them to know that life outside the gate of the college would be tough where no one would ever forgive them for such a thing. I wanted them to grow from boyhood to manhood and go to the wild cruel world that awaited them.

The piece of paper on which they had noted the names with a trembling heart was the only reminder of my escapades of a day when I had played a tough cop.

Verka Booth Giving a Stiff Competetion to Nescafe Kiosk…

Verka Milk Booth competing with Nescafe Kiosk…

 

Another landmark on the campus! The Verka Milk Booth, situated at yet another strategic point, started functioning on 14^th September, 2008. The hexagonal booth seems to invite young and old alike to its fold and it is a pleasant surprise to watch the young Techies rushing towards the Verka booth for Kheer and Ice-cream! Is it that the students who gulped down cups of Nescafe coffee to keep them awake during the examination days are relaxing with the cupfuls of Kheer to replenish the lost energy during the periodical exams? 

 Whatever may be reason but the change is perceptible and to watch the young boys and girls meeting over a bowl of Kheer is really something unprecedented. Times are not far off when instead of wooing a girl over a cup of tea or coffee would be a thing of past and the young girls, on our campus, would be wooed over a bowl of Kheer, packed and retailed by Verka!

 

 

But once again I have become nostalgic about the old shack where we used to have endless cups of tea! The omelette with the sauntered onion being cooked would permeate the nostrils of all sitting in the close vicinity of the stove. The samosas being fried in another pan would make our mouth water but now neither the Nescafe Kiosk nor the Verka Booth has such charm. Neither the aroma of the Nescafe Coffee permeates our nostrils nor the sweet smell of Kheer being cooked makes our mouths water!

Everything has become bland and mechanical the same way as has become our life these days—lacking the personal touch!

Reflections and Ramblings…1

10 September, 2008

Wednesday

 

Dear little ones,

When you remarked that my blog, as on today, lacks a personal touch that it had a year back, I had the reason to speculate on this transformation and face the reality howsoever uncomfortable it was for me. It was not that I was not aware of the changes that had come in my style of writing, the subjects that I was writing about but like a tortoise hiding under a shell, I, too, was comfortable numb and happy with the fact that no one will ever notice this change. I was wrong as the perceptive eyes of my kid noticed the change and why would you not as the change was too obvious to be ignored. “You never wrote like that” you remarked, “it is like reading an impersonal blog that has substance but lacking in spirit.”

           

You caught me where I never wanted to be caught. I was speechless but still strove to mumble some lame excuses though in my hearts of heart even I knew it too well that in an attempt to hide from my readers some harsh realities of life I had put on a different mask. It was time for honest introspection and you have made me realize the need for this introspection.

 

Was I a traveler—-as my travel escapades represented me to be or it too was a way to escape from the reality both literally as well as metaphorically? I think the answer would be “Yes”. I was running away, away from the world of reality to a safe comfort zone.

 

Next point that comes to my mind is about my state of mind. Was I afraid of writing about the kind of phase I was going through— I find a positive answer to even this question. But afraid of what? Was I afraid of showing the vulnerable side of my personality to my readers or I was afraid of showing the callous side of the otherwise sophisticated persons who talk big and promise to motivate employees through their “double-talks”!

 

But looking back and reflecting upon the kind of life I have been through this last year, I find myself to be much stronger as I was some years back which is, in fact, a very good outcome.

 

But the negative outcome is that I have lost the implicit faith that I had in the basic goodness of all human beings and have become a bit susceptible. Perhaps with passage of time when this feeling of hurt gets healed I would restore my faith in the intrinsic goodness of all human beings. But the feeling of inherent “Shakti” or power that I found within me would be there to be used for the benefit of all those who “cannot speak” of their traumas.

Amen!

Love

Maa

The Artist Within Wakes up…

5 September, 2008

I was quite tired when I returned from the Institute but the feeling of having accomplished some task that I had been procrastinating for a long time, made me feel light hearted! And when I started for home the sky suddenly turned dark. Clouds in a darker hue appeared from nowhere and the overcast sky made the daylight vanish away. I literally ran back to the coziness of my home and found a succour in the security and safety that my home has always stood for me. I realized that this home and the tendency to run to its four walls had made the real me cower under some masks. I had become a person who was a stranger even to me. Why had I become a different person? Why should I turn into what I am not? I wondered when did I last make a painting or draw a sketch? I tried hard to think of the last time when I had moved around d the campus taking pictures, and even if I had taken a few, I had done it in a surreptitiously manner. But why? Walking back home the overcast sky seemed different but beautiful. I wondered why I would always wait for a sunny weather to take a picture. Even dark sky had its own charm. The same way as dark phase of life has its own charm. We need a keen eye to behold that charm.

The dark cloudy sky, overcast with rainy clouds made me run for my camera and I wanted to take a few shots of the main gate to the Institute. I had always wanted to take these pictures but would not move out in a rainy weather. I shot these pictures with flash off to capture the real essence of the mood of the nature. But honestly speaking I could not do very well as I was afraid of the camera getting drenched in rain drops! Watch these and enjoy the pristine surroundings that make this Institute a virtual heaven!

I noticed that I felt alive, throbbing with life and bubbling with enthusiasm with an urge to focus on an object. Thank God I was once again filled with the creative energy that all artistic souls possess and this creative energy shook up the sleeping artist within.

I am grateful to you all…Happy Teachers’ Day!

5 September, 2008

On this teachers’ Day I must put on record my sincere gratitude for my students and some of my fellow colleagues. I have seen the best and the worst of human nature during the last one year and it is my students who have been more than a support to me. I am grateful to you for having this trust in me. What more awards would a teacher seek for?

It was a trying time when some of my very people, like Brutus, literally stabbed me making me gasp in wonder and disbelief when names unveiled in front of my eyes. I could not help but cry, “Et tu, Brute ?” My faith in the basic goodness of human beings was shattered to an extent that it was beyond repair but some of my friends realized their folly and had the great courage to put on record how wrong they had been in stabbing me from behind. I am grateful to all of them as I believe that to err is human but to acknowledge that misdeed is an act of great courage. My these friends, very aptly, deserve to be thanked on this special day—the Teachers’ Day! And for others who shy away from seeing straight in my eyes,  I have nothing to say, neither disdain nor rebuke!

And the best support was to come from my students both the present ones and the ones having passed out long back. The long distance call of a worried and scared passed out student  when he had received a mail about me conveying “… is no more” and his words “take care Ma’am” conveyed the concern that he felt for me. A line of openly appreciating my stand by some others made my days bearable. What more could I have asked for? A girl student having passed long back from my classes, wrote some generous words to me on a day when I needed something to uplift my sagging spirits. How could she know that I needed some kind words to reaffirm my self worth? If this is not the “omen” that Paul Coelho writes about in The Alchemist what else it is! A number of students wrote to me or commented on my blog exactly on the day when I needed this philip! Call it providence, a sign from the unknown or coincidence but I have started believing that God has predecided a purpose for our life and we have to perform that. And we have to perform it to the best of our ability and sincerity! Perhaps being a teacher was my purpose of life!

I take this opportunity to thank all of you for making me see another side of a teachers life when the relationship between the student and the teacher transcends all barriers of time, place and the confinement of the class. It is this feeling that makes all the teachers taking teaching as a calling and not just a profession! I am because of you otherwise I am nothing my dear students!

Thank you all!