For some strange reasons, I was not getting sleep during those days. All night I used to just lie on the bed, closing the eyes, but not sleeping. Sometimes I used to get up from the bed and walk here and there inside the home. As this continued day by day, I started looking very tired and dull during the day time, and people around me started commenting that I look dull and also started inquiring whether I am not well. I tried many things to get sleep. First I started watching TV. That was the time of IPLs. After 20 years I started watching cricket again in my life, just to kill time. On the first day when I switched on TV to watch cricket, it was a person called "Shikar Dawan" who was batting in a wonderful way. Then I moved on to watching movies, cartoons and what not. But the end was not reached. Even after watching TV till 4 am or 5 am in the morning I was not getting sleep, but only short naps for an hour or so.
Then I moved on to do some physical work - like cleaning home, washing clothes, cooking. All these tasks made me more tired, but I was nowhere near my goal. I even tried going for a walk and jog. Nothing helped.
During that time, I happened to travel in Pallavan Express from Trichy to Chennai in 3rd AC coach. I think that was my first trip in the AC coach of Pallavan Express. The train was at 6:30 in the morning. As usual, after a sleepless night, I reached the station on time and had just enough time to get into the train. I was just gazing through the window when a person called me from behind "Sir, is that your seat...".
I turned back and saw a calm and quiet person, should be in the late forties or early fifties, very neatly dressed, with a beautiful smile. His face had a divine charm.
"No, sorry, this is not my seat...", I said as window seat was not mine.
He replied "Sir, it is my seat, but if you want, you can continue to be there and I will take your seat"
Normally, like many, I prefer to have the window seat, but upon seeing his face, I said "No, thank you..." and moved to my seat.
He occupied his seat and was continuously getting phone calls, in which he was talking about some churches and brothers in those churches. I thought he himself could be one such brother.
As the train started, he asked whether I am into business. This is the second time I am encountering this question. First time I encountered this question was again when I was traveling in the AC coach of Rockfort express, which made me to assume that, it is mostly the businessmen, who travel in the AC coaches.
I replied "No, I am not into business..."
"Then... you are..." he asked.
"I am into software... I develop software..."
"Oh Ok..."
"To Chennai...", he enquired
"Yes...", I replied.
Then I got into some deep thoughts. But, I thought that I should ask him what he is doing, though normally I never ask anyone any such questions.
"And you..."
"I am an educationist...", he replied.
I didn't know exactly what he was meaning by that. I thought he should be a lecturer or a professor in some college.
"In which college Sir...", I asked. I started addressing him as "Sir" in somewhat a respectful way now.
"Not college... school... I am headmaster of (he said some school's name, which I forgot now) in Royapettah."
It sounded to be a famous school in that area. Having faced a lot of difficulty in putting my dear little friend Dhanu into school, some 2 years ago, I thought I should get to know more about him and interact well with him, so that in future, I can put my cute little friend Deepu into some good school, with his recommendation. But at the same time, I was so doubtful whether I can do that in the short train journey of 5 hours.
"Nowadays almost all are into software..." he remarked.
"Yes Sir... most of the service companies has established processes, and now software can be developed, even without any knowledge of data structures or algorithms..."
He seemed to have got more interested into it and started asking me more and more questions and I tried to answer as much as I could.
Finally he remarked... "Whatever it is... it is indeed a good field, that provides jobs to many and almost eradicated the unemployment, which was in its peak in the 90s..."
"What you do in your school sir... I mean what are your day to day activities in school..." I asked him.
He seemed to have got interested in this question and started answering in an elaborate way.
"Morning I go to school about 8:30, attend the prayer and then around 10:00 will go for rounds all around the school..." and then he went on to explain his day to day activities.
"One of my main activity is to constantly watch the mood and enthusiasm of the teachers and whenever I find that they are not enthusiastic or happy, its my duty to help them in getting their worries resolved and bring them back to normal... Because if they are not happy, they cannot do their job well... and it will directly affect the students..."
He continued "One day while on the rounds, I found the one teacher had a very sad face... It was like as if it is written in his face that he is having a miserable life..."
He went on... "I asked him what his problem is... He immediately started crying, unmindful of the students in front of him... I took him aside and asked him again what his problem is..."
"From what he said, I understood that his personal life is miserable. He is married for about 10 years... has 2 kids... and now have almost come to the stage that he cannot live with his wife anymore, who was a teacher in another school... and the only way to spend the rest of his is to get separated from her... I found that day by day, he was having a miserable and painful life in home... In that situation, definitely he cannot do a good job in school..."
He added... "By this time, we both started walking and came to the main gate of the school... The gate was locked... There was a road in front of the school's gate and at the other end of the road, there was a ditch in which dirty water was running... We both saw a man, wearing dirty clothes-that looked as if it was never washed, his hair-looked as if it was never combed... He was holding a small stick in his hand and was standing on the shore of the ditch and was playing by hitting the stick on that running water..."
He went on... "I asked the teacher, do you know why he is so happy now... The teacher looked at my face, confused... He is happy because he had a good meal in the morning... and he is celebrating it by playing in that dirty water... though he knows very well that his next meal is not guaranteed..."
"But see... In your case, you both are working as respectful teachers, and the meal for you and your family is guaranteed for the next thirty years... But still you don't know how to celebrate it... And instead you are worrying about it..."
"She is your wife... Who else will fight with you.... She bore your 2 kids... Go home right now, ask her also to come home... talk to her... tell her that you want to celebrate your life day-by-day, with her..."
"He left the school immediately and came to school after 2 days and this time he was happy... I never asked him what happened in home, but I was sure that he will be a good teacher after that, celebrating his life in school too..."
The educationist went on and on. After a long time, I was hearing a monotonous speech, more or less a lecture... I started dozing... as I used to do on hearing the lectures in college and I was finding it tough to keep myself awake ...
But I tried my best to keep myself awake, just to listen to what he said.
He went on... "See the Russia... most of the time it is cold there... covered everywhere with snow... But see India... where we have sun almost all the days..."
I was wondering why he is comparing India with Russia, when generally India is compared with the US these days. I assumed that he should belong to the previous generation. As far as I know during the British rule, India was compared with Britan, even Gandhi went there for his higher studies... But I am not sure whether Gandhi attempted and cleared GRE or TOFFEL to reach there. And for a couple of years after independance, India was compared with Russia... and in the recent days India is compared with America.I guess the "Sir" should have been an child or young boy during the days of comparison with Russia, as one tends to remember their childhood days for the rest of their life.
He continued "There people cannot work on the field(probably he is referring to agriculture). But see our gifted climate, where we can work round the year... But how we waste our time and energy on useless things, fighting with each other..."
After that I didn't know when I slept. I had a sound sleep, after a long time. I dint know for how long he kept talking. But when I woke up, I found that he was also asleep. I also observed that in every station, he got down from the coach, and met his old students in the platform. Upon knowing that he was traveling in this train, many of his old students had come to the station in that odd hour to meet their teacher. He should be a famous teacher, and should be a role model for many, I thought.
As the train entered Egmore station, we got ready to get down.
I thanked him, for which he returned a beautiful smile, and came out of the station. He was received by a couple of people at the platform. I started walking towards the bus stop to take a bus to home.
After that I never had a sleepless night, probably because I have decided to celebrate my life, day-by-day... Thank You Sir...
- Pavala.
Then I moved on to do some physical work - like cleaning home, washing clothes, cooking. All these tasks made me more tired, but I was nowhere near my goal. I even tried going for a walk and jog. Nothing helped.
During that time, I happened to travel in Pallavan Express from Trichy to Chennai in 3rd AC coach. I think that was my first trip in the AC coach of Pallavan Express. The train was at 6:30 in the morning. As usual, after a sleepless night, I reached the station on time and had just enough time to get into the train. I was just gazing through the window when a person called me from behind "Sir, is that your seat...".
I turned back and saw a calm and quiet person, should be in the late forties or early fifties, very neatly dressed, with a beautiful smile. His face had a divine charm.
"No, sorry, this is not my seat...", I said as window seat was not mine.
He replied "Sir, it is my seat, but if you want, you can continue to be there and I will take your seat"
Normally, like many, I prefer to have the window seat, but upon seeing his face, I said "No, thank you..." and moved to my seat.
He occupied his seat and was continuously getting phone calls, in which he was talking about some churches and brothers in those churches. I thought he himself could be one such brother.
As the train started, he asked whether I am into business. This is the second time I am encountering this question. First time I encountered this question was again when I was traveling in the AC coach of Rockfort express, which made me to assume that, it is mostly the businessmen, who travel in the AC coaches.
I replied "No, I am not into business..."
"Then... you are..." he asked.
"I am into software... I develop software..."
"Oh Ok..."
"To Chennai...", he enquired
"Yes...", I replied.
Then I got into some deep thoughts. But, I thought that I should ask him what he is doing, though normally I never ask anyone any such questions.
"And you..."
"I am an educationist...", he replied.
I didn't know exactly what he was meaning by that. I thought he should be a lecturer or a professor in some college.
"In which college Sir...", I asked. I started addressing him as "Sir" in somewhat a respectful way now.
"Not college... school... I am headmaster of (he said some school's name, which I forgot now) in Royapettah."
It sounded to be a famous school in that area. Having faced a lot of difficulty in putting my dear little friend Dhanu into school, some 2 years ago, I thought I should get to know more about him and interact well with him, so that in future, I can put my cute little friend Deepu into some good school, with his recommendation. But at the same time, I was so doubtful whether I can do that in the short train journey of 5 hours.
"Nowadays almost all are into software..." he remarked.
"Yes Sir... most of the service companies has established processes, and now software can be developed, even without any knowledge of data structures or algorithms..."
He seemed to have got more interested into it and started asking me more and more questions and I tried to answer as much as I could.
Finally he remarked... "Whatever it is... it is indeed a good field, that provides jobs to many and almost eradicated the unemployment, which was in its peak in the 90s..."
"What you do in your school sir... I mean what are your day to day activities in school..." I asked him.
He seemed to have got interested in this question and started answering in an elaborate way.
"Morning I go to school about 8:30, attend the prayer and then around 10:00 will go for rounds all around the school..." and then he went on to explain his day to day activities.
"One of my main activity is to constantly watch the mood and enthusiasm of the teachers and whenever I find that they are not enthusiastic or happy, its my duty to help them in getting their worries resolved and bring them back to normal... Because if they are not happy, they cannot do their job well... and it will directly affect the students..."
He continued "One day while on the rounds, I found the one teacher had a very sad face... It was like as if it is written in his face that he is having a miserable life..."
He went on... "I asked him what his problem is... He immediately started crying, unmindful of the students in front of him... I took him aside and asked him again what his problem is..."
"From what he said, I understood that his personal life is miserable. He is married for about 10 years... has 2 kids... and now have almost come to the stage that he cannot live with his wife anymore, who was a teacher in another school... and the only way to spend the rest of his is to get separated from her... I found that day by day, he was having a miserable and painful life in home... In that situation, definitely he cannot do a good job in school..."
He added... "By this time, we both started walking and came to the main gate of the school... The gate was locked... There was a road in front of the school's gate and at the other end of the road, there was a ditch in which dirty water was running... We both saw a man, wearing dirty clothes-that looked as if it was never washed, his hair-looked as if it was never combed... He was holding a small stick in his hand and was standing on the shore of the ditch and was playing by hitting the stick on that running water..."
He went on... "I asked the teacher, do you know why he is so happy now... The teacher looked at my face, confused... He is happy because he had a good meal in the morning... and he is celebrating it by playing in that dirty water... though he knows very well that his next meal is not guaranteed..."
"But see... In your case, you both are working as respectful teachers, and the meal for you and your family is guaranteed for the next thirty years... But still you don't know how to celebrate it... And instead you are worrying about it..."
"She is your wife... Who else will fight with you.... She bore your 2 kids... Go home right now, ask her also to come home... talk to her... tell her that you want to celebrate your life day-by-day, with her..."
"He left the school immediately and came to school after 2 days and this time he was happy... I never asked him what happened in home, but I was sure that he will be a good teacher after that, celebrating his life in school too..."
The educationist went on and on. After a long time, I was hearing a monotonous speech, more or less a lecture... I started dozing... as I used to do on hearing the lectures in college and I was finding it tough to keep myself awake ...
But I tried my best to keep myself awake, just to listen to what he said.
He went on... "See the Russia... most of the time it is cold there... covered everywhere with snow... But see India... where we have sun almost all the days..."
I was wondering why he is comparing India with Russia, when generally India is compared with the US these days. I assumed that he should belong to the previous generation. As far as I know during the British rule, India was compared with Britan, even Gandhi went there for his higher studies... But I am not sure whether Gandhi attempted and cleared GRE or TOFFEL to reach there. And for a couple of years after independance, India was compared with Russia... and in the recent days India is compared with America.I guess the "Sir" should have been an child or young boy during the days of comparison with Russia, as one tends to remember their childhood days for the rest of their life.
He continued "There people cannot work on the field(probably he is referring to agriculture). But see our gifted climate, where we can work round the year... But how we waste our time and energy on useless things, fighting with each other..."
After that I didn't know when I slept. I had a sound sleep, after a long time. I dint know for how long he kept talking. But when I woke up, I found that he was also asleep. I also observed that in every station, he got down from the coach, and met his old students in the platform. Upon knowing that he was traveling in this train, many of his old students had come to the station in that odd hour to meet their teacher. He should be a famous teacher, and should be a role model for many, I thought.
As the train entered Egmore station, we got ready to get down.
I thanked him, for which he returned a beautiful smile, and came out of the station. He was received by a couple of people at the platform. I started walking towards the bus stop to take a bus to home.
After that I never had a sleepless night, probably because I have decided to celebrate my life, day-by-day... Thank You Sir...
- Pavala.
