Skip to main content

See you

"Goodbye!"" Cya!""au revoir"---everyday phrases chucked about like candy wrappers.So hollow,so impotent. Do we really care if  we meet them again or not? How many people do you really really care to see the next day.How many are important to you that you can't pass a "goodbye" without feeling?

The University has been one of my favourite haunts since last year. I love the 19th century palatial college with huge magnificent halls of wood and giant windows and walkways adorned with very old banyan and tamarind with a thousand golden blossoms that sail down helically in the afternoon breeze.So I found myself wandering into the English department last Thursday and sat down at my mother's desk with absolute authority.Often I watched her students come up to her and talking in a very friendly manner but with due respect. She would often tell me how some of the most unassuming of her class would ask her to correct a piece of translation they attempted or a perhaps a prose. There are some special persons in her class too.

One of them has no parents,only a brother who works as a mechanic.and together they keep each other living.He takes tuition for school children on most weekdays ,classes that begin as early as 5 o'clock. Another girl comes from another hapless background.Her father is a fisherman and nearly always at sea,their family of four live in a shack of a home close to the sea.Her young face,dark and weatherbeaten wore a look of determination. She wants to become a writer.What a different dream for a girl like her!Her English teacher is very proud of her. Then there is Anish.

Anish is blind. No, nothing can be done to help him. They have been  through all that. But it does not annoy Anish one bit. He is as good or in some cases better than some of the others in his class. Of course he needs some help finding his way through the labyrinthine corridors of the University, but his friends are always there to do that. 

My mother and I were walking to the parking lot when we saw him.My mother asked him how his exam went and he said it was good. And he said "See you tomorrow Ma'am".His head hung low but a smile lit his face with happiness-- happiness the rest of us fail to notice.Blind aren't we?. Selfish, ungracious and ignorant!

As we got into the car my mother said quietly "He can't see me tomorrow..he can't see me ever"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

hUMBLE sTROKES

iT''s been some time since I picked up a brush. Not the most impressionist, but for the love of oil pastels,here is a ballroom couple!  Tried to stick to Red,Blue and White in this one. Intended to be Katrina Kaif but turned out a hybrid of Katrina and Penelope? or some man? Originally a pencil sketch that the scanner cast a spell on. So this is what you get.
Post a Comment
Read more

the riGht to arroganCe

Of all human traits I find arrogance most interesting. I believe there are two sides to it. There is plain unworthy arrogance and there is reasonable justified arrogance. Sometimes I'm drawn to arrogant people. To those who are really good at what they do and know it themselves too. Some call it being over-confident.Some call it sheer arrogance. I too call it arrogance sometimes.With a bitten lip and a grudging smile. Why do you secretly admire that arrogant son of a bitch?Simply put , because he's so AWESOME!~ *droool*. Why do you seem to overlook the fact that he nevertheless is arrogant. Because arrogance becomes an attribute to the person (though I always make it point to keep that to myself). I don't encourage arrogance but I don't want to criticize it either.Sometimes arrogance provides what humility does in terms of inspiration. Humility is a good thing.Being modest and not boastful, yes I do respect such people.But put both kinds on the counter and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

buddy ol' friend ol' pal

I was walking back from after school classes with Aparna whom I barely knew two years back.She has become one of my best friends. Waiting beneath the old banyan bus stop with the rest of Mar Ivanios, we stood talking about how things had just fallen into place. How we ended up doing everything together. Like best friends. It's funny because we had been in the same school for 7 years back in Muscat but the only thing that we had in common was Christy as our best friend. Nothing more than a hi-bye person. I  am a very bad friend. I don't always remember birthdays and text at toc-12 or walk people to their house (which may be on the very next right) because they are afraid of getting mugged. Bottom line: i'm not "sweet". I detest people who put up silly quotes (and worse their own) on friendship as stats--and those who like them. Coming back to live in India was like some sort of a test. Except it was more important that one made mistakes.The right mistakes. ...
Post a Comment
Read more