Sir/Madam,
Forgive us for the lies we told you to guard our friends, the lessons we didn’t memorise, the sums we couldn’t solve, the questions we answered wrong as students.
But don’t forgive us for the sins we commit as parents. We know that whatever we are in life today is because of the caning you awarded us with when we bunked classes to watch Sholay,because of the dressing down you gave us when we taunted girls at the bus stop near school. But for the fear of you reaching our homes and catching us fast asleep well past 7 am, many of us would have slept on and never done anything worthwhile in life. Some of us still remember the cold look you gave if anyone was found outside the class after the tiffin break was over.
One of us has become a revered judge, but was the most shameless liar till you caned him constantly for 15 minutes for overwriting marks on his report card. He caught fever that evening and after recovering, he never lied in his life.
One of us never understood geography. His notebooks had more fictions than facts and figures. Sitting on the last bench, he used to thrill us with stories in boring classes. One day his notebook fell in your hand and he almost peed in his pants. Next day you said: “I went through your notebook. You write well. But class is not the place to spin a yarn. If I ever find you doing that again, you’ll be rusticated.” He ended his relationship with geography with 80% marks. The man is a famous writer now. His first published story was the last one in that notebook, and he didn’t have a clue to what had happened to that small thing till you handed him the issue of the magazine which had published the story.
Our doctor friend had lost his father when he was five and his mother was a domestic help. She did not have the money to send her brilliant son to coaching classes for Joint Entrance. He would not have cleared the exam had you not given him free tuitions after school. How many times did you call him a thickhead? He does not remember. But he never forgets that he owes his career to you.
We know you don’t remember any of us as it is impossible to remember everyone whose life you have changed with your canes, cold looks, shouts, guidance and encouragement. Forgive us for our mistakes and the choicest abuses we hurled at you on your back. But don’t forgive, cane us again instead, for supporting our sons and daughters when they don’t do their homework and complain about the teacher’s behaviour if scolded.
Cane us for bringing up children in such a way that they develop an ego very early in life and commit suicide if caned by the teacher. Cane your students in the media, who always side with students in depicting teachers as villains and cane your administrator students, who think antagonising students against teachers means protecting students’ interests.
We bow to thee once again on Teacher’s Day, but with a complain. Why didn’t you teach us the mantra to be ruthlessly affectionate, the mantra that drove you all your life?
