The unsung heroes

I always wanted to write about this part of my life. As a tribute to my dearest teachers. When i was a child i was a very lean little child. I was not really good at anything. Not that good at studies, sports, arts or anything. I had a very difficult to pronounce name. I got bullied a lot. I had very little confidence.

When i was a little i heard stories like Mathematics is the queen of all sciences, smart people know math and all. I really liked math. It was sort of an escapism for me. I used to think even though i am bad at everything, but at least if i am good at math, i must be smart. It was like my little fortress of hope. 

After 4th standard i joined an aided school in English medium. I knew little to no English and then came that dark day in my life. Our Math teacher gave us some problems to solve. When the results came, me and a friend of mine had the lowest marks. I believe it was 2 out of 15. We were asked to stand up in class for the whole period.  I was so sad. Math was the one thing i was good at and now i was good for nothing. Actually I knew my Math but I could not understand Math because of my lack of knowledge in English. It completely shattered whatever little confidence I had. I was sad for months. My parents understood this and shifted me to Malayalam medium.

So English was the big villain and instead of facing it, I ran away. When I was in 8th standard I really was interested in Chess. At that time the easiest way to learn chess was reading these chess tutorials in Indian Express. But I couldn’t understand anything. Again English stood in the way. Reji teacher was my English teacher from 8^th standard to 10^th standard. My English was very bad. One day we were asked to write about a chapter called ‘Two gentlemen of Verona’ and we had to read it aloud in class. It was the story about 2 orphan children. I wrote something like “The two children lost their parents even before their birth”. As I read this aloud the entire class burst into laughter. My English was so bad that I couldn’t even understand why they were laughing at me.

But Reji Teacher didn’t laugh, she didn’t scold me. She gave me some short stories in English to read. Stories written in simple English. As i was so much interested in short stories I read them even though it was very difficult for me at that time. But it made me interested in learning English. The difference that created was huge. In the half yearly examination in 10^th standard, me and 2 other friends had the highest marks in English. We each got a prize from the teacher. It was a box of 3 Rupee Pens.

That was, even today one of my biggest achievements. It taught me that if you are passionate about something in life you can learn it. In fact that is what Reji teacher taught me in life. I have was never seen her getting bored when she was teaching. She was so much passionate about the English language.

This incident motivated me even further. In 10^th model exam I had the highest marks in the class and this time I got a dictionary as a prize. May be because I disturbed the teacher so much by asking word meanings!!

English became one of my favourite subjects. I read a lot of English articles on the web, read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies. I was never very good at grammar. But due to this passion towards the language i slowly learned it. One of my biggest weaknesses became one of my strengths. It helped me in competitive exams and various other facets of life.  

After studies I got a central government job, at the Postal department. Soon after training I was working at Tanur, a small Town and municipality in Malappuram. As you all might be aware right now there is an enormous staff shortage in government services. So work pressure was huge. Instead of the 5 staff needed to run the operations, there was just 3 people.  Also in the next rotational transfer one of our staff got shifted to another office. So we had to manage everything, just two of us now. The work pressure was beyond what you can handle. I was so depressed and sad. One day work was so tough that, i could not handle the pressure. I went outside to get some fresh air. On my way out, there was a table. On the table there was a 3 rupee pen. As I picked up this 3 rupee pen all those childhood memories rushed into me. I rose from the ashes like a phoenix. It reminded me of Reji Teacher and of myself. About who I was. I went back to work like nothing can affect me now. I realised something, memories are the most powerful things in life. They can uplift you from the depths of depression. They give you energies to tackle your problems.

We should never be too much proud of ourselves. For whatever skills we acquired, whatever we learned it just happened because we had a teacher who believed in us. Not all heroes wear capes. They are the unsung heroes.Good teachers teach a subject very well, but a great teacher inspires hope, ignites imagination and instills a love for learning.