Greetings and best wishes to all on Teachers’ Day.
The Five Gurus:
- The First Guru: Mother, who gave us life.
- The Second Guru: Mother Earth, on whom we grew.
- The Third Guru: Father, whose finger we held.
- The Fourth Guru: Teacher, from whom we gained knowledge.
- The Fifth Guru: Spiritual Guide, whose grace we received.
With the blessings of these five gurus, life is made meaningful, for without a guru, there is no progress.
In a primary school, there was a teacher named Anjali. She was the class teacher for the fifth grade. She had a habit of always saying, “I love you all,” the moment she entered the classroom.
Yet, she knew she wasn’t speaking the truth. She did not love all the children in her class equally. There was one child whom she could not stand to look at, not even for a moment. His name was Raju. Raju would come to school looking dirty and unkempt. His hair would be messy, his shoelaces untied, and his shirt collar stained. During class, his mind would be somewhere else.
When the teacher scolded him, he would look at her with a startled expression, but his vacant eyes revealed that even though he was physically present in the classroom, his mind was absent. (Present body, absent mind). Gradually, the teacher began to hate Raju. As soon as she entered the class, Raju became the target of her criticism. All the negative examples were used with Raju’s name. The children would giggle at him, and the teacher would find satisfaction in humiliating him.
Raju, however, never said a word in response.
The teacher thought of him as a lifeless stone, a boy with no soul inside. In response to every scolding, every taunt, and every punishment, he would just look at her with his emotionless eyes and lower his head. The teacher’s hatred for him had now grown serious.
The first semester ended, and it was time to prepare the progress reports. The teacher wrote down all the negative things in Raju’s report. The progress reports were first sent to the headmaster before being shown to the parents. When the headmaster saw Raju’s report, he called the teacher. “Madam, you should write something about Raju’s progress as well. What you have written will completely disappoint his father.” The teacher replied, “I apologize, but Raju is a completely uncultured and useless child. I don’t think I can write anything positive about his progress.” Saying this in a tone of disgust, the teacher got up and left as school was dismissed for the day.
The next day, the headmaster had an idea. He had the peon place Raju’s progress reports from previous years on the teacher’s desk. The following day, when the teacher entered the classroom, her eyes fell on the reports. She flipped through them and realized they were Raju’s. “Surely, Raju must have been up to the same mischief in previous grades,” she thought. She opened the Class 3 report. She was surprised beyond measure when she saw the comments were full of praise for him. “I have never seen a child as intelligent as Raju.” “He is a very sensitive child and has a deep affection for his friends and teacher.” The report also said that Raju had secured first place in the final semester. The teacher, in a state of uncertainty, opened the Class 4 report. “Raju was deeply affected by his mother’s illness. His attention has drifted from his studies.” It also stated, “Raju’s mother has a terminal stage of cancer. There is no one else to take care of her at home, which has had a profound effect on his studies.”
Below that, the headmaster had written, “Raju’s mother has passed away, and with her, the light and joy of Raju’s life have also faded. He must be saved… before it’s too late.” Reading this, a terrible weight descended upon the teacher’s mind. With trembling hands, she closed the progress reports. Tears began to fall from her eyes, one after another. She wiped her tears with her saree.
The next day, when the teacher entered the class, she repeated her usual phrase, “I love you all.”
But she knew she was lying even today. Because the love she felt in her heart for that one unkempt child, Raju, sitting in the same class, was greater than the love she felt for any other child.
During the lesson, she asked Raju a question as part of her daily routine, and as always, Raju bowed his head. When he didn’t hear any scolding from the teacher or laughter from his classmates for a while, he looked up at the teacher in surprise. Unexpectedly, there were no frown lines on her forehead; she was smiling. She called Raju to her, told him the answer to the question, and insisted that he repeat it. After three or four requests, Raju finally spoke. As soon as he gave the answer, the teacher not only clapped for him happily herself but also made all the other children clap.
This became their daily routine. The teacher would tell him the answer to every question and then praise him highly. Every good example was now given in Raju’s name. Gradually, the old Raju emerged from the grave of silence. Now, the teacher no longer needed to tell him the answer along with the question. He would answer correctly every day, impressing everyone and even surprising them with new questions.
His hair was now somewhat neater, and his clothes were cleaner, which he had probably started washing himself. In no time, the year came to an end, and Raju passed the fifth grade, securing second place, which meant he was ready to enroll in a new school.
At the fifth-grade farewell ceremony, all the children brought beautiful gifts for the teacher, and her table was piled high with them. Among these beautifully wrapped gifts lay one packaged in old newspaper, in a terrible manner. The children laughed at it. It didn’t take anyone long to figure out that the gift must have been from Raju. The teacher quickly picked out Raju’s gift from the small mountain of presents. When she opened it, she found a half-used bottle of women’s perfume and a large bangle with most of its beads missing. Miss quietly spritzed the perfume on herself and put on the bangle. The children were all astonished to see this. Even Raju. Finally, he couldn’t hold back and went to stand beside her.
After a moment, he stammered and said to her, “Today, you smell just like my mother.” Hearing this, tears welled up in the teacher’s eyes, and she hugged Raju tightly.
Raju was about to go to another school, and he enrolled there. Time flew by. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. But at the end of every year, the teacher would regularly receive a letter from Raju which read, “This year I met many new teachers. But none of them were like you, Madam.”
Then Raju finished his studies, and the letters stopped coming. Many more years passed, and the teacher retired.
One day, the teacher found a letter from Raju in her mail, which read: “I am getting married at the end of this month, and I cannot think of getting married without you. One more thing… I have met many people in my life, but no one has ever been like you… Yours, Dr. Raju.”
Along with the letter, there was a plane ticket in the envelope. The teacher could not stop herself. She took permission from her husband and set off for Raju’s city. On the wedding day, when she arrived at the venue, she was a little late.
She thought the ceremony must have ended, but to her surprise, the city’s big doctors, businessmen, and even the priest were tired of waiting, wondering who was yet to arrive. But Raju was waiting for her, not at the wedding altar, but at the gate. Then everyone saw that as soon as an elderly woman entered the gate, Raju rushed towards her, grabbed the hand on which she was still wearing the bangle, and led her directly to the stage.
Raju took the microphone in his hand and said, “Friends, you always used to ask me about my mother, and I used to promise all of you that I would introduce you to her soon… Look closely. This is my dear mother, the best in the world. This is my mother.”
Life Lessons from the Story
Dear friends, please don’t just think of this beautiful story in terms of the teacher-student relationship. Look around you. There are many flowers like Raju that are wilting, and a little bit of attention, love, and affection from any of us can give them a new lease on life.
Until we meet again, my friends, keep smiling… sometimes for yourself… and sometimes for others.