Children appreciate all that their parents do for them. They do their best to make their parents proud. But they do not know how to express their feelings to their parents. That is what this naive young boy’s story reveals…
I was a child 7 decades ago so I don’t remember any of my “funny” childhood experiences! So instead of one memorable experience, I will tell you whatever comes to my mind now.
My father was the chairman of three schools. The third school was new and close to our house. So there were only a few students in each class. My younger brother and I studied in the same class. He was younger than me by a year and a half. But he was smarter than all the other boys of his age so he was put in a higher class right from the very beginning. There were around 10 students in our class and everything was normal for a couple of years.
Since it was a new school it was not yet recognized by the board of education. But the process was getting delayed repeatedly. So my father decided to change our school. He put us in a big school this time. (Getting admission in schools was not a problem at that time.) My father was the chairman of this school too. But the principal wanted to meet both of us first.
My brother quickly answered all the questions that the principal asked him and went to the classroom. I was scared of this new big school and the vast campus. There were 9 divisions in each class and each class had 40 students. I swallowed my fear and entered the principal’s cabin with trepidation.
The principal said, “Which formula should you use to calculate simple interest?” I just went blank. I couldn’t remember anything. So I just kept quiet. He said, “What happened? You are the chairman’s son and you can’t even answer such a simple question? Never mind. Just go and attend the classes!” I ran out of the cabin as quickly as I could.
But the fear of studying in such a big school continued to haunt me. I somehow managed to pass in all my other subjects. But I could not grasp the concepts of Maths in this new school. I would score only 16 or 18 marks out of 100 in Maths.
So my father appointed a special tuition teacher for me. He was the Maths teacher in our class. He did his best to make me understand all the concepts properly. But I think he wanted to impress my father too. Maybe he was in awe of the big house that we lived in. I don’t know exactly. I can’t speak for him.
All I know is that just before the final exams; he asked me to solve several questions. He told me that they were very important. He made me practice those sums repeatedly until I became perfect in them. I was surprised to see those same sums appearing in my final exam question paper. I felt happy when I solved them perfectly.
When the results were declared, I was very happy to see that I had scored good marks in Maths. I wanted to make my father happy. He never expected anything from any of us. But I wanted to prove my ability to him. I had done fairly well in all my other subjects too. Maths had always been my weak area.
My father just nodded his head when he saw my marks. He did not say anything. But I could sense that he was happy about it. I now started believing that I could also get good results if I worked harder under expert guidance.
But I was forced to confront the reality after a few days. When my friends saw my marks, they started talking in hushed tones with one another. I was the chairman’s son after all. They did not want to get into any trouble. But they put two and two together and realized that my Maths teacher had leaked the question paper to me so that I could score good marks in the final exam.
Nobody told me anything directly. But I knew they were all talking about me. It was an awkward situation and I did not know how to deal with it. But the students were shuffled the next year. So nobody discussed it for long. I decided to study more sincerely after that. But I continued to remain an average student. My younger brother was always the topper of the class.
But we never competed with each other or compared our marks. We were not ridiculed at home or in school. We were all just accepted the way we were. There was no pressure to perform or excel. That was the best part of our childhood. We went to school because we had to. We studied because we had to. We did our best because we had to. We knew what we had to do. No one told us to study or not to study. We just did things on our own.
Another small incident that comes to my mind right now is this. At the end of the year, we were all asked to wear a white shirt to school the next day to take the group photographs of each class. I did not have a white shirt but I did not have the courage to ask my father to buy me a white shirt. I was a little scared of him. He was very strict. We were rich but he never wasted money on unnecessary things. My mother wanted to buy me a white shirt with the little money that she had saved. But the shirt was costlier than the money she had.
I had no choice. I just had to wear the blue shirt that I had and go to school. The principal took one look at my blue shirt and said, “What is this? You are the chairman’s son! And you have come for the group photo session in a blue shirt? Why?” I did not reply. He knew I would not reply. So he just asked me to wear the shirt of any another boy who belonged to a different division. I quickly did so. The entire class was waiting for me. Again I felt awkward for a long time because I did not know how to deal with this situation.
I did not talk about this at home. My mother was very busy as usual and I could never discuss such things with my father freely. I don’t remember how my younger brother managed without a white shirt.
Yes, my father was very strict and disciplined but he never expected anything from us. I think he just wanted us to do our best at all times. He never criticized us or rebuked us in any way. I did learn several values from him. I am where I am only because of my parents. I have their blessings and I am grateful for that.