This would be the first on a series of posts about junior and senior school time
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I should admit that it was fun waiting for the roughly half an hour ride back home in the bus from my school. And this was during my preschool days (more popular as kinder garden). Most of us wanted a seat by the window while some just cared about being around with friends who reside in the same locality.
The preschoolers had a preferential access / early boarding to the bus - and every time I had traveled business class in one of the flights, I always think about this :D We get to form a line and march towards the bus well ahead of the 3:30 PM when the school used to end for the rest of the junior school folks (Grades 1 through 5). And I could be wrong with this time since this goes back almost a good 29 years back, though I do recall we were first to board and usually way ahead of the slated departing time as well.
Invariably, our class teachers used to assist us at times with the trip to the bus. And also spend some time with all of us - before she got down herself and moved on - since she (Ms.Anna) actually lives nearby and didn't have to take a bus to the school.
And there was this one time, when my classmate decided to ask our teacher, "Is the sun only so much big?" No prizes for guessing who was the kid most excited by the question that walked out to the center of the bus, literally yelling - "Don't you know? The sun is a HUGE ball of fire sitting up in the sky! It just appears small to us!", with arms stretched out as much as possible to signify the monstrosity of the size of the sun!!
Our teacher took the time out to appreciate the answer. But also reminded how to ask softly for a turn to answer a question if desiring to do so!
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How do you explain to a group of 10 year olds, an answer to the question - "Why do you say the center of earth is hot?" And this question, was back in the early 90s in a small town far away from the large metro of Chennai, with the only prominent institution then as much as now, being the CMCH (Christian Medical College and Hospital)?
Well, it didn't seem so daunting for Ms.Eapen. All she did was to pose a question back to the class - "When you mom makes you some kheer and pours out the warm contents into your bowl, how do you start eating it? Do you have it slowly from the side and top portions or take a scoop right from the center of the bowl? And if you do take a scoop right from the center of the bowl, do you put it directly into your mouth or do you blow over it to cool it down?"
And then went an explanation of the earth's crust, the mantle, lava and magma..!
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திருக்குறள் is a famous piece of தமிழ் literature. ஒழுக்கமுடைமை is a section / portion (அதிகாரம்) on it. The class started in the same place that was given evacuation orders a while ago since there was a snake that crept into the classroom from the nearby fields in the school. I was later told it was probably a 5 month old one. I don't know if it was just plain curious to come and see how humans learn together in a school.
Most students in our class knew reasonably well by then that not all snakes are really venomous. But considering our age, there was not much divulged about the ongoing operation itself and we were still waiting to ask a question about the type of the snake, its nature, color and what not (alright, at least some folks and not all, to be fair to the group that was content to be left playing their own games!)
When the class resumed, the first குறள் had to be read out. And it went as "ஒழுக்கம் விழுப்பம் தரலான் ஒழுக்கம் உயிரினும் ஓம்ப படும்". Now, its the turn of explaining this couplet to the classroom still trying to mentally settle down from the evacuation and subsequent resumption of classes. And Ms.Ramani definitely knew this better than anyone else!
It was a session in language classroom. But she started off explaining from the incident a while ago. She asked the class a simple question - "Why do you think, all of us were scrambling to get out for what is just another living creature in this planet that probably came into our way accidentally?" The question of course, was in தமிழ். I just translated that out in the interest of keeping this blog readable for as many as possible.
The answer was prompt enough - "What if the snake was venomous? Just about any one of lives could've been under a threat?". Our teacher continued to explain the couplet and said - "திருவள்ளுவர் is trying to state the same thing about ஒழுக்கம். It is supposed to be protected and valued even greater than our lives!"
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