I ain’t a chicken, but an eagle!
Today is Sunday, so I didn’t want to sit and research and write an article. Instead I thought to write about some special people I have met in my life. Well this will follow every Sundays I suppose.
To begin with, I had spent three years in a weird, God forsaken college. I despised the college, but I decided not to be miserable but to take initiative. I was from a convent, so studying English was not much of a problem for me. I assumed everyone taking the course will be like me, but sadly this is not the case. (Yes this is the college I have ironically portrayed in my novel.) My classmates came from poor families and villages. They just choose to study English to become teachers. But this is a sad fact. Those who choose Literature are considered dumb, and utterly hopeless. Even the college, after filling up all the others courses with the top scoring students send the miserable ones to English. It is really pathetic. They think studying English is a silly thing and those students who pursue English do not have analytical reasoning or aptitude. Another misconception of English or any other language for that matter is to label it just as the understanding of stories. This is so not true. We are all stories by the way. To study mankind, we need to study man, that’s why stories are so important.
Anyway, I am not going to defend the greatness of Literature. Perhaps some other time, for now I want to simply tell about this person. You see, my classmates had this big problem. They were not appreciated, they were constantly nagged and they were told that they will never amount to anything. I was shocked by the negative comments of the teachers. A teacher was supposed to build them up, not curse them and label them as useless. However, I decided to do something about the situation. I went up to the HOD and asked her permission to give a small pep talk every day. I knew she will never agree, but ironically accepted. That was the time I was beginning to read Self-help literature, so to learn more and apply the principles, I needn’t to teach somebody and this was a perfect opportunity for me.
So I was up for the challenge, I began to motivate them. I said you guys are the best; you can do anything in Life. I slowly began to influence them. And you won’t believe what happened. These melancholy, inactive folks suddenly became proactive. They began to do well in class. I became a very good friend to them.
That was when I understood the power of appreciation. People are ever hungry for it. Sometimes I think we have lost our human touch. Sometimes we are too mechanical. We are afraid to say how we feel. Then they all openly came and told me their stories. Some will make you cry and some stories you won’t believe. But you are the judge.
These stories are the ones I am going to share with you. But you cannot expect a plotline or something; they are just pure feeling that you need to experience. So today I am going to tell about Anbujothi.
Anbujothi was a Pentecostal Christian. She did not wear jewelry of any kind, and certainly she was the most silent student in the class. However, her silence was often misunderstood as a sign of shyness. But that was a very big misunderstanding indeed.
Jeba, a fat boy loved to chat and irritate others. He had decided to irritate Jothi on a particular morning he had called her and said: “Hey how is your sister, can you give this rose to your sister.” Anbujothi face went red. She stared at him and began to bellow. “ You can talk to me as a friend. But giving my sister roses I cannot allow that…”
That was the day everyone knew Anbujothi though silent and petite was not to be taken for granted. Jothi had lost her dad when she was really young. She had two sisters and four brothers. The loss of her father had greatly disturbed her. Once her father had fought with her mother and gone out of the house. The young girl was devastated. “When her dad returned she asked, “Dad why did you leave me?” and he replied. ‘Oh, will I ever go away from you darling.” But he was gone. He was gone to a place he could never return from. Jothi still remembers her dad, and she is protective of her sisters, but most of all she is full of love and she believes that a loved one never really leaves the world.
If you can relate to her feelings or have any comments, please do comment. Really appreciate it if you share this blog. And you can get my novel to have a good laugh and that book is about these people. Until next week take care.
