Long back I had in my curriculum ,a poem 'Daffodils' by William Wordsworth .It had a ranting of a poet but the most literary beatitude & felicity was memory revisited. Memories are what , just go on revisiting it & believe me , always a new vista will open before you .
Continuous as the stars shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance ,
The waves beside them danced : but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in the glee:
A poet could not but be gay ,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and-gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to had brought :
And the memory revisited is
For oft ,when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils .
In the year 1956-57, the school building was very much innocuous & never got the attention of passer by its sign board on the gate or its massiveness ,but after so many decades elapsed ,the massiveness of the building & the sign board on the gate of school is eye catching . It had a big campus lying vacant & on the back side of school & there was vast swath of land & part of this land was earmarked for different class teachers & their students to learn the technique of vegetable growing & we always looked forward of these three periods after recess in a week to do the farming . Bunch of small kids doing farming was hilarious & entertaining . Their chaffing & banters & occasional sarcastic comments of class teacher was side-splitting !
I was pulling some how with other subjects but mathematics had nightmarish experience for me. I didn't know how to negotiate these mathematics book & quite forlorn & depressed whenever this math class was conducted , always praying to God when school bell will rang & I will be able to see the back of math teacher . I don't know why the face of math teacher happens to be ugly !
The 1st quarterly exam was conducted , & respective teachers of respective subjects came in the class room with answer copies . The turn of math teacher also came & he declared highest mark fetched & name of the student & took the name of lowest mark fetched & name of the student . Naturally my name was on the bottom & I had fetched 'Zero' ! I felt so wretched , just welling tears in my eyes !
The marks brought in math had direct bearing on my movie going with my mother in the evening in Darbar talkies of Siwan & I was harangued & instead of going to movie hall & pampered by their staff , diatribe & dressing down had become commonality for me .Time & again caustic remark of my doing in math paper , always made me a fugitive with slight aberration , doing wrong thing & caustic remark hurled on me . Funny !
Again the half-yearly exam was conducted & my effort in mathematics brought me only 'five' ! It was very much & the marks were playing on my psyche ! Papa went in confabulation with his senior staff & a math teacher was appointed to give me tuition at home . His tuition fee was mere 15 rupees which was tolerable at that time !
People addressed him एस्तुफान बाबु but after many years his name was in my comprehension was Stephen Mathew . Once I had gone to his place & everybody in his fraternity knew him as Mr Mathew. He was christian person & by his behaviour ,he was able to put balm on my wounded psyche . 1st time in my life I thought I can negotiate this dreaded subject mathematics & get tolerable marks . The final exam of class IV was conducted & I got 65 marks !
I couldn't share my boundless happiness of this 65 mark in mathematics which is unforgettable & it had brought my dignity back !
Continued ..................
Continuous as the stars shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance ,
 |
| Now Victoria Memorial School at Siwan |
Out-did the sparkling waves in the glee:
A poet could not but be gay ,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and-gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to had brought :
And the memory revisited is
For oft ,when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils .
In the year 1956-57, the school building was very much innocuous & never got the attention of passer by its sign board on the gate or its massiveness ,but after so many decades elapsed ,the massiveness of the building & the sign board on the gate of school is eye catching . It had a big campus lying vacant & on the back side of school & there was vast swath of land & part of this land was earmarked for different class teachers & their students to learn the technique of vegetable growing & we always looked forward of these three periods after recess in a week to do the farming . Bunch of small kids doing farming was hilarious & entertaining . Their chaffing & banters & occasional sarcastic comments of class teacher was side-splitting !
I was pulling some how with other subjects but mathematics had nightmarish experience for me. I didn't know how to negotiate these mathematics book & quite forlorn & depressed whenever this math class was conducted , always praying to God when school bell will rang & I will be able to see the back of math teacher . I don't know why the face of math teacher happens to be ugly !
The 1st quarterly exam was conducted , & respective teachers of respective subjects came in the class room with answer copies . The turn of math teacher also came & he declared highest mark fetched & name of the student & took the name of lowest mark fetched & name of the student . Naturally my name was on the bottom & I had fetched 'Zero' ! I felt so wretched , just welling tears in my eyes !
The marks brought in math had direct bearing on my movie going with my mother in the evening in Darbar talkies of Siwan & I was harangued & instead of going to movie hall & pampered by their staff , diatribe & dressing down had become commonality for me .Time & again caustic remark of my doing in math paper , always made me a fugitive with slight aberration , doing wrong thing & caustic remark hurled on me . Funny !
Again the half-yearly exam was conducted & my effort in mathematics brought me only 'five' ! It was very much & the marks were playing on my psyche ! Papa went in confabulation with his senior staff & a math teacher was appointed to give me tuition at home . His tuition fee was mere 15 rupees which was tolerable at that time !
 |
| Person looking like Stephen Mathew |
People addressed him एस्तुफान बाबु but after many years his name was in my comprehension was Stephen Mathew . Once I had gone to his place & everybody in his fraternity knew him as Mr Mathew. He was christian person & by his behaviour ,he was able to put balm on my wounded psyche . 1st time in my life I thought I can negotiate this dreaded subject mathematics & get tolerable marks . The final exam of class IV was conducted & I got 65 marks !
I couldn't share my boundless happiness of this 65 mark in mathematics which is unforgettable & it had brought my dignity back !
Continued ..................
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