How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and other Stories Read online

  Balu said, ‘Oh, I saw their fields and the grass. The grass was almost five feet tall.’

  I pulled his shirt.

  He realized he was talking too much. Immediately, he said, ‘No, no, the grass is very thin.’

  Somebody asked, ‘What do you mean very thin?’

  ‘It was as thin as a hair’s width.’

  Again I pulled his shirt. But I was so exasperated that I pulled it very hard and it tore. Balu, for once, did not know what to say. But I could hear people talking, ‘After all, it is Balu’s version of America. The real America must be different.’

  Balu’s wife is very quiet, which is understandable. If two people talk too much it can get difficult to live together. Once, she was unwell and had a very high fever. Balu talks a lot, but in such a situation he gets scared easily. He was very worried and called me up.

  ‘Get a doctor immediately. My wife is running a very high temperature.’

  ‘What do you mean by very high temperature. How much is it?’

  ‘Oh, it must be about five hundred degrees.’

  ‘Then you should not call a doctor, you better call a firefighter. Kindly check with the thermometer. It must not be more than 106 degrees.’

  Once, we were sitting and chatting when a stranger entered. Many people are aware that Infosys Foundation helps students to study further if they do not have the funds. With help from the Foundation, many children have graduated and stood on their own feet. Whenever I am in villages, parents of such children come and see me. After talking to them, if I feel the case is genuine, we help them. This stranger had come with a similar request.

  I had a detailed talk with him and was convinced his son needed help.

  I told him, ‘After I go back to my office I will send you the cheque.’

  Balu called me aside and said, ‘How can you say that? Do you know what may happen tomorrow? Will you remember your promise? There is a gap between today evening and tomorrow morning. Life is uncertain; anything can happen. If you want to give anything, you must give him immediately. Time is never in your hands. On the contrary, all of us are living at the mercy of time.’

  ‘Balu, I don’t have a chequebook with me.’

  ‘That is your mistake. You must carry a chequebook and cash when you travel for this purpose. Many times poor people may not even have an account in the post office or bank.’

  I always thought Balu was only an uneducated, hilarious, comic man. But I was wrong. He taught me a great lesson. When donating, don’t think twice or put it off for another day. Nobody has conquered time. Time is not in anybody’s hand.

  ‘A’ for Honesty

  The American education system at the university level is different from ours. There, the final marks are based on the average marks of three examinations held earlier in the semester. As a result, students have to study and do well consistently, and there is not much pressure during the final exam. There is also greater student-teacher interaction in that system.

  As a teacher, I have seen that sometimes even a bright student may not do well because of the pressures of the final test. There are other ways to examine the depth of knowledge of the student, like surprise exams, open book exams, oral exams etc. The examination should not scare the students, instead it should measure their knowledge fairly and give marks accordingly. This kind of system requires more number of teachers for students. However, this is difficult to achieve in India, where there are large numbers of students. There is also great pressure on students from the parents and society to perform well.

  My son is studying in a college in the US. He loves computer science immensely and always puts in a lot of hard work when he studies it. One day, he called me after his midterm exams. I could make out from his voice that he was very sad. He told me, ‘I did not do my exams well. It is not that I did not know the answers, but instead of digit eight I assumed the digit as six and did the entire calculation based on that. I prepared so well and now I know I will not do well. I’m feeling very depressed.’

  As a teacher, I don’t give too much of importance to marks because I am aware of such situations. Many a time I have seen children who are really good in subjects unable to answer questions due to various factors. So I consoled him.

  ‘Don’t worry. So what? You have lost the battle but you will win the war. Examinations are not the only index in life. Keep courage, face reality and don’t be negligent while reading the questions. Good luck for next time.’

  He was not at all pleased to hear my words. ‘You talk like a moral science teacher, Amma. It is very competitive here and difficult to achieve anything in such an atmosphere. You are a teacher and you only give grades. You don’t sit for the exams. So you do not know the difficulties of students.’

  I knew he was sad. My consolation did not help him. But he had forgotten that once upon a time I had also been a student and had passed through the same passage.

  After a few days, I got another call from him. There was joy and great enthusiasm in his voice. Suddenly the dark winter days had turned into bright sunny days.

  ‘Amma, you know I got grade “A” in that subject, which I did not do well in.’

  ‘How come?’ I was very surprised.

  ‘It is a very funny thing. After the exam, I was talking to the professor and we were discussing various topics. When I got my papers, I saw I had got good marks for the question which I had answered wrongly. My other friends said the professor must have made a mistake, don’t tell him, keep quiet. Getting a good grade is more important in this competitive world.’

  ‘What did you do?’ I asked anxiously.

  ‘I thought for a while, then I realized, grades are important but honesty is even more important. You taught me that when I was a little boy. Do you remember, Amma? Once, the shopkeeper mistook fifty rupees for one hundred rupees and gave change for one hundred. At that time we did not have much money, but still you sent me back to the shop to return the extra money. At that age, I was so reluctant to go and return the change but you were strict with me and said if I didn’t, I would have to go without dinner. Somehow I was unable to keep quiet about the professor’s mistake. I wrote an email to him saying I did not deserve those marks. But his reply was more surprising.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘He replied, “I have not given the marks by mistake. It was deliberate. After the exams I was talking to you, and my constant interaction with you throughout the semester had convinced me of the depth of your knowledge and your passion for the subject. Mistakes do happen by oversight or due to tension. That is the reason I gave you some marks for that question. After all, exams should also measure the depth of your knowledge.’’’

  My eyes filled with tears on hearing this story. I was happy, not because he had got an ‘A’ grade but because he had practised what he believed in. Many of my own students have behaved in a similar way in different situations, though they may have lost a lot in the process. To some people it may seem to be stupidity. But I am sure the good values they have learnt will help them in any crisis.

  A Lesson in Ingratitude

  I was attending a seminar on how to eliminate poverty. For some reason, such seminars always seem to be held in five-star hotels. I really do not know why they have to be organized in the most expensive places.

  After attending the seminar, I was standing in the lobby of the hotel, when I saw a middle-aged person in an Armani suit with a pipe in his hand. His perfume was expensive and very strong. I could smell it from a considerable distance. He was talking on his mobile and was probably waiting for his car. I looked at him and felt sure I had seen him somewhere earlier. He finished his call and stared at me. Both of us were trying to place each other. Suddenly I realized he was my classmate from thirty years back. His name was Suresh. I said, ‘Are you Suresh? Who was my classmate …’

  He said, ‘I was wondering, are you Sudha?’

  We started laughing. It had been thirty years since we had last met. Both o