Harvard,James Joyce,You and Me...

Musings

"Do you like red colour?

W..h..y?

Because your every dress has red shade.

*Silence*"

I did teaching for a few months.They were boys of 8th/9th standard.They used to desperately wait for my class.I knew that I was being cherished by them.

"You look so younger than your age.What's your age?

Its 22. (Now I am 23 :P)

You are just 7years older than I am."

They ask you such questions.They hold you dear.They wait for you and they give more attention to you.You are valued and loved by all of them.My colleagues told me this.

Whenever I cross the building of Harvard, I think of them.I think of their innocence.They were naive and had their own curiosities.I never were harsh to them.They didn't deserve to be treated harshly.They were fragile and innocent and I treated them that way.

I told them once that they are all innocent and they started denying it.They started pointing out each other's faults.

"You don't know us, teacher.He swears.His language is abusive and he disrespects everyone.So, do you still believe that we are innocent?

Yes.You haven't seen life properly.You will grow up one day and will learn that I was right.

We are grown-ups, teacher.

No.You have yet to be a mature man.You are not grown-up.You are all innocent and pure.

*uncomfortable silence*"

Each of them had his own stories which I listened with great interest and eagerly.They liked me because I knew that they wanted to be heard and appreciated.

"Why you are always like that, lrky?

Because I am like this.

Smart answer."

I talked with his mother on a meeting.She told me that he is a depressed child.He has seen his brother dying and he cannot get over the trauma.I felt sorry.I felt that I could do something for him.I started giving him more attention and just within few days, he proved himself a wonderful student.

People do not care.They should care.They should empathize where it is needed.

What he would have thought of me? He might have taken me as I had taken my students- innocent,yet-to-be-mature, naive.

But I am not in 8th/9th grade.I am a mature girl.Perhaps, not.

He, however, seemed to me like one of them.He might be aged but he still has innocence in him.There is still something in him that needs to be understood.He is beyond his cheesy talks.He is something other than what he shows himself to be.This is what makes him mysterious to me.

I had to leave Harvard because I had to prepare for something else.I didn't want to leave but I had no other choice.Life in Harvard was simple and mundane.Simple life lures me because being unique demands pain and I have suffered enough.

"You cannot leave us.You will teach and this is it!"

They were not happy with the news.I had to make them happy because I don't believe in sad endings.And then, I wrote this on the board.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep.

"This is what life is, students.This is how it works.You cannot stick to one place when you have so many things to do.You have to move on to accomplish other things then no matter, how charming and fascinating your present is.If you do not move and do not learn something new, you will be crumbled and this is not life.Life has to go on.I am parting with you all and one day you will be separated from each other, too.Most important thing is that we have met and we have learned something from each other.It counts."

I was a winner that day as they understood the first complex and an intricate lesson of life- separation.

What he will be doing at this very moment? Stuck in his files and busy in texting someone? 

Life goes on.