To Her with Love

It is said - If you want to know the value of one year, just ask a student who failed a course.  If you want to know the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.  If you want to know the value of one hour, ask the lovers waiting to meet.  If you want to know the value of one minute, ask the person who just missed the bus.  If you want to know the value of one second, ask the person who just escaped death in a car accident.  And if you want to know the value of one-hundredth of a second, ask the athlete who won a silver medal in the Olympics. If you want to know the value of ‘speech’ – stand in front of a person who cannot speak and hear!

It’s November 16. Like many, I too opted for the Corporate Volunteering at SKID. When I started from home, I never knew that it would be a memorable experience. All I was worried of was – hope students listen to me and don’t make me dance to their tune! We all know how we made it tough for our teachers. I reached the school, much before time and  waited patiently till all the students got in. The principal came, greeted and assigned me one of the students.

Well, a first grade student who is still struggling with her numerical- a charming girl with a questioning face, twisted lips and mischievous eyes. She almost looked like – “don’t worry lady, I will take care of you” kind of attitude. Her name was Anusuya and everyone calls her Anu. Principal gave me a short introduction about the student, saying she is very rough, tough to handle and difficult to control, hyper-active etc. I knew how it is going to be for another 3 hours, which I am going to spend with this student, Anu.

We got into the class-room and all I had to teach her was how to write 1-20 in letters. So, we started our session. I took the chalk piece and wrote 1-20 numbers and tried to tell her in gestures that – she has to write down those numbers in letters. Teaching ‘one’ was fine. When it came to number ‘2’ – we had disagreement. I wrote ‘t’, the letter ‘l’ first and then upper hyphen. Girl refuted me and said first you write that hyphen and then l.

She used to get distracted very quickly, just like mercury, a very short attention span. Run here and there and check the entire objects in the room. There was this bicycle in the room. Before she could finish writing 15, she wanted to sit on that, peddle it and jump from the table. I was running behind her, like the one who tries to catch a butterfly. Finally, she completed 20, for which I had to bribe her saying – I will let her peddle the bicycle once again. 

Once we were  done, she didn’t even bother to say a “thank you”. She just disappeared like a bubble. Principal was asking me – how was the experience? I said – “mind-blowing”. Well, she further says – she is neglected at her home. She is the 5^th among her 9 siblings. She lost her father recently and her family came and admitted her to this residency school. She craves for human love, and  attention. I felt “devastated” hearing the story of that small baby girl. That moment I decided to come once again to be with her. I understood the value of my own life, we have everything, but still we complain, criticize, grumble and never happy with the things we have in life. If we don’t value what we have, we will never value what we get too. My mind was totally into that girl, her charming face, and eyes full of questions. And, she couldn’t communicate in words; her life is a life of silence.

While I was bidding bye to the school, from nowhere, Anu, came running towards me and held my hand. I was stunned and startled, as to what she is up to. She makes a hand gesture asking me to bend down. I bent and she gently kissed my forehead, holds my hand and touches my cheeks and leaves me totally astonished and I was speechless for a moment. She is so cheerful, full of energy, at that moment she looked like bright sunshine. The little small girl reiterated the value of life, relationships, affection, care and concern for each other and human bonding. That is beyond words! The words she spoke are beyond description and  explanation. She spoke the unspoken, she taught the unraveled and she explained the unexplainable. This is truly to her with love. !