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The kindness of strangers

 



I was in Standard 3 when my teacher gave me a strange instruction: “Don’t bring books tomorrow. Just bring your empty bag”. I told my mum about this strange request by my teacher. My mum asked me whether I had been naughty in class.She was puzzled too and agreed that I need not take my books. 


Various thoughts raced through her mind.

This was the same teacher who had made me stand on the table for delay in payment of school fees - but the school fees were not due yet one that date. She dismissed all thoughts and did not wish to speculate further. She made me wash and clean the bag to make it presentable - in case I had to wear it over my head as punishment for some offence I had committed. I arrived the following morning with an empty bag and all my friends had a whale of a time speculating what was in store for me. My teacher’s class was the third one for the day. My teachers in the first two periods were about to thrash me for not bringing my books until the class monitor confirmed what my teacher’s strange  instructions were. They too were puzzled and decided to talk to the teacher during recess time when they would meet in the Headmasters room for breakfast.



When my teacher’s class period commenced I saw her walking with a large packet in her hand. She left it on top of the cupboard behind her seat. At the end of her class the bell for recess rang. She told me to sit on an empty chair near the cupboard where she had placed the large bundle she had brought. She poured a cup of Milo from her flask and told me to drink it. I thought she intended to spank me after giving me the drink. i regretted not wearing the double pants that I used to wear when I was faced with punishment. I had my drink that indeed tasted as good as the drink from the “Milo” van that visited our school once in a way. After the drink she brought the packet down and told me they were her husband’s and brother’s clothes for me and my siblings and requested me to stuff them into my school bag. She said she had seen me coming to school with torn shirts at times and felt I and my siblings would find them useful. I accepted the bundle and thanked her for her kindness. 


I was the recipient of other acts of kindness which made my school days tolerable. I used to walk to school which was two miles away. A kind lady at some  Government Quarters had noticed me and used to invite me to her house and provide me with wholesome breakfast. At the end of breakfast, she used to press  a ten cent coin  into my palm and advise me to walk carefully though there were just one or two cars on the road.  


In school, there were some staff quarters bordering the school. During recess, a lady noticed I was just playing during recess and inquired why I had not gone to the canteen. When I explained that I did not bring money to school, she would invite me to have breakfast at her home whenever she saw outside during recess time. 


There was another schoolboy who was my senior attending the secondary school which was bordering my  school. Each time he saw me he would beckon me to come to the fence separating our schools and slip me a ten cent coin and advise me to spend it at the canteen. 


We used to play football in the Catholic Church near my home. Sometimes the young pastor from the church would join us for these games. After a while we became pals and would wait for him to join us in our games. One day out of the blue he asked about my SPM fees and whether I had paid them. I had not and told him so. He enquired how many subjects I had decided to do and told me to come to his office next to the church before going to school. When I called on him the next morning, he pressed a bundle of currency notes in my hand and told me to pay the exam fees and to inform him the next day once I had paid the fees. 


These are acts of kindness I shall always cherish.


I am a Hindu and my Christian friends sometimes wonder why I donate to Catholic Churches. Some of my friends are aware and understand why I do it. They even help me pass my donations to the pastor when there is no donation box outside the church or when they feel the donation  box is not located in a safe place and is accessible to undesirable elements.  


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


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