Death be not proud!

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

The New Year began with a bang, especially for teachers, students and alumni of Sri Vidya Mandir Education Society. It was the golden jubilee year of the school and was being celebrated with much fanfare through a series of functions. The gala fete rolled from one day to another and gained new momentum. The grand dame responsible for this festivity thought like Robert Browning. “God is in his heaven—All is right with the world.” She enjoyed all the attention, acknowledgment and admiration from the thousands of lives she had helped evolve. At the same time, the octogenarian became increasingly conscious of Robert Frost whispering to her that she had miles to go before sleep! She brainstormed fresh ideas with renewed zeal to make her fifty-year-old project more accomplished than ever before.

Leela Miss, as she was popularly known, was well known for her successful life and career. She seemed to be working Leelas – miracles! Yet as all of us know, Rome was not built in a day! This extremely enterprising educationist, who came to Bengaluru as a young bride, had the choice to lead a normal secure life. Yet she chose to take the road less travelled by and that made all the difference!

She dared to head a school with a grand total of three students. Her genuine love for children and learning inspired her to leave no stone unturned to make her dream school come true. She worked day and night, walked in and out of courtrooms to secure the rightful needs of her school premises. Over the last half-century, she built an efficient like-minded team to cater to holistic education for she was aware that the child is the father of man!

Work was worship to her. She never slacked nor did allow anyone in her radius to slack. The thousands of condolence messages, nostalgic trivia, photographs and videos that flooded the social media within a couple of hours of her passing were testament to her charismatic character and alluring accomplishments in her chosen field. Even in her death, Covid-19 restrictions could not thwart her ability to enable virtual bonding among the lives she touched.

I picture my beloved teacher who taught me to appreciate poetry in my formative years smiling from the heavens and reciting John Donne’s sonnet, enunciating each word in her signature style, coaxing the meaning out of the verse, “Death! Be Not Proud”!