Grandmother and a teacher

The grand old ladies in the family had a lesson to teach in everyday events

The general tendency of teachers is to perpetuate their knowledge mastered over the period of their tenure. Several of them have dedicated their lives to their profession with total integrity and sincerity. I know one such lady. She is over 90 years old and survives with her ageing problems. She has a slim, sprucey, petite, skinny figure with flourishing, flowing salt-pepper hair, a sharp nose, and a broad forehead. Time has scattered the snowflakes on her brow and ploughed deep furrows on her cheeks. The sand of life has run out, but she is as feeble as she is. Yet she is graceful, sweet, and beautiful.

Even to this day, if someone talks to her or enquires to know something connected to her subject, she flares up with a radiant glow on her face, forgetting all her ailments. She explains to the enquirer with immense interest and enthusiasm. Some years ago, while initiating our immigration to Canada, I consulted her about the country. She was comparatively better, then. Sitting on a chair cushioned for her comfort, she started elucidating. To start with, she said it’s situated in North America and in the food belt of the country; the crops grown, chalk cliffs, minerals, water sources, oil contents, and the whole topography. She sketched the whole country in slots using her weak, thin, and wrinkled hands, according to its geographical spread. Enlightened by her mesmerising explanation, I got up with a picture of Canada and familiarised myself with what is required to be known in general. I was astonished by her memory and knowledge. And she is my mother-in-law.

I can proudly say my wife was a chip of the old block. She was no less than her mother and had inherited most of her mother’s qualities. Nevertheless, her field of teaching was different—zoology. She held a PhD and was the erstwhile principal of Brindavan College, Bhopasandra. She was the one who initiated and introduced biochemistry, and the first-year results were 100%, with two university ranks to boot. She forgets her ascendancy among her grandchildren and keeps them engaged in one way or another. And the children will be curious to learn new things as well.

Once, we bought bheja (brain) to make a dish. She was surrounded by her grandchildren as if pupils were around a teacher in dissection class. She showed them, physically, what the cerebellum, cerebrum, medulla oblongata, etc. looked like. Also, she never let go of cockroaches, lizards, centipedes, or earthworms without introducing them to her grandchildren. It remains a fact that the children will never forget grandma’s teachings in their lives. She is no more. But her teachings live on with her grandchildren.

Once my granddaughter Tahani, who is in her primary school, asked me, “Dadu, you know cockroaches are nocturnal in habit? They can see in the dark, and lizards have the ability to regenerate their tails if they get amputated. I was taken aback upon hearing from her. In fact, these things were taught to us in our pre-degree. The teachings instilled in tender minds will last forever. A teacher is someone who inspires others to give their best in order to discover what they already know.