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When our physics teacher purchased a scooter,
everybody in the school congratulated him. He parked the scooter at the entrance
of the veranda and all the teachers came out of the office to see the two-wheeler.
As a proud owner, he was showing all technical specification of the vehicle to
them. The peon of the school on the pretext of wiping the body of scooter
checked all the components of it. Kudos to scooter, his prestige further increased
in the eyes of students as well other employees. When I remember the incident,
it appears as an advertisement of two-wheeler running before my eyes. In early nineties, Scooter was not less than a
luxury in rural area of Bihar. There were very few people, who had scooter/
bike in my village and surrounding areas.
After few months, our Hindi and English teacher also purchased bike. Few students, who were coming to attend the school the from long distance also started coming in scooter. Earlier there was only bicycle parking; now the headmaster of the school had to allot the place for scooter / bike parking in the campus. New development in the school increased the workload of the school peon. Now the peons had to wash and clean the bikes, for that, they used to get some extra money from the teachers.
Our Sanskrit teacher did not like this change. It had some reasons too. He was a very good orator and he had a say in every happening of the school. He had good hold on the villagers. Any new happening in the school was impossible without his consultation / consent. However, the new development was nothing but unsaid threat to his authority and hold on the school. The peons used to do errand for him, they would even massage his feet sometimes but these days they were busy in the service of scooters and other masters.
One day, in classroom, he was very critical about machine and technology. He was relating machine to moral degradation of the human being. However, his lecture was creating very little / no impression among the students. He sensed it and during an argument with a student, he proclaimed that he would prefer horse for personal travelling than scooter. The real enjoyment what one could get from horse riding could not be compared with machine riding. We became silent to see his forceful declaration, but in our heart, we had doubt on his words.
Lo! Next day he came to school on horse. All students and teachers surrounded him in the school field and he was showing them his riding skills. It was a spectacular sight. He got admiration from all. A pillar was allotted to tie the horse in the school campus. He selected four students from different class for special care of the horse and He gave instruction to peons to give proper bath to horse in the nearby pond (shiv Ganga) every alternative day. That day he was very pleased to see the arrangements for the horse.
The students looked after the horse very well. They sacrificed their classes sometimes but did not forget to purchase the fodder from the market and feed the horse on time. The Sanskrit teacher amply compensated them in Sanskrit subject. In first trimester, all four were toppers in their respective class. They even checked the examination copies of their fellow students and they were happy with it.
Those students, who wrote well in the examination but did not get good marks, attributed it to the horse. They identified that the real culprit for their low marks in Sanskrit was the horse. They found out that, expects Sanskrit those four students also could not do well in other subjects. The students exhorted the four to concentrate on study rather than serving horse, but the four did not listen. They started teasing the four, they teased all the time, in class, in playground, among friends and it worked. The four became irregular in the class and it affected the health of the horse. The Sanskrit teacher again selected four new students for the service of horse but they were careless in their assigned duty. As a result, the horse became weak and fell ill. Then our teacher realized that horse riding might be a fun but looking after horse was an uphill task.
We heard that he sold that horse in local market. After that, he used to ride pillion on his son’s bike to reach school.
~~~ Ramanuj Dubey
After few months, our Hindi and English teacher also purchased bike. Few students, who were coming to attend the school the from long distance also started coming in scooter. Earlier there was only bicycle parking; now the headmaster of the school had to allot the place for scooter / bike parking in the campus. New development in the school increased the workload of the school peon. Now the peons had to wash and clean the bikes, for that, they used to get some extra money from the teachers.
Our Sanskrit teacher did not like this change. It had some reasons too. He was a very good orator and he had a say in every happening of the school. He had good hold on the villagers. Any new happening in the school was impossible without his consultation / consent. However, the new development was nothing but unsaid threat to his authority and hold on the school. The peons used to do errand for him, they would even massage his feet sometimes but these days they were busy in the service of scooters and other masters.
One day, in classroom, he was very critical about machine and technology. He was relating machine to moral degradation of the human being. However, his lecture was creating very little / no impression among the students. He sensed it and during an argument with a student, he proclaimed that he would prefer horse for personal travelling than scooter. The real enjoyment what one could get from horse riding could not be compared with machine riding. We became silent to see his forceful declaration, but in our heart, we had doubt on his words.
Lo! Next day he came to school on horse. All students and teachers surrounded him in the school field and he was showing them his riding skills. It was a spectacular sight. He got admiration from all. A pillar was allotted to tie the horse in the school campus. He selected four students from different class for special care of the horse and He gave instruction to peons to give proper bath to horse in the nearby pond (shiv Ganga) every alternative day. That day he was very pleased to see the arrangements for the horse.
The students looked after the horse very well. They sacrificed their classes sometimes but did not forget to purchase the fodder from the market and feed the horse on time. The Sanskrit teacher amply compensated them in Sanskrit subject. In first trimester, all four were toppers in their respective class. They even checked the examination copies of their fellow students and they were happy with it.
Those students, who wrote well in the examination but did not get good marks, attributed it to the horse. They identified that the real culprit for their low marks in Sanskrit was the horse. They found out that, expects Sanskrit those four students also could not do well in other subjects. The students exhorted the four to concentrate on study rather than serving horse, but the four did not listen. They started teasing the four, they teased all the time, in class, in playground, among friends and it worked. The four became irregular in the class and it affected the health of the horse. The Sanskrit teacher again selected four new students for the service of horse but they were careless in their assigned duty. As a result, the horse became weak and fell ill. Then our teacher realized that horse riding might be a fun but looking after horse was an uphill task.
We heard that he sold that horse in local market. After that, he used to ride pillion on his son’s bike to reach school.
~~~ Ramanuj Dubey
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