Being Humane! What does it take?

Being Humane! What does it take??

Yesterday,August14,2020 A student visited my home at around 1.30 in the afternoon. Sitting and listening to him for almost one and half hour, how the time flew, I could not notice as I was so engaged in listening to a boy, who had joined the school in Pre-nursery class and now leaving the school after passing class 12. I had seen him for 15 long years, seeing him grow from a tiny tot to a young boy, his journey so full of ups and downs like any normal growing child; from a very talkative, happy go child to an energetic  middle schooler and then on to a young adult, some times brought to the office also by the teachers and parents as well, with valid concerns and sometimes not being able to understand a growing child.(No offence intended!  Youth thy name is impulsive energy and regarding understanding children it takes time and patience to understand them.)

This boy came to see me at home, to share his happiness of passing class 12 with good marks and also to share the great news of his admission into a college of his choice.

After almost one hour, he opened his bag and took some packet out of his bag and handed it over to me saying , “This is sent by my grandmother (Dadi) for you.” Usually I don’t accept any present or gifts from my students, but since it was from a grandmother I accepted it with honor and told him to convey my gratitude to his Granny, tough I couldn’t identify her Granny immediately in the memory storage of my mind.

He kept talking and shared that after his class 12 board exams, he had been visiting his grandparents in Shimla. His Dadi had bought this gift for me apparently 4-5 years back and had been waiting for this moment, his passing class 12 from the school to hand over this token of love to me.

What he shared left me contemplating  for a long time even after he was gone.This is what he narrated;

My grandparents, who live in Shimla, were visiting us when I was in class 7. During their stay with us, my grandfather had shown an inclination to visit my school and see the Principal. While at home talking to visit the school, my grandmother had also asked to join my grandfather while visiting the school. My grandfather refused my grandmother cutting her short by remarking ,“ What will you do, you won’t be able to understand his Principal as she will speak in English?”. But my grandmother had insisted to accompany my grandfather saying, “So what , if not full, I will understand at least something.”

So both of them had visited school back then and saw you in the office. During their visit to school and interaction with you, you had shifted to speak in Hindi after noticing in initial couple of seconds that my grandmother was not comfortable in English.

My grandmother was so excited when she came home and had described the entire conversation she had with you. She was happy that she could talk her concern for her grandchild.

Apparently as told by the boy, his grandmother had grown a liking for me and was very impressed with my initiative to interact in Hindi. After going back to Shimla, she had purchased a typical Himachali shawl for me and had been waiting for this opportunity (the boy’s passing class 12) to present that to me.

This reflection is not about a present, a shawl. It is about that feeling when somebody feels lifted because you choose to be at their level, that feeling when you make the other person comfortable with your down to earth approach. It is about that feeling of humaneness when you are being kind to other people in a very different way, it is about that respect you show for them being different and respect that difference.

I was left reflecting after the boy was gone and could conclude that “Being Humane does not often take the form of money, charity or donations, being kind to people in very ordinary ways is also being humane.”

P.S.

1. I could recall meeting his grandparents as he was narrating the incident. It was actually as vivid as he narrated.

2. My sincere gratitude to that grandmother who by virtue of her experience of life was able to notice  good in others howsoever small and has understanding  to reinforce it through mentioning it very specifically.

3. In one of my blogs, English! No Longer A Language of Discriminationhttps://growinupwithlife.blogspot.com/2020/07/english-no-longer-language-of.html I talked about how knowing and speaking English is a discriminator in so called modern times. Not Speaking English can be an issue for parents also while getting their wards admitted in English medium schools. This may be one of the reasons for regular absence of few parents from Parents Teachers Meetings. Just trying to look at the issue as an educationist.

4. Due permission has been taken from the boy's family to share this event and publish his photo with me.