SMSJHS - my dear High School!!

Everything was mechanical. Like a clockwork, teachers came and went at forty five minutes intervals. We called each slot a period. We children were the happiest lot when a teacher did not turn up for a period.

The rendering of science, Mathematics, English, Hindi…all was like rituals. Only one thing was always missing- the Chemistry. Teachers were simply doing their job. They spent a few lacs to earn this job. In an aided private management school, the management appoints teachers as they wish after taking hefty amounts from the aspirants.

Ironically all these aided schools in the God’s Own Country are owned by religious institutions. They say all religions teach to help others. Religion is a mean for achieving moksha by practicing renunciation and living in nothingness. Then why our religions want to do business in education and amass wealth like this? Better we do not try to seek answers to such questions. There are henchmen appointed by various forms of Gods in our country to silence criticism against them!

Presently, to get a job in a high school, the amount one has to cough up is to the tune of 12Lacs. Bidding takes place and the highest bidder gets the job. Government pays the salary for the teachers for the rest of his/her existance. The tax payers’ money is used even to pay lifelong pension to the teachers. No wonder, if Chemistry is merely a text book subject in schools…

Those days, almost every teacher carried a cane in their hand. It was not just to scare the kids but they did use them to brutally subjugate the the children. Many teachers were terror to children. Thinking of "mookkan thoma saar" used to send shivers down the spine often. He was the English Teacher in our school

The minimum punishment the teachers resorted to in those days was spanking. They never desisted from using the dreaded stick whenever error occured on the student's side. Many times on the palms and many more tomes over to the thighs. There were several incidents, where the teacher beated every student of the class without sparing anyone. The saga of brutality with the cane continued for a long time. Fortunately the legacy of an object of oppression like cane somehow lost its charm with the teachers down the line.

Every year on the first day, children gather in the class rooms that we left last year. Teacher comes with a register. By that time the heart beats of the kids reach the cresendo. The teacher is about to read out the students who are going to different divisions. Students who were sitting together in a class previous year will not be sitting together this year. But that hardly made us sad. We were concerned most about who will be our class teacher. Who will be the teacher for English, Maths or Malayalam in the new division? Everybody sincerely prayed to avoid going to Mookkan thoma saar.

We all wanted to go to Mani saar's or Alice Teacher's class. There were a few teachers who were liked by all. They rarely beat the kids. They talk to kids once in a while. This gave everyone a comforting feeling. So, those who got Mani saar's class went with a smiling face to the new class but the ones who were 'sentenced' to Mookkan Thoma saar's calss went like a deer going to the lion's den. No one had any other option.

In the process of distributing agony and ecstacy to the children in unequal proportions, a few boys and girls were invariably left out in the old class itslef. They were detained for their poor performance! Jokes were played with the innocent minds like this once upon a time....Those days' kids are playing another kind of jokes on their kids in the modern days.