#371 That old painting

That old painting

Painting by Sweta featured in school Magazine

It was during year 2008 and students were asked to submit paintings to be featured as the cover page of the school magazine. The students thought it to be an idea influenced from the movie Taare Zamin Par which received a huge positive response during those days. I and my sister submitted scanned pictures of some of our paintings. We always loved to experiment during school days and our association with painting could be traced back to primary days. Painting was one of such hobbies that provided us utmost satisfaction and inner peace, not to forget it was one of the medium to engage the monkey of my mind. Oh! Yeah readers, there always dwelt a monkey in my mind which was restless, needless to mention its characteristics more. It had to be engaged in some meaningful activities all the time or else it used to get sad! Poor fellow! That’s when I realized I can never stay without hobbies in my life.

Coming back to the story again, one of my sister’s paintings got selected to be featured as the cover page of the magazine. It was during the period of social studies as I vividly remember, other non-selected scanned copies of the paintings were returned to the students. Before those copies of paintings could reach us, those were in the hands of social studies teacher, Sandhya Ma’am. She is a teacher who had been a great source of motivation and inspiration for both of us during our school days at Kendriya Vidyalaya. I always admired her simplified way of teaching which eased the burden of learning the voluminous subject like social studies which comprised of history, political science, geography, disaster management, economics etc. She was an example to me and still she is for the personality she possesses and the positive vibes that she always emanated. The very title of the subject would produce drops of sweat in the foreheads of the students out of anxiety to conquer it. I remember how Ma’am who never let anyone to be with books during Games period.

Sandhya Ma’am always appreciated our efforts which encouraged us to put our best. She enquired if she could keep those copies of paintings with her to which we readily agreed.

 Fast forward to 11^th Mar 2019,

As I have been searching for a topic to write since last many days (I was lil sad about the dormancy of the blog), fortunately this incident provided me one!

Even though I have come along a long way from my school days, evolved over the years through various situations and circumstances that the destiny has put me into, yet I never forget to feel grateful about my teachers who have been integral parts of my golden school days. They have been instrumental in shaping me who I’m today. Days passed and I did not get chance to meet with my teachers (for the reason of staying away from the place of primary education for many years) the connection with them somewhat turned out to be hazy. I’ve been connected to Sandhya Ma’am since last two years. While going through the paintings of her daughter in the page (created by Ma’am) where she consistently posted her achievements, I could do nothing but marvel at the creations of just 6-year-old-child prodigy named Navya. It would certainly not take more minutes for someone to easily make a prediction about the future of her which is going to be miraculously bright.  I was overwhelmed with emotions of those bygone days when I got to see that painting which Ma’am had preserved over so many years! What a touching gesture! I've never ever expected someone to have preserved something over 10 years even after losing contact let alone any teacher. I was so much moved to the extent that I had to confine my expression through this post.

That old painting unleashed uncountable memories from past. We never know how little incidents can trigger to something great that we could have ever imagined. Being able to share something from the memory lane, be with your friend or teacher is something inexplicable as your journey to the memory lane is accompanied with someone you’ve known.

This post is dedicated to all teachers like Sandhya Ma’am who spend every ounce of their effort for the upliftment of students. We shall always be grateful to you for your guidance, love, care and support. Keep blessing us always!   

P.S: It’s that old painting (by my sister,Sweta) in the post that I got from Sandhya Ma’am which was featured in the school Magazine.

©Swati Sarangi

11.03.2019