50) Courage in Chengalpet

My getaway from the hustle and bustle of a city is visiting the Ramakrishna Mission campus in Chengalpet, just 40 km away from the maddening Chennai. Even as you enter the portals, life gets saner: speeding Toyotas and Marutis give away to cattle and the scent of air more earthy.

I would visit the temple and request Swamiji for a couple of day’s stay and he would acquiesce considering that I have been referred by another inmate in the city. This is not an environment where anyone flushed with money can demand a stay, rather only familiar faces are entertained in a couple of vacant guestrooms.

This is a 20 acre land where paddy is cultivated amidst giant teak trees, vegetable, tamarind and what not. All the greenery, the plants, bullocks, plough, farmers and fields make for idyllic setting and I have always enjoyed my stay here. Sometimes think that our lives are not meant or designed to be so fast as I watch the sun set congruent to the harmony of the mind.

We get at 5 in the morning for the arthi and that’s when one gets to see about 70 students file in to sing the morning prayers as the camphor is showed around.

I would volunteer to take some classes and depending on need, Swamiji would direct me either to the boy’s school or the girl’s. In the evening, there would be free food distribution where the poor assemble as the kids played on the campus in the green lawns doing homework.

I would be asked for help in these homework sessions and that’s were I first saw Manisha, a class X student and what an impression she made. The kids – most of them were in the IX and X standards- would require my expertise in Maths; a bugbear for students ever since.

I at once become cognizant in the difference in the behaviour and attitude of these children from the city bred; I would be addressed me “Anna” and these urchins vibrated cheer and optimism that was infective. They seemed to take more of life than a sophisticated city kid.

There is this 16 year girl, Manisha and her eyes glowed like stars as she drowned and towered over the rest with her intelligence. She asked my help for the most daunting of problems and others around looked up to her for academic and emotional guidance.

The thrill of meeting a genuine talent in such a remote place was entirely mine. I was soon telling the teacher-in-charge that this girl could get into a professional college with her grasping prowess.

Sarada laughed,” It will lucky if she completes her XII”.

I was momentarily non plussed as she patiently explained,” Manisha cooks in the house for her mother is ailing and her dad is a suspended cop and that family is in doldrums. How she manages to block all these troubles and yet attend the class is a mystery?”

I volunteered,” I shall bear the expenses of her studies and let her make an attempt at a professional college”.

After the class got over, I went to Manisha and asked her about her goals. She was grounded to earth evincing interest to becoming a doctor and would be content just finishing the PUC. “Sir, I can’t even afford the nursing course,” she lamented.

I mouthed a few encouraging words and said with conviction,” Let’s make a deal. I will sponsor your school fees till XII and the attendant costs. Get a medical seat and I shall underwrite those expenses. It’s a promise and no empty boast”.

I came to Chennai and forgot all about the girl. Though I had left my phone numbers, she seemed to fight her own distress.

Then Swamiji called up after 2 years and mentioned casually that Manisha has got medical admission and whole neighbourhood was celebrating. Not to miss out, I dashed to Chengalpet and she was so thankful.

“Just your encouragement and a willingness to sponsor my education spurred me on. I don’t have enough words to thank you”.

I was awestruck and since then have been her guardian and visit her every month and pull her in for any festival celebrations at home.

She is not my adopted daughter but she has my affection as that of a real one. Her struggle and her success are an inspiration for me too.