In the course of Sarvajit’s career, many students shared our space periodically. Most of them were Ma’s students, creating a distinct niche for themselves in academia. They came and went like the ebb and flow of water, nourishing us with their diverse perspectives, providing us with the grim realities of the difficult life they had to embrace, but always focusing on the final objective, belonging to the elite world of academics.
There were but only 2 students who set the tone for a strife ridden time between the girls and us. The 1st was an young boy, brilliant, an achiever but hounded by the dichotomy of his homosexual proclivities and a deeply Catholic background. His mother, widowed early, had done everything from cleaning subway and promenade till she finally found a stable source of income. She resisted all temptation, avoided every luxury, worked her finger to the bone, to ensure her only son received a decent education. The son did her proud, surviving the public school system, receiving the need based grant to make his entry into a top Ivy League university. His one pain,his sexuality and addressing the same with his diehard Catholic mother.
I, in my inimitable stupidity, blithely chanted, ” just get a lovely girl for yourself!” The discourse that ensued between the girls and us, set us free of dogma, opened our eyes to inclusion and certainly enhanced us as human beings. I burn with shame every time I revert to my infamous last words, cited before, but it prompted me to call the young man’s mother. What transpired is confidential but I believe a divine intervention.
The second was a student different from all others we had ever known. The said clever girl was not just on a ‘ Roman Holiday ‘ but an European holiday! Our girls, penurious and exhausted from the dubious distinction of being scholarship students, asked us why we couldn’t provide similarly. Thoroughly stumped, Sarvajit, ever the voice of wisdom, said ” Do well enough to do the same on your own. The real pleasure is not in availing but in achieving. One day, like your Mum and I, you will see more than you can envision, and you will know, YOU did it.” Existential queries that burst forth now in blithe retrospect, but then it was not so easy.
We caught up with the 1st student on the streets of New York, an established lawyer, his handsome partner, their beautiful little girl and YES, his mother. She held my hand in hers, a warm, firm, stable clasp and said, ” thank you for being with my son. Thank you for the call you made. Thank you for setting me free.” I was reduced to a heaving wreck of muffled sobs, as I whispered, ” you have set me free, your son has set me free, the girls have set me free. Without the children…”
For the 2nd student, the life lessons were no less salient. We lost touch after the said holiday, but today as our girls traverse the globe, they unconditionally claim their Dad was right! As a teacher, my teaching and learning practice prompts me yet again to pay obeisance to the students. LISTEN AND YOU WILL LEARN…
Rupa Chakravarti