The caller’s loud ‘hello’ alarmed me. The reason behind my annoyance was that I hardly ever have to endure callers who are so loud. Furthermore, I have only a limited number of callers and they are mostly either my students or my family and relatives.
How about this call? The way the caller pronounced the word ‘hello’ with a strong stress and pitched intonation, it was definitely from someone that I was not familiar with.
After exchanging a few hellos, the caller was compelled to confirm my name just to ensure that he was talking to the right person.
“Are you not Rishi Ram, Sir?” a voice queried. “Yes, speaking,” I said in a low and humble voice. This time, he raised his voice further as he said, “You know me?” expecting me to say “Oh, yes, yes.”
I am not so quick at identifying voices and tones and have to admit I was not sure who the caller was. So, I politely tried to let the caller know saying, “Well, you see, it’s sometimes difficult to know the caller just by hearing their voice. May I know who is calling?”
“It’s me, your student. Remember you beat us?” a voice threateningly bolted through my ear. “Now I need to meet you. Where is it possible?” the voice sounded even more threatening. As he said this, I could hear rude laughter of other people in the background.
Unpleasantly surprised, I wanted to get more information about the caller but his cell phone was already disconnected before I could ask a few questions such as “Dear brother, what are you doing these days? What made you call me after such a long time? How did you get my number? What exactly do you want from me?”
I have taught a great number of students and I have always wanted to see them doing well. Some of my students have become doctors, some engineers, some teachers, some business people and the like, and others have gone abroad and settled there.
I have no idea what this student has been doing. Has he failed in life? Is he frustrated and now wants to vent his anger at his childhood teacher?
Well, if I have ever spanked or scolded, it was only with a good intention. There is an old English saying, ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’. I still believe it holds some truth. Although the form of capital punishment is forbidden in many countries in the world today, teachers have to use and have been using it directly or indirectly to bring children on the right track, to teach them that discipline is part of their learning.
In my case, if there are other students who have felt bad because I have punished them in one form or the other, I earnestly ask for a sincere apology! Don’t ever take it personally. Whatever I did, I did it with a good intention to help you, to teach you. And if you haven’t learned anything yet, this teacher has failed. Don’t call me a teacher anymore! I don’t deserve such a title.
ezrawfw@yahoo.com
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