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One day Maths teacher asked her
students to list the names of the other students in the room
on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could
say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class
period to finish their assignment, and as the students left
the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down
the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and
listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or
her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling.
'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant
anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so
much,' were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never
knew if they discussed them after class or with their
parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished
its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one
another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the
students was killed in 'Kargil' war and his teacher attended
the funeral of that special student. She had never attended
Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so
mature.
The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who
loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to
bless as she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as
pallbearer (One of the persons carrying or attending a
coffin at a funeral) came up to her. 'Were you Sanjay's math
teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Sanjay
talked about you a lot.'
After the funeral, most of Sanjay's
former classmates were there. Sanjay's mother and father
were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. 'We
want to show you something,' his father said, taking a
wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Sanjay when he
was killed. We thought you might recognize it.' Opening the
billfold (A folding pocket-sized case for carrying paper
money, small personal documents, and sometimes), he
carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had
obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The
teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones
on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's
classmates had said about him. 'Thank you so much for doing
that,' Sanjay's mother said. 'As you can see, Sanjay
treasured it.'
All of Sanjay's former classmates
started to gather around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly
(Embarrassed, as by consciousness of a fault) and said, 'I
still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at
home.' Prithwiraj's wife said, ' Prithwiraj asked me to put
his in our wedding album.' 'I have mine too,' Rashmi said.
'It's in my diary' Then Deepali, another classmate, reached
into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn
and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all
times,' Deepali said and without batting an eyelash, she
continued: 'I think we all saved our lists' that’s when the
teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Sanjay and
for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so
thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we
don't know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and
care for, that they are special and important. Tell them,
before it is too late. |
