Scribbling from a sleepless night

The little one has reluctantly resigned to sleep in his swing. His big brother has already fallen fast asleep on the bed. I got up and began pacing up and down the room. It has been a hectic, but happy day. From the previous night, I have been trying to scribble something, but the words refused to fall into the right places to form apt sentences. It was the convocation day and the campus was full of happy faces. Students received the commemoration certificates from the VVIPs of the day, the Chairman, AICTE and the Director, VSSC. Some students were accompanied by their entire families, the toddlers in the arms of mothers, grandparents who could barely walk and of course, the parents with pride written all over their faces.

Breaking my stride, I paused to take a look at my sleeping princes. I have just started the struggle to remain a worthy role model……. How many more years?…….. It has been quite effortless for my father to remain my greatest role model all these years. As a young boy, I remember him being brought home from hospital with injuries suffered while trying to save his students being beaten up by political opponents in campus violence. Teachers of his ilk seem to have become extinct from our campuses……….

The thoughts were arrested again by the nightmare from the previous night. I sat down by the side of my son and began stroking his unruly hair. I couldn’t resist reimagining myself in the shoes of the dad, not far off from my place, struggling to come to terms with the loss of his son, whom the parents affectionately named after the prince who renounced his kingdom to become a teacher and preached compassion, to all creatures, to all mankind. 

One look at the dad of the deceased will tell us that he hasn’t been living his life for himself, but for his family. And I wondered how his family too might have had a day in their son’s campus, in a not so distant future, among the cheerful and proud faces, much like the families in our campus earlier in the day.