Quaint Students, Quaint Teachers

The location was the Lal Bagh Botanical Garden in Bangalore. The rain in such a huge and beautiful garden was making the environs very romantic. Trees, shrubs, flowering plants, greenery, and in between I could see lovebirds in the lovely drizzling weather. Walking around in such a nice place with fascinating surroundings was a really awesome and phenomenal experience. I visited a bed of small zinnia flowers, a tree fossil, one big white silk cotton tree, pruned trees in different shapes, and then I came to a big water storage body. 

I was staring far through the water storage body, absorbed in such a lovely environment, and my engrossment was disrupted by so many noises. At first, I got irritated by the noises as they were disturbing me on my comfortable lone journey. But as I saw beautiful and charming faces, I forgot everything. It was a small group of school children with their three teachers.

In between, I'd like to mention that the department of horticulture of the state had organised a flower show which was free for the schoolchildren.

After that, I was drawn towards these voices, which pleased my ears and made me follow them for their company. There was happiness and euphoria in their innocent voices. They were so happy to be there and they were enjoying each and every aspect of the garden, including the rain without an umbrella. Some of them were in bare feet and in torn school dresses. From their appearance, you can easily gauge that they are from a poor background and that their parents must be facing difficulties even in paying their fees. 

In a similar way, teachers were also not from nominal hi-fi school backgrounds or highly educated so-called intellectuals. They seem like normal government teachers. They were very involved with their students. The quaint harmony between teacher and student reminded me of our earlier culture of Guru-Shishya. I never forget the behaviour of teachers and, in fact, like to salute them for this attitude. They were teaching and caring for the children like their parents. The children were feeling very candid and safe with their teachers, and I could sense the feeling of freedom in them. The teachers were trying to teach them with fun, outside of the boundaries of their typical teaching style, and without making them realise that it was a part of the learning only. 

I was with them, and as we approached the area of big trees, we found so many Nilgiri trees, the teacher asked students to smell that place. And I was amused and chuckled with the voices of sneezing and exclamations like "hmmm...", "waaaw...", etc. In between, I saw one teacher tying the head scarves of two small girls, explaining to the girls in Kannada that it’s raining, take care. One beautiful girl I found had a garland on her head and was staring at me with amusement. We both felt some connection with each other, and then a group of girls got excited when I took a photo of them. Then we approached the garden of lots of rose plants. Again I was hearing voices like Hmmm..., waaw, superb, and something in Kannada pointing out different flowers. Then we visited a flower show where teachers were explaining and trying to give answers to as many questions as they could.

I will never forget this journey and these quaint students and teachers...

I enjoyed their company.