It was a cold winter morning in late 1980s. I was a teenager studying in class seventh. We had a Gulmohar tree in school. Its little leaves carried small dew drops in winters and when we shook one of its branches the water fell on the ground. We shook its branch often and whoever was passing from under the tree got drenched with water. This was a regular mischief of students. I had joined this school just a few months back and this tree enamored me a lot. I was there everyday, to shake a branch and have fun. On one such day I shook a branch, when some of my friends were passing from there. They had some anticipation of what I was going to do so they managed to escape before water fell on them. Just about, at that moment our History teacher Sir Yashpal Sharma happened to pass from under the tree and the entire water fell on him. I turned back and ran as fast as I could. Three students, I think had followed me. When I stopped they told me that Sir was calling me. I was caught red handed, no chance for me to escape I thought. I stood before Sir, with my head down and eyes stuck to the ground.
“You shook the tree?”
“Yes Sir”.
“Why? Who told you that if you shake it, water will fall on me?”
“Nobody Sir. I am new to this school and I saw other students doing it.”
“In your previous school you did not do this?”
“No sir. We did not have this kind of a tree there, water doesn’t fall from other trees and they are also very tall”.
“Ok, now that you have done it you are in trouble. Run away before somebody catches you doing this mischief with me”.
I looked up in amazement. I saw a naughty smile on his face and as I looked up, he winked; as if telling me Run away! I ran as far as my legs could take me. Little tears came to my eyes. My heart melted in the warmth of Sir Yashpal Sharma’s smile and wink. During the prayer other teachers asked him why he was wet. He just smiled and winked. From that day onwards, I developed a very special bond with him.
Sir Yashpal Sharma was our class teacher in the seventh standard and taught us History, Civics and Hindi. Since that incident happened, he permanently got featured in all 'My Favourite Teacher' essays I wrote. Two days ago, I got news from a relative of mine that he passed away four years ago. I did not feel like mourning for him. I took out an old diary that I used to write during my school days. I had written a few pages on him. I started reading what I had written years ago –
……..There are many people we come across in life but some of them are very special. Yashpal Sharma Sir is one of them. He is a simple person. He does not have too much of money but he is a favourite person of almost all of us. We love and respect him a lot. Sometimes I wonder, will he be called successful? After all he is not like other successful people I watch on TV. But I know he is very powerful.
Sir Yashpal Sharma was an amazing teacher who made subjects like history and civics very interesting for us. He was tall, about six feet, dark complexioned and had a prominent nose and chin. He had grey hair, which were neatly made and were smeared in oil. His most striking features were his small shining black eyes. He had a very powerful, resounding voice and when he rendered a speech his words, brought up our spirit and filled us with enthusiasm. His speeches were a must at all school functions and he never needed a loud speaker. When he taught Hindi poetry, fervor and passion in his voice created magic in our class and left an indelible impression on our minds.
His style of teaching History was unique. He told us stories, which were so interesting that we listened to them in rapt attention. Kalinga War and the story of King Ashoka’s transformation of heart were brought alive for our class. Slave dynasty to mughal dynasty the history of 500 years was taught in our class so vividly that we had all the events right before our eyes. Lord Curzon was ‘Kirju’ who did Partition of Bengal and Lord Wavel was a ‘bawla’ who brought Wavel plan. The best definition of democracy was given by an odd looking man called Abraham Linclon – “By the people, for the people Of the people”, he would relate. Just then he would make a face by stretching his lips and rolling his cheek inside to tell us how Linclon looked like and we doubled up with laughter. Once when he entered our class we shouted, “SIMON GO BACK”. He smiled and winked and went up to the board, picked up the chalk and wrote –
“India is yours! I would rather teach in your school now” – Simon 1988
One of his many nick names was Simon, and there were many such anecdotes to relate.
When I prepared for my civil services examination and opened my history and civics books again, I could hear his voice in my ears. I did not need to prepare much. What he taught was permanently ingrained in my mind.
He had set high performance standards for us. He was an uncompromising teacher who was very strict in his marking. For our Hindi exam, he had made a rule that one mark had be cut for each ‘truti’ (spelling mistake), we committed. We got marks in two parts – one part out of ten was given for content and then marks were deducted for ‘vyakaran ki ashuddhiyan’ thereon. Some students thus ended up getting minus 30 marks in Hindi, attributed to 'trutiyon ke minus marks'. He was not willing to compromise on his standards and as a result his students were generally state toppers in Hindi in Tenth Board exams.
We had one hour in the evening for sports. One day I was jokingly telling my friend that I had got ‘anda’ (zero) in two consecutive tests in Maths. A friend of mine laughed and declared that she also had two ‘andas’. While we were having fun, Sir Sharma happened to hear this conversation. He shouted at us and said that he was going to collect andas from the entire class and open a Poultry Farm. I told him sheepishly that we were introduced to algebra in Maths and I couldn’t understand anything. He immediately sat with me to make me understand factors and simple algebraic calculations. I got the trick. It was more important to understand a concept first and then one should go to problem solving. The important lesson that I learnt was useful all through my student years. I some times feel that as a teacher, I am not able to create the same magic that he created in our History, Civics and Hindi classes. It was difficult to perform up to his standards then. It’s difficult to perform up to his standards even now.
For our Annual Day Cultural Programme, a one hour dance ballet was performed by students based on classical ragas and dance. Our Music Teacher who was called Ladu ram ji was too keen to cast me as a heroine for the ballet. I dreaded it and did not want to participate in dance ballet for the simple reason that I found it very boring. I was too young to appreciate classical music. I came out with an excuse that participation in dance ballet required practice for three months, missing regular classes and thus my studies were likely to suffer. Sir Sharma came to know about this and he told our Music Teacher, “Pandit Ji, yeh shaitan ladki hai. You cast all her friends in your dance ballet and she will willingly do it. I am sure learning some music will be very good for these Tom Boys.” How well he understood a teenager’s psychology! Soon all my friends were given roles in the dance ballet. We practiced together and had tremendous fun in the music room. Some years later I developed an ear for classical music. My subconscious mind had definitely taken a few lessons during those three months.
He encouraged me to participate in debates and declamations and some times even wrote debates for me. He stressed that it was very essential to learn correct pronunciations of any language. He encouraged me to read and often got me books issued from the library in his account.
After our Half Yearly Exams were over, Sir Sharma often corrected our answer books sitting in the school lawn. If he found a silly mistake in one of the answer books, he shouted and yelled at the student calling his name from the lawn, for the whole school to see. All those who wrote 'Right to Exploitation' in civics answer book, had to take their firing sessions in the lawn. I realized that while lawn sessions for other students were held only in case of some specific silly mistake, I invited a lawn session for any mistake(small or big) that I committed. He would shout and yell at me and the entire school thought I had fared very badly in exam, while as a matter of fact I ended up getting highest marks. I cribbed a lot about this unfair behavior meted out to me. While others got firing for small mistakes generally in class I always got it in the lawn, publicly.
Years later I understood that by holding those shouting and yelling sessions in the lawn he ensured that he turned a naughty, careless teenager into a diligent student, who hated to commit mistakes in exams.
He also ensured that this teenager, years later, would give up a career in civil services to adopt a profession that he so passionately practiced and lived.He is my role model.
Sir, Happy Teacher’s Day! I know you can still smile and wink at me from wherever you are.
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