Long live Innocence
                               
Once  our school has planned for a day long picnic for the Boarders. It was a tradition in our school to take the in-mates for an outing so that they feel homely and home sickness should not supersede the studies and extra curricular activities. All 300 children got into 10 buses and I was observing the systematic approach of my Hostel in-charge in making children carry their food and water and keep in the storage place of the Bus and quietly get into the bus. The whole process of seating the children in all 10 buses and attendance took almost half-an hour .All the buses started with a roar of laughter and huraah! Sounds. All children felt as if they were out of their cocoon and got the freedom at last!
I started following them in my vehicle ,owing to my back ache. Though I was in a different vehicle I could hear the screaming & hooting ,yelling and roaring of children .The journey took an hour . A cool breeze and a scented smell welcomed us from 100 yards ,hinting the beauty of the place and preparing us for the feast of the eyes.
It was a beautiful garden in sprawling 20 acres .The garden is filled with flowering plants like roses, jasmine, chrysanthemum and Hibiscus of multiple colours to variety of fruit bearing trees from mango to Papaya .It was indeed a feast to listen to the chirping of the birds from one corner and gurgling of water from another. The first ten minutes of our time while finding a suitable place to accommodate all 300 and 20 teachers went in digesting the beauty of the place. All the children were distributed among their house masters/mistresses to go around and explore the beauty of the garden, while few senior teachers along with me started walking towards water .
It was an alluring pond stretching almost a km length. The most eye catchy scene was the fountain which is illuminated to produce various bright colours even during the day light and the tiny fish jumping out of the sparkling fountain waters .It was amazing !Everyone of us were spellbound at the beauty of azure water fountain and the pond filled with enticing Swans wading gracefully from one end to another. As all of us were engrossed deeply into the enthralling scenic beauty ….. a screeching sound of a toy train was heard close by… Oh ! my heart pounded…anticipating some unwanted situation I along with my staff ran towards the direction where the toy train is placed. By the time we reached there the garden authority also arrived hurriedly. We saw a tiny little child of five sleeping happily on the lap of another 7 year old right on the middle of the rail track undisturbed. The child who was awake was holding her red coloured T-shirt indicating a brake for the Toy train. Nothing happened !All are safe. A great sigh of relief to every on looker.
Having observed the whole situation, the anxiety turned to anger and frustration to see a five year old child being left unattended to. Even before, I turned towards my staff to reprimand the child spoke.”Mam, please don’t scold the teacher, it is not her fault we both were playing hide and seek and suddenly seemi fell down on the track and started crying so I am just passifying her and she fell asleep. When I saw the Toy train coming I was scared and did not know what to do? hence opened my T-Shirt to stop the train. that’s it. Please don’t scold anyone. No one is at fault. Having said this this 7 year old kid turned towards the teacher and said” Please help this child move undisturbedly to a safer place so that we can continue our games. One of the teachers immediately took the sleeping child carefully into her arms and shifted her to a safer place. With in no time all the children climbed back into train and the train moved merrily. The most important and critical behaviour of this 7 year old has caught my attention. The concern that she has shown towards the fellow being, the care she has taken to comfort other human being, the risk she has taken to save themselves, the intellect she has used to stop the Toy train ,were surprisingly delightful to me .I started introspecting ….will this flawless behaviour filled with humanity and concern for fellow beings be continued in this child with a passing of time? Will our schools and education be able to retain this humanity forever in all the children? Will I be able to sustain the concern, love and empathy through my curriculum?
I was startled at my own thoughts! Why am I becoming cynical ,instead of feeling happy that no accident occurred, no forbidden situation is faced, despite which why am I thinking negatively? I got my answer in next ten minutes. I was aghast to see five teachers laughing loudly and cracking jokes at one of their colleagues who fell down from the tree while attempting to climb and  was bleeding profusely on his right knee. I thought yes…as and when a person grows he/she turns crooked and selfish. What should we do?
                                                            

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