Phone conversation with childhood Teacher almost 30 years later.
The profession of private tutoring was once a very respectable and important profession among the Bengali middle class but nowadays it is not respected by anyone. Whatever my life is now it started with a very difficult phrase at that time our private tutor was very difficult and aggressive in nature. I spent my childhood at my uncle’s house and was tutored by a man who had a completely amputated arm. I heard that he went on some adventure when he was young, most likely he wanted to climb a tree and fell and had to have an operation to amputate his arm. Unfortunately his right hand was amputated but with left hand the gentleman could beat the students with great force. He was an absolute master at beating devilish students. Beating students today seems to be an injury to humanity, but in those days parents of students were happy if they did this because they thought that if students were beaten by their teachers, then it was for their good.
In my early studies I was of average intelligence but quiet and never had my name in any scandal. But that doesn’t mean he never beat me. He also beat me many times for not doing my homework. A characteristic of the gentleman was that he would visit every student’s house at night to see if they were studying till night, so that every student would have fear in their mind and they would study late at night. There was an impossibly beautiful solemnity in the gentleman’s countenance. One of the things I liked about him the most was when he smiled there was a sweetness in his smile that would make all the anger I harbored towards him disappear in an instant. His wife and son were his family. It was not possible to understand at a young age that a pressing pain was always working in his mind, later I understood that it is not easy for people to understand family matters, so you have to be matured. He has always struggled with poverty, but he has never been financially established. However, there was a characteristic in him and especially in his wife that despite all the hardships, they would go through all the hardships with a smile, which we could understand even at a young age.
I have left my uncle’s house for a long time, more than 25 years. At this time, I remember a lot about that Sir and also about my classmates at that time. I don’t know how they are now, what is their situation. There is also a difference in their thinking. Now times have changed and uncle’s house no longer has that influence where his children have the highest power. When I was a child in my uncle’s house, I used to see that his children are kids and now they are the ultimate decision makers in the family. They don’t want any other relative to come to their house, even if they don’t say it directly, they mean it indirectly, so they haven’t been to uncle’s house for a long time. But every memory of the childhood that I left behind is still in my mind, so I was forced to collect the phone number of that old sir with great difficulty. The question in my mind was that maybe he doesn’t recognize me because he is a teacher and it is not possible for any human being to identify a student out of the hundreds of thousands of students he has taught. However, I realized after the call that a teacher never forgets his student. This is perhaps why the teaching profession is viewed most differently and is respected the most.
The first thing in my mind was the fear that he might not recognize me. I have to introduce a lot but maybe he will understand. Finally I called and a lady answered the call. After knowing her identity, I bowed to her because she is my teacher’s spouse. I used to see this lady when I was younger and used to go to her house for tuition but she didn’t like to come in front of the students very much. The lady was a bit shy so we could understand that she avoided the locality a bit. I knew she wouldn’t recognize me but I introduced myself and finally said that I would be talking to my teacher after almost 25 years. Actually my teacher was not at home at that time today on the occasion of republic day he went somewhere outside the house so his wife said and I will ask you to call me when your your teacher would come. I put the phone down disappointed but an emotion was working in my mind that when my teacher calls me how I will introduce myself. After about 30 minutes I got a call on my phone, I had already saved the number so I realized it was my teacher calling me. I answered the phone and my teacher said who are you talking about. Surprisingly, when I introduced myself fully to him, he was very happy and emotional language came out of his mouth which I was also moved by. Talking to him, I got to know that he is not teaching anymore. That is because the social system has changed over time. He does a contactual job in a government organization from where he can run any kind of household with the salary he gets. Realized that poverty had gripped him and he himself admitted that he no longer had the same strength in his heart as before. I was just talking to him and thinking to myself that the man we once feared like a lion is now talking to me in a weak voice. It was a very painful feeling for me. His roar is no longer what it used to be. Time has made him very innocent and soft, so I could not match the image of 25 years ago and the image of now. I jokingly asked if he had the same black hair as before or had it all turned white? He understood my joke and said no now my hair is not as dark as before but try artificially to keep it black. Tried to know from him about all his family and found out that his son is over 18 years. While talking, I realized that he is also very worried about his son’s future. But one thing in particular that I noticed was that he was very happy for me to call him because maybe no one of his old students had contacted him before. We talked for a long time and in the middle of these words we were both stuck for a while maybe we both were thinking about our old past times. There used to be a fair. I asked my teacher about that fair and my teacher said that fair is still held and he asked me to come to his house. For a moment it felt like we were back in time when he was a teacher and I was his student. But the only thing that was missing is that he can no longer rule us like before because as I said time has changed everything or time has changed everyone. And the biggest effect of time is that my teacher is very weak today.
