MY ELSY TEACHER

By Faris Arakkal

When wordless hollowness conquers the mind, when life seems to be a drone monotone, it is a desperate day when you get this sudden notion of a trip. It was one such day. I rode my bike 18 years back to my old school, St Georges Mukkatukara, where I was a kid with all the pranks part of the school bag.Dark clouds were lingering over the sky, but it was not a bother. A few old frames of the school ran in my mind- a noisy mansion, nearby church and frozen classrooms.Like love at first sight, all nostalgia I was. Nothing had changed. The same verandah, same arch, same frozen classrooms. I went inside one of the class rooms; where sudden a teacher stopped me:"Who are you"? Is that a frown or an authoritative query she asked? I answered that I was an old student and was just...just wanted to walk around. She was amused and asked about everything- the year I studied, the division, which teacher and where am I from. But I was lost in thoughts- a boy with shorts and shirts running through the verandah; I was searching for that lost frame in of my old memory disk.The teacher took me to the office. The head mistress scanned me through her bifocal. I told them that I was one of the students of the school years ago and that my father was once the PTA president of the school.She went through the archive and went through the photos. I saw a man wearing a brown Ray-ban. "There is my father!" I exclaimed. As the conversation warmed up, I asked her if there were any old teachers still in the faculty. She asked me to name one, but I could not remember her name who taught me A for Apple, B for Bat. The first hand lessons of my life. All I could remember was her eyes, she had a squint.That helped the head mistress. She instantly answered: "Oh, she is Elsy!"I prayed that my clues do not go wrong. She rang in the peon and enquired if Elsy was there. Yes, Elsy teacher was in the session. As the head mistress nodded in agreement, I almost ran to her class. In-between I was busy trying to reframe her, how she would look now... The attendent took me in to the same class where once I sat with my pals and did all the pranks 18 years ago. LKG B. Some 20-30 kids were having a ball. But my Elsy teacher wasn't there. I heard a kid asking me "are you our new teacher."The peon then searched all around and finally brought the news that Elsy teacher had just left for home. Luckily, she knew where Elsy teacher lived. She told me the name of the place, some 5km apart from the school. The roads in front of me lead to severe confusion. I asked the people I saw on the road for Elsy teacher's home. Finally, a man in a small teashop pointed his hands to a small road diverging to the left. A small house painted yellow with unlined bricks. I called out; but no answer I got. I persisted and then, slowly, an old woman opened the door. She struggled to focus her eyes on me. I asked whether there was someone called Elsy teacher lived there.A lady wearing spectacles came out. "What do you want?" For a second, I was speechless. The frame I was carrying was now filled with an image, my Elsy teacher. I asked her if she could recognise me knowing that she will not. She pondered for a while but as I expected she didn't recognise me.I told her my name, but still could not recollect. I asked if she remembered a naughty rascal in her class, but she did not. Suddenly it came to my mind, my most outrageous prank: breaking her spectacles once. As I narrated it, I could see her eyes brimming with tears...she recognised me, the naughtiest chap of her 18 years back LKG batch. She peered at me, head to toe. In addition, exclaimed to her grandma, "This is my old student faris!" The reel rewound. We discussed almost everything, my score of zeros in every dictation, my parents' worries, peeing in the class, everything. We talked and talked. Then, I asked about her family. She knew what I meant: "I am still alone..."When I was leaving her home with heart that was not quite sure if it wanted to cry or smile, I saw her looking at me with those eyes with the squint that denied her a married life, from inside her house, waving hands. As I turned to the highway, her words haunted me, still resounding in my heart:"I am still alone..." Today, on the Teachers Day, a day reserved for remembering the best teachers we met in our life, here is to you, my Elsy Teacher: thank you for devoting your life for your mother and again moulding me into a disciplined human being.