Author: Githa Hariharan
Published by: Penguin Books India 1994
This book achieves the rare status of what may be called,in short--a beautiful story. Human emotions are articulately expressed through the life of Vasu Master, an English teacher in P.G.Boys’ School, Elipettai.The profession of teaching, said to be one of the most noble of professions, also has the added advantage of being a lifelong profession. The story starts with Vasu Master’s retirement from the school, and the first few chapters describe the school, an overbearing Headmaster, and of course, the students and their (occasional) unruly behavior. This is a sort of an autobiography of Vasu master, and how his life changes when he is offered to teach a slow learner, Mani, who is ridiculed by the whole town. Vasu master takes this up as a sort of challenge, and in the process of teaching Mani about the values of life, actually relives his own memories-right from childhood (where he was almost controlled by his authoritarian vaidya father and his grandmother who, in her entire life, managed to learn only one word of English, and that was what she called Vasu-Nuisance!!) to his adolescence (when he had a huge crush on a foreign model on a pin-up calendar!)to his decision of becoming an English teacher, to his marriage to Mangala, to the subsequent birth of his sons…..everything in his almost monotonous life helped him to teach Mani.
This book definitely reminded me of the Panchatantra stories-the usage of plants and animals to explain a point to children. Almost everyone must have heard the Panchatantra or the Jataka tales. Here, Vasu Master uses the same philosophy while teaching Mani when he realizes that Mani is impatient and irritated with pens, pencils and notebooks. And so the fictitious tale of the Grey Mouse and his neighbor the Crow, the Blue Bottle fly and the other characters. Through the stories, Vasu master not only teaches Mani, but also us. He teaches us the true meaning and the different perspectives of the ‘words’ intellect and love, amongst others. This is in fact a very touching and philosophical take on the persona of a teacher. It has made me look at my teachers as not only the people whose only job is to drill facts into our heads, but also as the people who have their own lives and feelings .It has made me take back every reproach I ever uttered about any teacher of mine and it will make me think twice before I utter anything against my teachers.Coz, believe it or not, every teacher has contributed something to shape a students’ personality, either knowingly or unconsciously.
This story also has a bit of Taare Zameen Par within it, especially when Vasu Master discovers that Mani, who cannot talk properly, expresses himself beautiful through rough and hasty, yet decipherable sketches in which he views everything through a black veil. Vasu master helps Mani remove the black veil and makes him see the world in its true colors...
Philosophical, enchanting and lyrical-these are only few of the many adjectives which can be used to describe this book……….It starts with Vasu master trying to sum up his entire life in a notebook presented to him by his students and ends with him preparing a question paper, not unlike the one a teacher prepares at the end of a year, but only with seemingly simple, yet thought provoking questions about human thoughts and actions and their consequences.
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