Teacher’s Diary: On Holi, a student taught a teacher an important lesson

A primary school teacher in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh recalls an incident that is forever tied up with the memory of the festival of colours.

It was the spring of 2019 and Holi was a couple of days away. I clearly remember that morning when I left home for school — Primary School Gulaula Kheda in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh — where I taught. My favourite student Anurag Singh was then in class 3.

It was the last working day before school closed for Holi so my young son also accompanied me to school that day. On the way, I purchased a lot of dry colours for Holi to distribute amongst the students so that they could enjoy the festival with their classmates at school.

Once I reached school, I gave my students the colours and told them that they could play Holi with their classmates and me. I also warned them that they should not disturb the discipline at the school and not hurt anyone. I told them about a safe way to play with the colours.

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My excited students began to play with the colours and very soon, both my son and I were covered in red, blue, green and yellow.

After a while, I left them playing and was sitting a little distance away when a group of students came running up to me saying that there had been a fight between Anurag and my son, Lalla. My son had pushed Anurag down and he was injured.

In no time, both my son and my favourite student stood before me. The other students kept saying how Anurag had done nothing, and while I turned to my son to hear his side of the story, he kept quiet. For the first time in my career as a teacher, I called for a stick. I was going to use it to teach my son a lesson.

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There was pin drop silence. I raised the cane to hit my son when Anurag screamed: “Guruji, please stop”. Anurag looked into my eyes and said: “You never hit your students. You always explain things to us with love. Lalla is the youngest amongst us then why do you want to hit him? You can explain to him with love,” my favourite student reminded me.

As all the students stood there staring at me, I paused, and the cane fell from my hands.

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