THE SILVER LINING

Holiday Reading was a wonderful concept in my children’s school. They were given a book to read in English and Hindi during summer vacations, and then their understanding was tested, and later prizes were showered during the annual function, which again were books. These books were classics, and a few were even contemporary; I, too, got to read new kinds of literature with them.

The curriculum in ICSE and ISC when I studied was relentless. There was A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Richard the Second, and Mayor of Casterbridge in successive years. I reminisced to my boys. They seemed to find it incredibly amusing that their mother performed poorly in the subject. To add salt to my injury, my grandfather even shared a school report card that stated “Needs to work hard in English” and a grade of 4, marked in red, describing the inevitable. This report card remains the only family heirloom of my academic record, despite being in tatters now.

There’s a silver lining to every cloud. Besides a comment for English, there was “Diligent in Science. Keep it up!” in the remark section. This report card had let the floodgates open, and no consolation was sufficient to stop the deluge of emotions, as far as I remember.

As I write, I can only think of the source of motivation for this one-liner. It stays with me even today, after four decades, despite its tattered condition. Ever since, I have worked on my English and taken Science as the stream of my profession to make a living.