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 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, Mayor of Casterbridge in successive years. I reminisced to my boys. They seemed to have found it incredibly amusing that their mother showed a poor performance in the subject. To add salt to my injury my grandfather even shared a school report card which stated “Needs to work hard in English” and a grade of 4 marked with a red underline describing the inevitable. This report card continues to be an 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 open the floodgates and no consolation was sufficient enough to stop the deluge of emotions as far as I remember.

As I write, I only think of the source of motivation this one liner was. It stays with me even today even after four decades irrespective of its tattered condition. Ever since I have worked on my English and made Science, the stream of my profession to make a livelihood.

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