Learning lessons for life

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Teachers’ Day for me is an occasion for not only a celebration but also reflection. I recall with gratitude how much I have gained, over the past four decades, from a great many students.

Perry stands out in my memory. In 1978, I was teaching English at the college in Delhi where I had studied earlier. Every evening, I would painstakingly prepare for my lectures the following week. I was a bit nervous when it came to my B A English Honours students who were in their final year. There was only a slight age difference between us, and I could not afford to falter.

Prospice, Robert Browning’s beautiful poem on facing the end with courage, posed a challenge. In keeping with its title (Latin for ‘looking forward’), I was eager to expound it. ‘Fear Death?’ I read aloud, proceeding to point out how the poet answers his rhetorical question through striking images.

I had reached the stanza in which Browning declares his readiness to confront the ‘Foe’ without eyes ‘bandaged’ when I heard giggles emanating from around the room. Perry was playing with the pigtails of the girl in front of her, and the class was distracted. I was young and had yet to acquire that cardinal virtue of a teacher, tolerance. Viewing the prank as a personal affront, I glared at Perry and said things that I shall always regret.

Perry went on to shine academically, eventually becoming a lecturer at the selfsame institution: her alma mater and mine. A few years later, she was bravely battling cancer. "I need Browning’s faith and fortitude," she said with a smile, when we met shortly before she passed away. I tearfully told her that she possessed both in abundance.

I learned more from Perry than I taught her. I might have introduced her to Prospice, but she exemplified its heroic spirit, summed up in these lines:

I was ever a fighter
So one fight more
The best and the last!