Friday, March 26, 2021

My mother was my first teacher-1

My mother was my first teacher-1

कह्युं करो माबापनुं, दो मोटाने मान;
गुरूनी शिक्षा मानिये, तो करे प्रभु लीलालहेर। 
(God bless you if you honour the commands of your Parents, pay respects to the Elders and learn from the Teachers)

My mother was my first teacher. She used to educate us through Subhashits and Proverbs. We were cultured to honour the agya of parents, pay respect to elders and learn more and more from the teachers. 

We were living in a labour chawl, where all kinds of good and bad people were living. To protect us from the bad company, my mother Punjiben strictly commanded us to not to play with any of the children of the chawl. But the childhood was searching for the opportunity to play with other children. 

I was 9 years old and was studying in 4th Std. For a British style tea (more water and some drops of milk) for the family, early morning duty to buy milk from the chawl shop was with my sister in law Raiben. But thereafter, except the school hours, I am to visit shops to buy milk, curd, pulses, oil, etc, in small quantity to meet with the day to day demands. This exercise made my maths powerful. 

One day I was going to buy milk of 10 paise before the school. The chawl children were playing kabbadi in the street little away from my home, not in the visibility of my mother. I saw the game and felt that with muscular strength and presence of mind I could easily win points. Giving the milk pot to one of the boys, I took my chance of raider and attack the antis saying kabbadi kabbadi kabbadi..without breaking the chant and the breathe. I was new to the game and entered into the group of the chawl children first time, therefore, they were overjoyed, but were unhappy with my mother as well as she didn’t allow them to mix with us. The defence team was very active. I touched one player and tried to return with speed but they caught me up to stop reaching to the centre line. I used my full body strength first time and forcefully jumped and touched the centre. All the players of the defence group was out. Annoyed by the act, when I was still lying on the ground touching the line, one of the players of the defence group Revo suddenly stood up and took a lift and forcefully fall over my back. Oh Ma, I cried. I stood up slowly in pain, went to the milk shop, bought milk and returned home. But the back was paining for the whole day. I didn’t tell my mother about the play and the injury in fear of scolding. Next morning, when I woke up, while leaving the bed I realised bending was bit difficult. I passed days in that pain, didn’t disclose before the family but never dared to name kabbadi thereafter. Over the years, I concentrated over study and forgot the incident. 

When I joined Mussoorie Academy in 1985, PT and horse riding were compulsory. I tried jogging but was unable to jog for long and opted for Yoga. I went for the horse riding for a week but I was feeling severe pain in the lower back. I went to the academy doctor and after getting the x-ray done, came to know that my left L5S1 level and the left hip bone were in fusion. I had to stop horse riding and continued with Yoga. As there were few horses and probationers were more, therefore, none had objected. The injury took away my flexibility and movement, as a result I couldn’t master any of the sports game. My brain became my master. The injury still restricts my quality of life and slowly slowly the left side, the spine, the neck, the left shoulder are falling down faster in the ageing process. Whenever pain occurs, I remember my mother, Oh Ma, I didn’t obey your one command and suffering. 

कह्युं करो माबापनुं, दो मोटाने मान;
गुरूनी शिक्षा मानिये, तो करे प्रभु लीलालहेर। 
It is a guru mantra of success and happy life.

Punamchand 
25 January 2020

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