This is how memories are made!

(2 min read)

As a parent, watching your child grow up and move on to new stages of life can be a bittersweet experience. Recently, my elder son had his graduation day ceremony from Senior KG and was promoted to Grade 1. It was a day full of excitement, joy, and a few tears.

The ceremony was held in the school auditorium, which was decorated with colorful balloons and streamers. The children were dressed in their best attire, and their beaming faces were a sight to behold. It was a proud moment for all the parents to see their little ones being recognized for their hard work and achievements.

My son had participated in a Naat performance, and I could see how much effort he had put into it. He was so excited to be on stage and showcase his performance, and seeing him with his classmates filled my heart with joy. I couldn't help but feel proud of him and his classmates for their courage and confidence.

As the ceremony proceeded, memories of my own childhood came flooding back. I remembered my own graduation day, and how excited I was to move on to the next phase of my academic journey. The joy and pride that I felt as a child were now mirrored in my son's eyes.

It was also a reminder of how quickly time flies. It felt like just yesterday that my son had started his journey in Senior KG, and now he was already being promoted to Grade 1. It was a bittersweet feeling, knowing that my little boy was growing up so fast.

But at the same time, I felt grateful for the memories we had made together. From his first day of school to his first performance on stage, every moment had been special. And I knew that even as he moved on to new experiences, we would continue to make more memories together.

As we left the auditorium, I looked at my son and saw how much he had grown in just a year. He was no longer a little boy but a confident young child ready to take on the challenges of primary school. It was a proud moment for me as a parent, but also a reminder to cherish every moment and make the most of the time we have together.

What does a teacher mean to us?

If a picture speaks thousand words then the above one sure falls in that category.

2 views to see the picture:

1. Here we see a Sheikh teaching a lesson in front of only one student at the Prophet’s Masjid in Madinah. The picture highlights the unfortunate state of affairs in our communities with regard to our attitude towards seeking knowledge, especially since the advent of social media.

Gone are the days – for many – where people would travel to sit at the feet of scholars and develop a personal relationship with them. Gone are the days where we take our knowledge directly from the mouths of the people of knowledge. Instead, we have reduced our learning to listening to snippets of clips on YouTube and listening to reminders that keep our faith supposedly elevated but do not provide much by the way of significant insightful knowledge that really helps us grow in faith and practice.

I’ve even noticed that many people do not even have the attention span to manage listening to a one hour lecture these days. It’s become ‘fast food knowledge’ now sprinkled with the glitz of HD videos and graphics. As for reading books, then all I can say is,

إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون

We should all have our portions of real human interaction with people of knowledge and take from their adab (manners) and insights. There are numerous blessings found in those gatherings that cannot be found elsewhere, even in books.

2. Never feel as though your efforts have gone to waste. What change can one speech bring, how will that audience of one person respond to your nasihat (advice), what amount of benefit you will receive from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala by the virtue of that good conducted by that one man due to your words, no one except Almighty knows.

Any other point of view you have to look at the picture? Do comment below.

This article was originally posted in ilmfeed

What excuse do you have? (funny)

The headmaster entered the class with a slightly flushed and a hard ominous look in his eyes. He surveyed the class for a few minutes and asked, "Are you not ashamed to come and sit here after what you did yesterday?" Just as a special honor to them, he read out the names of a dozen or so that had attended the class. After that he read out the names of those that had kept away, and asked them to stand up on the benches. He felt the punishement was not severe and asked them to stand on their desks.

Then they were lectured. When it was over, they were asked to offer an explantion one by one. One said that he had an attack of headache so could not come. He was asked to bring medical certificate. The second said as he was coming someone told him to go back home. The headmaster replied that if he was going to listen to every loafer, he deserve to be flogged. The punishment was pronounced 10 days attendance cancelled, two rupees fine. The third said he had an attack of headache. The fourth said he had stomach ache. The fifth said his grandmother died suddenly when he was starting for school. The headmaster asked if he could bring a letter from his father. No. He had no father. Then, who was his guardian? His grandmother. But the grandmother was dead, was she not? No. It was another grandmother. The headmaster asked how many grandmothers a person could have. No answer. Could he bring a letter from his neighbours? No, he could not. None of his neighbours could read or write, because he lived in one of the most illeterate parts of the street. Then the headmaster offered to send the teacher to this illiterate part of the locality to ascertain from the boy's neighbour if the death of his grandmother was a fact. A pause, some perspiration and then the answer that the neighbours could  not possibly know anything, since the grandmother died in the village. The headmaster hit him on the knuckles with his cane, called him the street dog and pronounced the punishment 15 days' suspension.

(the above part has been extracted from a famous novel Swami and Friends written by one of the most acclaimed authors of India R. K. Narayan)

The day I was appreciated for being late

My school logo...
Always felt proud to put it
on my shirt when I was
the Vice Captain of Yellow House

I was in Class 10. It was winter season and nobody likes to get up early in the morning and that too to go to school. But being obedient as I was, I never missed school. Our classes starts at 8 AM but before that we need to assemble for the prayer at 7.50 AM and all of us were supposed to reach school by 7.45 AM after which we were considered late and got caning from a very strict but inspiring teacher Mr. Philip (I remember his Maths classes even today). The prayer would end by 8 and caning would end by 8:07 AM. Everyone would be there in their classes by 8:10 AM.

Our first class was on Mathematics taken by Chakravorty Sir (again a very good and kind hearted teacher) which was followed by English (our Principal is used to take that subject). That day I woke up at 8 AM. Since I was not a fan of bunking classes, I hurried to dress up and dashed towards my school. St. Anthony's High School was just 2 kms away from my house. It took me only a few minutes to reach my destination and there I was standing outside with my heart pumping and mind full of nervousness whether to enter or not.

Fortunately there was no security guards present at the door who would have shouted me out if I had asked him and students had already got their beating from Philip Sir and were on their way to their classes. I ran up to the Principals office to ask his permission. He was quite surprised but he did allow me.

Chakravorty Sir didn't asked me anything about my being late. He carried on with his sums on the green board.

The next class when Principal came he gave a 10 minutes lecture on being late and punctuality and pointed me out by saying "See this boy, learn from him. Most of us would have bunked school after being 5-10 minutes late, but he came. We all should learn from his sincerity and dedication towards studies. He is sure to go much forward in his life with this kind of attitude."

All this while I was smiling and had a sense of pride in myself. My friends poked me and gave a hard elbow on my shoulders and back. They were angry beacuse 1) I was late, 2) I was not canned, 3) I got appreciated and 4) I was made the hero.

(All that was worth remembering!)

Remembering my school - Shree Jain Vidyalaya

"Where to Sir?" Nothing surprising when the Taxi driver asked us this question. Usually we take a bus to school but that day was different. Getting late was not our choice neither did we feel happy about. That was the fear installed in us by our school that force us to reach the school before time. Even a minute late was considered unforgiven. Hence me and my 2 friends decided to take a taxi. "Take us to Jain school in Barabazar" we replied. As it was just 6.25 AM in the morning, Taxi was ready for its first trip and road was rather empty, so 5 mins was more than enough for us to cover those 5 kms to school.
"Jain school?!? Where is that?" asked the driver
"That school after Tea Board office , don't you know that?" said one of my friend
"Oh! are you saying about Shree Jain Vidyalaya?"
"Yes, yes that only"
"Sir, don't you feel proud to pronounce your scool's name properly? I have heard that that school have taught to many greats, the teachers are of high quality and they produce many talented and rank holders in state and as well as in the country?"
We couldn't utter a word in embarassment. That day I understood that lesson can be taught by anyone, you just need to be ready for that.

Since I have already stated my school's name, yes it is Shree Jain Vidyalaya, I would like to say something about it. Well, ofcourse it is of high standards. The percentage of first division is about 80% of total students. To enter into 11th standard was itself an achievment on my part. The teachers always said that "2 Ps" are famous in this school, one is Padhai(studies) and the other is pitai(punishment). They believed in "spare the rod, spoil the child" concept. That was 7 years ago, I don't know how the school behaves now. To me that was good. The students always studied out of their interest and high ambition so no case of "pitai". I took a lot of pride in my school's library. It was full of all kinds of book. In those days no friend of mine from other school ever said anything about their school's library that could make me believe that they had a better library than mine.

2 years was well spent in that school. I never went back for 4 years after class12 even though I always remembered them. I would often recommend it the young talented students. 4 years on after clearing my Higher Secondary exams there was a urge in the students of our batch to meet up again with the teachers, a kind of re-union. Not of a grand type but yes we did meet with a few handfull of us and no teacher. Nevertheless it was experience of reliving that part of school life that had a huge contribution of making us what we are today.

some of the few mates after 4 years of re union