Yesterday was the first day of my college reopening after the Diwali vacations. Well technically it was the second but it was the first day for me so let’s go with that. Everyone is greeting everyone else and wishing them a happy new year according to the Hindu calendar. That’s what we do when we meet people for the first time after this festival. But after all the greetings and a couple of lectures, something happened that shocked all of us into a disgusted and shameful silence.
It so happened that a girl hid a guy’s phone for fun and instead of just putting it on ‘silent mode’, she made matters worse by turning the cell phone off altogether. Well, now this was a pretty bad idea as she was to find out a few moments later. One of her friends snitched on her to the guy and he immediately blew his top because he was expecting an emergency call from home. Now obviously the girl had no inkling of this situation and was merely engaging in a bit of lecture room fun.
As soon as the victim got the information, he started shouting at her from the front row where he was seated, to the penultimate row where she was merrily giggling away with her co-conspirators. She was shocked at first but when the guy started spewing out horrible obscenities in the middle of the lecture and in front of her whole batch, she was embarrassed and furious at the same time. For a moment, she didn't even know how to respond but then anger overcame all other emotions and she started mirroring his language (well almost).
And the professor? Just baffled…
And the class? Observing in amused silence, not knowing how to react.
The professor, an aged man of Gandhian ideals who treated his students with profound respect was so lost that I think his mind didn't even register the hostility for a moment. After a few attempts at trying to get them to compromise, he quietly closed his book and walked out of the class.
That day I knew that this class had lost all the respect of the man.
In the next lecture, I pondered over what had happened and I kept seeing the professor’s crestfallen face, the sadness in his eyes and the disgust he must have felt for those whom he regarded as his children. He used to say, “Shishya Devo Bhava”, which in Sanskrit means, “Students are Gods” but I knew then, at that very moment, that we had shattered his beliefs. The man who had held steadfast confidence in his students for more than four decades held that view no more. A moment of anger, a spark of misunderstanding, a harmless moment of fun had ruined his beliefs, perhaps forever.
A happy New Year? I definitely don’t think so.