Teach Me Not

TEACH ME NOT

Translation of Dhruv Bhatt’s “Ma Ma Shadhimam”
by Surendra Gohil

A school amidst the hills. It is more silent than it should be. The examinations of Third and Fourth are over. Fifth to Seventh are taking their examinations. The boys and girls who have finished it, sang songs, arranged their belongings, took bath and started playing. Some boys were playing Gilli-Danda when I was returning from the examination hall. I stopped for a while to watch and played a bit before I came back. The girls saw this.

In the afternoon, when I was reading, younger girls peeped through the door and windows. They won’t come inside. They would stand outside silently. Previously, they used to look through the windows only. If asked to come inside, they would run away. Now days, they have become familiar enough to peep through the door.

“What’s the matter?” when I asked, they laughed keeping their faces down. After a number of attempts, one girl muttered slowly, “would you play with us?”

“Yes, if you come inside and sit here; then only.”

One by one all came inside. I asked them to form a circle and they did so. Now, what to play? In Antakkshari they would sing so much that I won’t be able to catch them. If I‘ll tell a story or make them play some game then it won’t be called playing together. For Langadi and Pakkad-Dav I am no more fit enough. Suddenly, I thought of playing Panchika. And I asked, “do you know how to play Panchika?”

“No”, came a short answer.

“Well, one of you go out and find out small, round pebbles.”

“Daggad??” the circle uttered together and laughed. Saying “here are they…” everyone brought out their treasure from the pockets of their small skirts. They were nice looking, collected with great care, round shaped rough Panchikas.

The game began. Lila, Usha, Jayavanta, Sangita- Panchikas started climbing the roof. I could do one two-three-four easily. Even I could put Panchika through the gate made by placing the thumb and the pointer on the floor. But, after all attempts, it was not possible to catch them on the inverted palm. The thick and hard fingers won’t form a bow shape and the stones won’t stay on the slope of inverted palm.

Basanti got four to five innings ahead of me very quickly. She went on increasing the lead and it would take long for me to minimize it.

Some shy girls were still peeping through the window. Among them Bhami-a black, thin girl with low voice kept on uttering:

“Basanti don’t do so. Let Dhrubhai win.” But nobody listened to her in the excitement of the play.

At lunch time Dhrubhai finished with fifteen innings due. When they asked, “when would you pay off?” I said, ‘now take lunch and go home. Some day, after the vacation, we would meet and play.”

The exited and cheered up group went to each one’s place and after taking their vessels sat together and ate. Those who have finished their exams and have somebody to receive would go home to enjoy Diwali holidays. While leaving, they won’t even wait to greet “…bye Dhrubhai”. But at home, they would miss the school. And it is also a fact that the vacation would seem long.

Arrangements were made. All went home. Before having a morning or evening walk together, during schooldays, I believed that only sheep and goats climbing or rivulet descending could create a moving world on the still mountains. But I saw the children racing toward the home in a wind like speed and I stood still in the window, looking at them.

They would go far behind the mountains. “Teen Dongar Varil” (After three mountains). They have told me a number of times that their village is after three mountains or two valleys from here. But today when I am looking at them going towards it, I can understand what that distance is!! I feel restless though I know that the forest path covered with grass, leaves, creepers and full of Scorpios and other insects would safely lead them home. I can see that when the elders accompanying them starts climbing, the children have already reached at the top and this makes me feel more restless.

Some children have left. The remaining will leave in a day or two. Even if we declare vacation at a time, we won’t find company for the children of different villages at the same time. So, from wherever the elders have come, the children of that village and of surrounding villages will go with them. This is how we depart slowly and also get together in the same fashion.

Sixth and Seventh were taking their last exams. Lonely and cloudy mountains under the sky were playing Hide and Seek with the Sun. I was writing, sitting on a charpoy when I heard a call from the window.

“Dhrubhai, Bhami has come”, an elder girl said.

‘How can she come? She has already left.”

“Here she is” she said and pulled Bhami in front of me from where she was standing, far from the window.

I stood up and called both of them inside and asked Bhami why she had come back and with whom.

“She hasn’t come all by herself, she has come with her maternal uncle who has come to collect grain”, explained the elder girl. But the reason she has come, was not known yet. I thought she might have come to take round of the school. I asked some questions and talked a bit but Bhami was silent. After a while I said, “I liked that you have come to meet me. Now go home and remember me to the people at your village.”

But she didn’t move. As soon as I could understand that she wants to say something and especially for that she has come here, I asked her repeatedly what the matter was. At last elder girl asked her what does she want to tell???

Bhami, then, replied in a low voice, “I played with Basanti and have paid off you due of fifteen innings.”

It took sometime to get the meaning but when I could get it properly the grass on the ground surrounded by the mountains agitated. She played Panchika with Basanti and has paid off my due score of fifteen innings and to convey this and to let me enjoy whole vacation in a debt free state, this goddess Jagadamba of Teen Dongar Varil has come here running, bearing huge cosmos on her small, thin legs and is standing here!!

I called her near. I put my hand over her head and made her do the same. I didn’t have anything to say. I don’t have the strength to bear the debt with which she has indebted me by paying off my debt of fifteen innings.

I have never been able to understand that on this cosmos who, on whom, when and for what reason pays off the debts. But one thing I have clearly understood that whenever such events happen, the earth likes that and on behalf of the whole mankind she herself forgives such invisible and unspoken debts and continues the struggle to liberate the mankind.

Bhami has returned to her village. There she goes on the top of the hill, ahead of her maternal uncle. She is my student. I have come here to teach and civilize her. But her each step taken towards her village sounds as if saying, “no…no.. Teach me not”.