THE MOTHER AND HIS STUPID SON

The Math teacher in our school was some sort of quaint and different from other teachers. His lanky stature, long often not brushed curly hairs, his beaming eyes, and his always smiling face had a great attraction to all of us. He did not take us as

students but often used to compare us with buds of flowers ready to bloom.

It was very queer to us that he used to give priority to the backbenchers of the class. He always loved to talk to them. The naughty boys who always were busy to invent the various way to tease him and showed disobedience in his class, he used to try to appease them by his affection only.

Though math was his subject he often used to tell us varied stories to inspire all of us in the beginning or at the end of his class. He had a firm belief that even the last boy of the class could prove his excellence and creativity in his own way.

One day he told a story that I still remember. His style of storytelling was so appealing that could make a visual impression in our mind.

He started this way-“My dear little friend, I firmly believe that every one of you can do a unique creation if you yourself believe that -Yes, I can, I can rock the world. But the belief is not only the string of achievement. That is hidden under a box that you have to open with your assiduous persuasion and effort. That is the key to unlock the box and to bring out the treasurer-that is lying dormant within you, lying within everyone.

I’m now going to tell you about a boy who was always restless and always boiling to do something or other, always scolded by the teachers for his inattentive attitude towards the lessons of the class. The school authority became at one that to retain the reputation of the school the boy was to be expelled permanently from the school. But not to hurt the boy openly the principal of the school, one day handed him some candies and a letter addressed to her mother when the classes were ended for the day.

The boy came to the home with delight as he got a very unusual warm behavior from the principal of his school. He merrily showed his mother the candies given to him and handed over the letter to his mother. The mother took the letter from her youngest and most favoured son. While she was going through the letter, tears rolled down from her cheeks. The boy being queered asked her mother-“What makes you crying, mom? Her mother wiped tears hurriedly and said-“ It’s tears of joy my dear” and kissed on his forehead. Your school informed me that your son is a genius but we are unable to provide appropriate teachers for him in this small town. Please get him admitted to a better school in some big towns or city. Look how you are praised by the school but as we can’t bear your separation, I myself will teach you from tomorrow. What a pleasure to me it will be!

The boy from that time never went to any school and got her primary schooling from her mother. But he was very ardent to know and started his journey for knowledge in his own way. He had a knack to make an experiment for anything he got interested.

He was a voracious reader. At the age of 13, he set forth to earn by him as he very often used to purchase books a lot. He started selling peanuts and peppermints

in train compartments. He became interested to learn Morse code as he used to see sending the message by telegraph in the railway station and became a telegraph operator by the help of a kind-hearted railway station master. He started a press and published a local newspaper. This way his interest and curiosity for many things drove him one profession to the other. Later when he became famous as a great inventor after his mother died he went to visit his house in that small town where he spent his childhood. By chance, he discovered that letter written by the principal of the school. He was taken aback when he went through it. It was completely reverse of what his mother told. The letter mentioned that to retain the reputation of the school, they were compelled to expel her son from the school permanently. His son had no attention to study and he was so stupid that none of the teachers could be able to teach him.

When he completed the letter he started sobbing for a long time. He realized how much his mother was shocked and hurt by this letter yet how she encouraged his son in a positive way. The positive way of thinking of the mother turned his son to be a great inventor in the history of the world. He is none but the great Thomas Alva Edison.

“So my dear little friends”, our Math teacher said-“Don’t think that you are good for nothing. If you make effort you may create something better, something new even after the school life, college life, at any stage of your life. You may not be famous but you may create something even for your own sake. Try to unlock the box of the hidden treasure which is waiting for your Midas Touch.”

I like to inform the visitors that this blog is an addition to my earlier blog “Creation-sankarganguly.blogspot.com