I’ve been hearing this ever since I was a pea sized kindergartener, that school is your second home and teachers your second parents. On a personal note, I like to give it a richer, in depth definition. School and the fellow schoolmates, teachers and everyone we interact to in our school lives form something that is priceless in its own sense and deserves more credit and acknowledgement than we give it in each of our lives.
School is in every sense of the word, is a family. Perhaps the greatest family outside of your own family that we can ever find.
Where shall I begin? Teachers. Direct angels sent from the heavens above, if you ask me. They are, in every way, a parent to you while you are in school, selfless, supportive and unconditional in everything they do. Their contribution to your early stages of life is unparalleled. They form a very crucial part of your school life and are also key ingredients of the optimum recipe for a cherish-able school life.
Then there are your fellow schoolmates and support staff who form this intricate support system which is always there for you, looking out for you, helping you when you are in need, and like a safety net, catching you just in time every time you fall.
I truly understood the meaning of this second family during my current hospital episode and after. Right from the beginning, when I received nearly the entire school as visitors in the hospital during my one month-long hospitalization in Dubai, to when my friend came to Mumbai with a suitcase full of gifts sent by my schoolmates, and even to all of them praying for me day in and day out. Perhaps, I experienced this second-home and second-family effect even more after I returned to Dubai post my nearly a year-long absence. How so? Remember the original plan to re-join and finish school? Well, we proceeded to lay the foundation for that right after we landed back in Dubai. The first step, to no absolute wonder, was to visit my school and meet my principal to figure out this restart (the procedure and stuff, you know). And I got way more than I anticipated. Let me paint this picture for you –
Setting: My School and My First Day Again.
Scene: Enter me. Cool music playing in my head in the background (or at least that’s what it felt like). And quite literally, as I took my first step into the school premises, it felt like the air was electrified and an imaginary beat drop just happened.
All I expected was to meet the concerned people, talk business and fix a date to re-join school. But when I set foot into the senior section corridor, something unexpected happened. As far as I knew, nobody in the school knew I was coming except for my supervisor, as my batch had already graduated and the next batch (soon to be my adoptive one), had taken its place in the senior corridor. But as it turned out, news about my arrival at school spread like wildfire. I was barely a few steps in before the entire senior corridor was filled with students (and teachers) who poured outside of their classrooms to welcome me back, like one does when they see a friend after ages. And it didn’t just stop at hailing and hugging and shaking hands, some of the teachers even came to tears when they saw me walking and looking much better than what they have seen or imagined. They had all seen me in my early stages of the hospital (in ICU with tens of tubes) and in fact followed my entire recovery journey very closely and were very emotionally attached and when they saw me in front of their eyes they just couldn’t stop believe themselves. I had also thought at first that it was just the senior classes that were emptying themselves, but it turns out that even the tiniest of tiny children were flocking to the corridors to meet me. In the midst of all this it was just a flurry of emotions for me, happiness at coming back and meeting everyone, part excitement, and tiny bit tickled at seeing my supervisor shouting at everyone to get back into their classrooms and nobody paying any attention. Sounds kinda weird I know, I mean who does that in the middle of a school day? But trust me, this was exactly what the doctor had prescribed to calm the slight traces of palpitation, anxiety and hesitation that were the residues of my suppressed introvert self. With such a welcome, I almost felt like the most loved boy of the school and an absolutely heart touching welcome back. Almost automatically, there was no question that I was in safe hands because my parents met with to-be classmates and trained them for all my customised emergency aid and precautionary procedures, which they grasped in with great brilliance and speed.
Phew, even my parents were dazed and could not believe what they saw and felt that day. “The Second Family Reunion,” my father remarked after seeing and feeling all this and told the teachers and principal, “how narrow-minded we parents are when we think and expect the school to be an institution for ‘scoring marks and good grades.” “The value of school is far more intrinsic and should be measured in values they imbibe within their cultural fabric.” “They build an entire society.”
And just quite so, once again, my school showed me what an immensely powerful human force it can be, the enormous support, love and prayers that can come from it, that can truly be the deciding factors whether the bud will grow into a flower or not. School bells ringing from here on folks…. So what next??
