From Ex-Students With Love: A  Duplex House to Their Teacher

A couple of days back, on 25 August 2009, there was news in Times of India, about an eighty-year-old retired teacher in a small village in Tamilnadu. The teacher used to teach Tamil in a school and was loved by his students for his excellent oratory and in-depth knowledge in the subject. The students whom he taught did not forget him and one fine morning they assembled in the hometown of the teacher and presented him with a duplex house as a gesture to let him know as to how intensely his students loved him. 

The teacher worked in various schools in that area for many decades and then retired from his job and granted a monthly pension. On the day, he retired from his service; he was under heavy debts out of the loans he took for solemnizing marriages of his two daughters. 

A major portion of his pension was spent on paying back the installments of the loans and he was left with a small portion of his pension for the survival of the old couple. He lived such type of life for quite some time until the day about a dozen young men assembled at his rented house and introduced themselves as his ex-students. The teacher identified each of his purple when they disclosed their names and the year they studied in his school.

It was a very emotional reunion between a teacher and his students. It was more a pleasant surprise for the teacher because usually the students do not remember their teachers when they grow up in their adulthood. The current age of corporate world is more practical rather than being emotional with feelings of compassion. Nevertheless, the teacher and his wife enjoyed the couple of hours with the youngsters who converged to pay tribute to their teacher with lovely gifts and words of appreciation for their teacher. 

This reunion was not the end of the story because the story was yet to take off after the visit. These ex-students of the teacher went back to their places and then contacted their friends who were also the ex-students of the teacher.  Finally, the tally reached at an unbelievable number of 200 odd young men including software professionals, management professionals, industrialists and other intellectuals.
In spite of the fact that every one of them was capable, they reached to a amicable conclusion that a joint gift should be presented to the teacher for making his life comfortable and to let him know that his students loved and cared for him even after many decades. This was more a matter of compassion rather than sympathy for the teacher whom they found in utter poverty. The school alumnae believed that the teacher provided them the launching pad for their successful journey that took them to souring heights of fortunes.

A few months passed yet the teacher and his wife did not forget the surprise visit of his old students.  Both of them usually remembered the day of reunion with the old students. One similar morning about two hundred plus youngsters converged around the rented house of the teacher. They formed a queue and started touching the feet of the couple one after the other.

Tents were erected; carpets were laid and within a couple of hours, the surroundings of the teacher’s dwelling were converted into a celebration extravaganza. The teacher could not believe on his eyes when he saw many dignitaries of his area invited to the venue.   It was a grand celebration of the reunion between the person who gave the knowledge and the crowd of the disciples who were preached knowledge by their teacher.

The finale was even more surprising when the teacher was taken to a new duplex house and was handed over the key and documents of the house. The couple could not believe the turn of events that was happening to them in reality.