Two sons

A teacher was distributing sweets among her colleagues. No one had seen her so happy and so excited ever before. Smiles and laughter were uncontrollably springing from her face. She had even forgotten that Parents Meetings were going on in the classrooms just beside this staff room.

“How’s this possible? My child had never got a B1 grade. He always gets A1, in the least case A2. What’s B1?” – a mother was shouting showing the report card to every teacher and every staff member in the school. She had even forgotten that so many parents had gathered there for Parents’ Meeting.

Her son was standing there – completely perplexed – feeling a strange inferiority complex, an imposed guilt and an embarrassment for his mother’s behaviour in front of his friends and their parents.

“Look at his papers. How stupid, silly mistakes! He knows the formula to find area of a circle. But he has forgotten to square r. He knows when Vasco-da-gama came to India. But he has written the year of Columbus’ discovery of West Indies. He knows S stands for Sulphor; but he has matched it for Sodium. How stupid!”

Her anger went extremes when she saw her son’s name in the second place on the toppers’ list. ‘Aarohan’ was the name in the first place. “Who cares who’s Aarohan! My son has been pushed down to the second place for the first time. What a shame! I have to do something about this”

She couldn’t stand there for a minute. While returning home furiously, she heard the celebration-laughter from the staff room that she was passing by. A teacher in the uniform was holding a box of sweets in her hand.

“May I know why these sweets are being distributed madam?” – asked the angry mother. With no patience to wait for the answer, she continued “Oh! You must be the mother of that boy who has stood first. What’s his name? Avarohan?.. or something. I now understand, how it’s a special privilege for students whose mothers are teachers here!!”

The teacher with the sweet box suddenly became silent; came close to the parent and said “Well, all the students are our children. In that sense, yes, Aarohan is also my child. But that’s not why I am distributing sweets now. My son at home is a special child, same as your son’s age, almost 8 years. He has, for the first time, identified me today and palely uttered ‘maa’. And the doctor had said, once he starts identifying, he will eventually learn his daily chores just in some years. It started today. Hence I am so happy.

Mother went back and saw the toppers’ list again. There were eight names below her son’s.