MY MOM RETIRES AS HEADMISTRESS! (A successful journey of a mother shared by her daughter Ketaki Barde, also a teacher)

For years together every 31^st May is the end of a long vacation for school teachers. But the 31^st May this year marks the end of an era in the world of teaching itself for my mother, Mrs. Savita Borate. She retires as the Headmistress of Maharashtra High School, Upnagar, Nashik (the school that in recent years came to limelight on account of the UNO acclaimed Ozone Day Celebrations under her guidance and leadership).

On the 29^th May 1973 a young girl, Miss Mangal Keshav Mandavgane, B.A. (Hons.) in English from Jalgaon stepped into a new world in Nashik. The young man (T. S. Borate) she was married to was a professor of English in a local college. He has been a respectable self-made man who adheres to his own principles and is ready to face the consequences thereof. As she started sharing a new life with him, the young girl entered the new role of a mother. I was born on 29^th July 1974. The first four years of her life thereafter passed raising me, but then she became restless with thoughts about her own future. There were dreams to be brought into the world of reality, one of her father’s dreams being that she should, like himself, be a renowned teacher of English. She took a decision: joined the B.Ed. Course in the city college. That was in the year 1978. It was not easy to pursue her studies, leaving her four year old child for almost the whole day at home in Nashik-Road, daily up and down commutation by road-train (a special and unique means of city transport then introduced by the M.S.R.T.C.) between Nashik-Road and Nashik, which were two independent municipalities then, and then the daily household chores. Her hard and sincere work bore the expected fruits --- she secured a First Class in her B.Ed. After this nothing could stop her from attaining what she is today. She took her first and only job as a teacher in the year 1979. For the last 31 years she has relentlessly done her duty both as a teacher and a mother of two (me and my brother, Advait).

These 31 years just did not slide by smoothly. Life had some dark shades along with the bright ones. My mother faced them courageously. The first two decades of her married life passed by following the same routine. This was because her children were always in the forefront for her. Following their time table, catering to their needs and managing her own school job was life for her. But after my brother joined engineering in Pune, she decided to pursue her M.A. She completed her M.A. from Y.C.M.O.U. at the age of 50 with a First Class. Now it was the beginning of a glorious period in her life. Her seniority at her workplace had the post of Headmistress (the highest rank in her profession!) in store for her. She completed her D.S.M. (Diploma in School Management) before shouldering this responsibility. At the age of 54 my mother was appointed Headmistress of her school. In just about four years she managed to attract ten lakh rupees by way of donations and got a multi-purpose hall built for her beloved school in addition to replenishing the school library by adding to it books worth one lakh rupees. The pride I feel in mentioning this cannot be described in words!

Today, on May 31, 2010 my mother retires after a long successful career. I consider her as the epitome for all working mothers! She has maintained an excellent balance in all her relations.

All that I can do is pray to God to bless her with healthy life for years to come!

Mom! Now is the time for you to enjoy your life to the fullest and go back to your first love - singing - in which you had graduated yourself just as school-going girl in Jalgaon … JUST DO IT!

--- Ketaki Barde

New Era English School, Nashik

My Summer Vacation

In less than 15 days from now the schools will reopen and if Mother Nature is mercifully then students will plod their way towards another academic year with their newly acquired rainy shoes (gum boots) soiled with muck. For some the just elapsed summer vacations will remain like a speck of memory in their soon to be re-formatted brains while for some it will be remain as an essay titled “My Summer Vacation” to be graded by an English teacher who thinks she is of a Victorian descent.

Don’t be surprised as to how I am sure about all this; cos thanks to my parents and now my nephew I seem to consider myself intrinsically involved with the Indian Academic calendar.
Back in school I always thought that vacations were like a rude shock. You think I am out of my mind, but you see the light once you go through the different events which made up my summer vacation in the year 1996 AD.

1) The “hyper active” friends: Vacations are a time to relax. I believe that even now and I am damn sure that I had this view even back in school all through my primary, secondary and higher secondary. Most of us would have been blessed with “hyper active” friends. Yeah, yeah I am talking about the same bunch of guys who used to stay in your building or locality and on the very first day of the summer vacation call for your blood to join them in a cricket match at 6:30AM!!!! You could not lay asleep cos now for the entire month you had to be a part of the team and turning up late for a single match (more so the very first) would not go down well with the management (My building board for control of cricket was much more strict than a certain PCB).

2) The ‘hobby class’: The cricket would not go all day cos now with the vacations TV viewing was a bit less restricted. But that was only after the “Summer Vacation” supplement of the local daily was thoroughly read, the six differences between the 2 pictures meticulously pointed out and yes that picture of the deer and the butterfly was colored with crayons. After this ordeal when TV viewing would begin, in would enter Sunita aunty with a proposal for my mother.
Sunita aunty: So have Advait’s summer vacations begun?
Mother: Yes, today is the first day of the vacation.
Sunita aunty: Oh, this is great. Have you heard that my eldest daughter has just started her own drawing class. I told her I will talk to Borate aunty, she will definitely enroll Advait as he has his summer vacation.
Mother: …
Sunita aunty: We all know how Advait is good at his drawing. Oh what is this. Look how well he has coloured this deer. (looking at the just colored deer. It was more of a modern art job, Mr Hussein would have loved it though)
Sunita aunty: He can start right from today. Why waste a day na.?? He can come over at 10:30am. Don’t worry about the fees, we will take care of that na….(sheepish smile).
Mother: huh…..ok…

3) The load shedding: You are done with cricket, you are done with the ‘hobby class’. Post lunch at 3:00PM you frantically switch on Cartoon Network. Its time for the POWER ZONE to begin. You are ready to absolve everybody (the hyper active friends, Sunita aunty and her eldest daughter) of their sins as you are sure of the feast: SWAT CATS followed by the CENTURIONS followed by THE REAL ADVENTURES OF JHONNY QUEST, when at 3:15PM the lights go off. It is too early in the scheme of things to dream of inverters (we are talking about circa 1996 AD).

4) The uninvited guests: The lights come back at 5:00PM and you thank your stars that atleast I would get to see some WWF action (yes it was WWF then not WWE) when within 5 minutes the doorbell rings and in walk Mr and Mrs Ramamurthy. They are fellow teachers in my mother’s school. Don’t forget that the teachers also have a summer vacation at the same. How I hate their kid who at this very moment would be lapping up the WWF bouts.

5) The journey: Just a week into the vacation, where atleast for the last 2 days I was able to catch up with some cartoons and a few wrestling matches thanks to the endless repeats, my mother stumbles upon the brilliant idea of visiting her brother in Nagpur. Sorry, did I say stumble. I was wrong, infact it was already planned and the rail tickets were booked well in advance. But what is the use of telling a 12 year old a week in advance that he would be taken to Nagpur to his uncle’s place and that he will be back only a week before his school re-opens. Nagpur in the heat of May, just imagine!!!

So Mrs Rodrigues (my English teacher not sure about the Victorian descent) this is my essay on “My Summer Vacation”. When you grade it please take it with more than a pinch of salt!!!!

P.S: My subsequent vacations were much better and I am sure my parents did not refer to the Reader Digest’s “10 ways of Effective Parenting” cover story !!!!