The turning point

It is Sia’s convocation today. She will be one of the medical practitioners who can change the face of rural India.

When she invited me, I made sure that she invites her parents too, though we knew they would not turn up. She was here with me until a little while ago before going to join her friends.

As I sat there waiting for the ceremony to start, my mind wandered away to an afternoon about twelve years ago.

The road was empty, and I drove fast. An object in blue and white came in a flash in front of my car. My foot somehow reached the breaks and the car stopped with a SCREECH, but not before brushing against the object and knocking it down.

“What the hell!” I muttered getting out, and noticed it was a small girl of about eight years, lying on the road. Her eyes resembled that of a mountain deer caught unaware.

I went near and extended a hand to help her up on her feet. She got up, and started sobbing. Behind us I heard heavy breathing, and looking back, saw a middle aged lady, with face red and panting.
I felt the girl’s hand clutching around mine and turned to see her trying to hide behind me.

“How dare you run away from my class?” the lady was shouting. Across the road there was a school.. There were no other children outside classrooms.
“Irresponsible, Idiot! Why did to get in MY class?”
I felt the grip tightening on my arm.
“Come with me, we are going to the Principal’s office.” The lady came around me and tried to drag her, with the girl disappearing further behind me.

“Excuse me.” I said “What is going on?”
“You keep away from this, Lady”, she looked at me venomously “You don’t know what you are dealing with.”
“I would like to know.”
“None of your business” She snapped.” I am her teacher and I am taking her to the principal.”
The girl’s sobs increased. I decided I must go with them.

I whispered to the girl: “Let me park the car.” She reluctantly let go of my hand.
“I am coming with you.” I told the lady making my voice stern, and then got into the car to park it on the side of the road.

The girl was struggling against the lady who was trying to pull her. She became calmer as I came nearer. It appeared as if she was seeing a savior in me, and I felt a pang of helplessness.

“What are you going to do?” I scolded myself “This is just another one of your foolish adventures.”

The principal, en elderly gentleman looked at us in resentment and asked the lady, giving me a sidewise glance “Who is she?”
“This girl got away from my class and almost got run over by her car. She insisted on coming along” And she looked at me as if I am an unwanted baggage.

She then recounted how bad Sia is in studies, how she disturbs others in class, how she asks unnecessary questions and confuses all.

Sia waited there expressionless as if this was not at all about her.

“Mind if we continue this discussion without Sia here?” I asked the principal.
He was hesitant, and then told Sia “Go to your class.”

I then learned that Sia was an only child, her father a drunkard and mother having a love life of her own. Sia was a bright kid, not bothering to put any effort to learn and trying to get the attention in class by all means.

“Can we do something about this?” I asked.
“We?” he asked with the sarcasm in his voice like a whip slashing across my face. “You spoilt young people don’t belong here. You show all this concern and I am sure I will never see you again. This is a government school and we have limitations.”

“Can I meet her again?”
“What for?”
“I would like to speak to her, and see whether I can help.”
“Are you a counselor?”
“No, I am a software engineer.”
“I see.” Sarcasm again “I have no problem, if you have enough time to waste.”

So it started. I went there next week to meet her with a story book.
She was not excited however did accept the book.
I talked to her about a movie I watched recently and my niece who was then three years old. She was silent most of the time. I left after an hour. This continued for couple of weeks, and she slowly started trusting me. She told me that she liked physics and biology most. Slowly and steadily she started showing interest in class and did her homework regularly. She also started looking forward to our meetings.
I took her home and introduced to my parents. They started exchanging letters and she wanted to show them her score cards whenever she scored good grades.

I felt immense satisfaction and joy from every step of progress she made. I shared this with my friends and couple of them became interested. We then formed a group called ‘Big Buddies’ and started supporting kids who needed help.

These kids, with their innocence and unconditional trust, transformed our casual aimless lives to something worthwhile and kept on rewarding us by the display of exemplary talent, either academically or otherwise.

“Didi” (meaning sister) Sia appeared. “We go in the order of grades. I will have to go second.”

I watched her go up the podium and receive her degree. She said “I want to live my life such a way that someone needy would benefit from it. Also, I owe this opportunity to the one person who stood up for me when I needed it most”, and pointed at me.

She then came straight to me and hugged me tight, tears running down our cheeks. Thank you, Sia, for being the turning point in my life.

(Word count: 1000)