Shishur Sevay

I posted the following on FB today.  Mostly I think of FB where I try out some ideas and don’t work hard to formulate full and reasoned thoughts.  But lots of people liked my spontaneous writing, and I used to do it more on the blog, so i thought I’d talk about today, what’s on my mind.  here is what I posted on FB:

special moments… the girls come home from school and Jelly, our dog sneaks in with them as they come in the doorway. They laugh, scold her, and try to carry her out as she wiggles. ordinary life, what they need the most, and what I enjoy the most.

So that made me think about what a really “normal” family we are, just that there are lots of us, and I am a single mom, as I was before.  But I have lots of help.  That’s a major difference.  And when the girls come in, and the dog slips in with them, it feels as normal as my life ever did.  It’s late now, and the girls are giggling at the supper table.  We are eating in shifts some days now because the girls are in three different schools with different hours, and now since the trouble at school, four also go out in the evening for “tuition.”  The ones who go to school all day have rice for breakfast to fill them.  But by the time they eat, two others have already left for school at 6:15.  Harmonium and singing practice start at 6:15 am, and then studies with Seema Di from 6:45-8.  And the day goes on this way, with kids coming and going (always accompanied when they are out) and teachers coming for individual girls who are here at different hours.  Gibi comes and monitors some of the classroom work, and goes for the afternoon pick-up.  She usually leaves after prathana at 6pm. Three special educators teach the girls with disabilities from 9 am to 1.  Another comes at five to work with Ganga on computer.  Today I told the teachers that I want more content in the teaching for Ganga and Bornali.  I”ve started a new academic effort for Ganga.  She is probably more motivated to learn than ANY of the 12 girls but her inability to speak makes people think she is a little child.  I think I’ve written this before.  It’s on my mind a lot.

OK, there IS something on my mind that is not safe for me to write about.  It is every parent’s fear that a negative encounter with a school will result in punishment or expulsion of their children.  Therefore I cannot talk about what is on my mind.  But suddenly today, I found in my head a make-believe-story, that like TV shows, carries a disclaimer that it bears NO RESEMBLANCE to any situation or people it might resemble.  Got it?  This is NOT a true story!  This story has absolutely nothing to do with any events here.  It is only coincidental that I thought of it today.

Once upon a time in a big city in a South American country (unnamed) there were five orphan girls who had learned a lot and came to be admitted to a fine school!  This was a school very proud of its values of generosity and the King of the school was very happy to have five orphan girls there.  Everyone was happy until one day the  North American Lady who was a mother to the children had a dream that there was no water in the school for when the children went to the bathroom.  The NA Lady thought her dream was true!  So she went to the school to see if her dream was real!  But even after the King explained that they used invisible water and showed her the invisible water, she continued to believe no water was there!  A crowd of teachers came and stood around her.  Everyone showed her how they washed in the invisible water. 

They said, “We cannot see God, but we know He is there.  We cannot feel the water…,”  but before they could finish the NA Lady called out, “..BECAUSE IT IS NOT THERE!!!!”  She could not feel the water and could not lie.  She even could feel God, but she still could not feel the water at the school!!!!! The King was shocked speechless!

The King could not forgive her, and carried a vendetta deep in his heart.  So sometimes he did mean things to the orphan children.  He tried to shame them.  But the children would not be shamed because they knew in their hearts that when water cannot be felt or seen, it is not there.  And they were proud too, because their mother’s dreams were true, and the children had come to love hearing about her dreams, even if they caused trouble at school.

And they all lived happily ever after.

You see, they were just a typical normal family with a stay-at- home mother who sometimes made trouble at the school.