A Tribute

Yesterday I went for the funeral of one of my school teachers. She was 88 years of age and had led a full life. She had touched all our lives in many ways and this we realized much later in life. No child of the school could avoid her and the reason for this was the fact that she was our physical instructress, a job she did with full throttle and with great pride. My first interaction with her was when I reached high school, (6th to 11th grade). She made sure that each and every student of the school played any one of the many games that the school offered. There were no excuses for not participating and the girls who could stay out were the ones with grave physical impediment. I really felt sorry for them as they were missing out on what was to all of us an enjoyable pursuit.

The games period was after school hours and the whole school was divided into two groups for this purpose. Grade 6 to grade 8 would have it on Mondays and Wednesdays and grade 9 to grade 11 would have the games hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since 3 classes were together, we formed teams that had students from other classes and hence this helped us to mingle with our seniors and juniors thus enabling us to be a family unit. All this was masterminded by none other than our physical instructress Mrs. Sosamma Mathew. She was such a disciplinarian and conducted the games hour with clock work precision. I could call her a ring master for like the ring master in the circus she could get us all to do whatever she thought we should be doing. It goes without saying that she was a good athlete and sports woman and excelled in all the games that the school offered. She taught us games that had not seen the light of day in India, like Rounders and Baseball. Then of course there was the usual Throwball, Netball and Tennikoit. I used to play tennikoit. I remember vividly her telling us that the scoring was in the tennis format, because she felt that in doing so, it would be easier for us to follow the game of tennis. She looked ahead and was thoughtful. Now when I look back and try to calculate her age, I realize she would have been in her late 40’s and 50’s when we were in school. However her actions were like that of a youngster and she would move around the games field as if she had wheels on her heels. She did not have to call out for anything as she had several whistle tones for the various actions she expected from the students. Nothing missed her eyes and anyone trying to hoodwink her, was sure to attend a couple of detention classes. Those were the golden days when the teacher reigned supreme in a school and her word was the law.

The highlight of Mrs. Mathew’s year was the annual school sports. School sports meant that the whole school participated. It is no mean feat to organize over 600 students to participate in an event. There were the athletes and then there were the majority who belonged to the other category. I belonged to the latter, but when it came to sports I was a star in my own way. In her ingenuous way she had a bag full of relays organized for heavy weights like me and thus every year saw me and my likes take part and come out winners. I wonder if any other school had sports with so many participants. The march past that we put up was indeed so excellent that we used to get the City Police band to come and play for us. I have heard it being said by the boys of various city schools as to what an event our sports turned out to be. I wonder if the Good Shepherd sports has the same sheen now. I have witnessed other school sports and I know that in a scale of 1-10, if our score was 9, others were a lowly 3-4. I am not biased but that was exactly the way it was. The build up to the sports day really saw Mrs. Mathew get into her elements!!!

Another wonderful quality that she had was the fact that she was so fair and just. She had no favourites and she never failed to reprimand the one who was in the wrong. Even the fact that her daughter Molly was our classmate did not give us an edge. Yesterday I met Molly and the rest of the family and witnessed their sorrow and grief. If I thought it my duty to attend her funeral even after 36 years of leaving school, you can imagine the impact she must have had on me. I am glad I had the opportunity to offer my condolence and pay my homage. This article is a small tribute to a person who had touched my life and brought in me a sense of discipline and the love for sports. She had inculcated in all her students the sense that nothing was impossible. She may not have produced a P.T. Usha, but instead she inculcated in thousands of youngsters good human values apart from the love for sports. I salute this fine lady and may there be teachers like her who can motivate the young generation.

Long live her tribe!!!