Letter from Anjali

It is just another regular evening and ANJALI is finishing her homework. The smile is fading in back on her innocent face as she looks forward to a fun evening with her NANI. NANI is the only family she has since her parents passed away in an accident many years ago. NANI is a retired teacher and a widow but as sombre as it may sound, she is just an opposite personality with a lot of positivity and enthusiasm for life. Her energy is contagious and makes people forget their life’s worries for the few moments they spend in her company. The strength she gets to live her life to fullest comes from watching her little princess ANJALI grow happily and by teaching the underprivileged children, who she believes one day will go to big schools and universities and she tries hard to make them believe in it as well.

But today her smile appears a bit forced as she returns home after teaching the children, she looks tired and a little worried too. Whatever be the reason NANI takes care that it does not affect ANJALI so she puts up a happy face and plays on. She watches ANJALI’S favourite show on television with her, makes her favourite snacks and enjoys gazing at the stars through the telescope which she gifted her on last birthday.

Later in the night after putting ANJALI to bed she spends a moment in front of her late husband’s framed photograph. In her monologue she talks about the day. She tries to fake a smile again but she is too weak emotionally to do it here. She exhales as she gives up and confesses. She tells him that she is worried that she might lose the students with the arrival of monsoon as she teaches them outside in open air. It has taken a lot of convincing and hard work to get them to the class and once she loses them, they may never come back. She can’t afford to rent a place or make arrangement to cover the place either as she can only spend part of her pension on running this class, most of which is spent in buying books and stationaries for the children. She can’t touch the savings left by her husband as it is for ANJALI’s higher education and whatever little she has saved is hardly enough for any kind of emergency but it is better than nothing. But again, if she can’t save her class then one of her greatest motivations to live life would be gone.

Earlier in the evening her otherwise genuinely cheerful NANI behaving a little strange had caught ANJALI’S attention and she sensed something was not right. So, she could not sleep but faked it when NANI was trying to put her to sleep, so she could rest. After NANI was gone, she decided to speak with her and ask but never did she know that she would walk straight into NANI’S moment of confession. ANJALI returns back to her room without saying anything.

Restless, she paces around and thinks hard. Then pulls out the drawer of her study table takes out her favourite writing pad and begins writing a letter… The heading of the letter says ‘Help my Nani’.

Time passes by…the world outside goes quiet and almost dark. Only the street lights and the two windows of this house break the cover of darkness but one blinks eventually and the other… it stays on.

The day breaks and life flows with usual monotony. In few hours’ time ANJALI is at school but not in her classroom. She is standing outside the staff room. A little nervous she appears to be mustering courage to do something.

Back at house, NANI has settled down after finishing the regular chorus. She picks up a notebook of one of her students to check but cannot concentrate. Voices of rejections echoes in her mind…’we need a bread earner madam, what will he do wasting time at school’…’we will find a boy soon and get her married, she needs to learn washing and cooking not all this’…’how long can you help them madam…one day they will end up in the squalor they were born in…’

ANJALI is sitting in her class with a blank expression while her class teacher, Mr. Mehra is explaining a topic to the classroom. She is twiddling her fingers and appears a little preoccupied. The period bell rings in sometime. Mr. Mehra wraps his things and leaves the classroom, strangely ANJALI gets up and follows. It gets the attention of few of her classmates as it is not lunch break yet but they soon find better things to do.

Mr. MEHRA sits at his desk in the staff room and pulls his drawer to keep his things when he sees a letter, hand written letter by a child and it says ‘Help My Nani’. ANJALI watches him read the letter and a smile breaks on her face. She turns around and goes back to her class.

As Mr. Mehra reads the letter, his colleague Mrs. D’ Costa also returns after taking her class and she too finds a similar letter under pile of books she had left behind… in just matter of little time every teacher and non-teaching staff finds a letter strategically placed for them to take notice.

Later in the day after school is over and everyone has left, Mr. Mehra gets up to leave for the day, he throws a last look at his desk and notices the letter again. He very gently picks it up and walks out. He does not go towards the school entrance but reaches the principal’s office and waits for him to be called in. In sometime Mrs. D’Costa comes. They both smile at each other but say nothing. Another teacher joins them and then another. Soon almost whole of school staff gathers there but no one says anything but just keep exchanging formal and fake smiles. The peon who is as confused as most of the people gathered here notices the letter in Mr. Mehra’s hand clutched together with few notebooks. He quickly puts his hand in his pocket and takes out a similar letter. He connects the dots and wastes no time in asking everyone if it is the letter that brought them here to meet the principal. The silence and nods around confirm his guess.

Somewhere under the open sky, NANI is trying to motivate her class and trying to explain the importance of education. She reiterates her belief that every student stands a chance to go to bigger school and later universities if they don’t give up. While the students try to figure out the melancholic speech, NANI gets a call. It is the principal from ANJALI’S school.

Principal surrounded by the entire school staff is talking over the speaker phone. The principal goes on to empathise with her, telling her about how much she admires her for raising ANJALI all by herself. She shares her pain which she goes through in managing to afford such an expensive school. Then she tells her about the letter her granddaughter has written asking for help. NANI is shocked. She tries to explain the misunderstanding which she thinks has been caused by the letter. She feels the rage swelling within as her self-respect has been hurt. Even though she is a widow and a retired teacher with a small pension, she has never asked for any help from anyone and today her own granddaughter misunderstood her. She is heartbroken as whatever she does for ANJALI is apparently not good enough.

The principal tells her that it will take a bit of convincing with the school trust but she thinks she can manage. She says she has a proposal for her.

The wind starts blowing stronger…the sky becomes overcast…flashes of lightening is followed by sound of thunder… as NANI hears the proposal over the phone…

The principal ends the conversation by asking her to come to the school the next day. She turns to the school staff and thanks them for bringing this matter to her and expresses her gratitude towards the little girl who brought them all together for this.

NANI has just finished her conversation. She is still in shock at what she just heard when one of her students looking up towards the sky expresses his concern. Soon the rains would come. Where would we go then NANI teacher? NANI teacher as they call her affectionately smiles the brightest smile she has ever in her whole life and proudly says – ‘Like I always say…to a much bigger school!’

It is a new day. The school hours are over and all the children have gone home but the staff has stayed back waiting for someone along with ANJALI. Moments pass by but just before anyone loses patience the school gates open and these children run into the big campus and following them is their favourite NANI TEACHER. They run around testing the rides in the playground before entering a biggest classroom they have ever seen in their lives.

Principal and the school staff welcome them into their class. The principal in her welcome speech thanks NANI for her efforts in spreading the light of knowledge. She also expresses gratitude to her granddaughter who at this tender age understands the value of education for everybody and almost started a movement for it.

She takes one letter out of the bundle on the table. She starts reading it but after few lines her voice dissolves into individual flash backs. They all remember the moment they were reading the letter written to them.

Dear Mehra sir… Dear D’Costa Miss…Dear Gaitonde uncle…

Many more names echo after which the rest of the content follows…

I don’t know how my friend PUMMY’s mother makes her beautiful pony tail…how RAJIV’S mother packs his yummy lunch…I don’t know how BINDYA’s mummy behaves when she is angry with her…I don’t know how she laughs with her very next moment…I don’t know how RAHUL’S PAPA plays with him…how PAYAL’s DAD gets her favourite cake on her birthday… how he covers her mistakes by laughing it off… because I have never seen my parents doing it… God called them back when I was very small child. For me it has been always been my NANI …who makes my pony tail…gets me ready for school…packs my lunch…gets my favourite cake…plays with me and never gets angry…she is always very happy and makes me laugh a lot…but last night she was very sad, I heard her talking to NANA JI’s photograph, she was telling him that her school would shut down when the rains come as she does not have money to make any arrangement. All her students are very poor who can’t even afford their books and school bags. Nani buys it all for them from her pension and she is left with very little after that to spend on anything else. She fears if the rains prevent them from coming to her classes they will never return and that will break her heart.

…I don’t want her heart to break…I don’t want her to be sad ever but I also don’t want any money from you…that will break her heart more as she would not want me to ask for help for her…I know money is not what she needs now…she just needs a good idea… so I just want you to request Principal Madam to let her teach her students in our classroom, after we all go home every day. I want you to request her to give permission till the rains go, after that she will go back with her students…

This way the students will continue coming to her classes and she will always stay happy…

You must be wondering why I did not write this letter to Principal madam? I get very nervous in front her…

So Please… please… please…help my NANI. I will study harder, will not make any noise with the boys anymore, I will not open my eyes during the prayer…I will be your best student…

Thank you

ANJALI

CLASS 5 SECTION B

The principal finishes reading the letter. There is silence all around then somebody starts clapping, he is joined by others and soon the whole classroom starts resonating in the sound of clapping.

The principal then makes an unprecedented announcement and allows NANI TEACHER to conduct her classes everyday after the school gets over. The clapping starts again and this time it is much louder than before.