I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jamie Adams for this opportunity. This is my first guest post ever. Corporal punishments are now banned. This poem is about incidents that happened more than 24 years ago.
I saw a dream
I was back in my high school
Again to learn some discipline
There were total strangers
But a man stood out
He was the dreaded frog-eyed man
The principal and headmaster
He had difficult eyesight,
But he had a good hearing capability
He had strict rules for the school
The school was silent like a library mostly
Smacking with a stick was legal in
his era, If you're late, you get
smacked, We had fearful days in
school, Teachers looked for a reason
to expel us from the class, To be
caught by him during his long walk
twice a day, Looking for preys to take to
the office room, To give warning and smacking
Students tried to do homework at all costs,
We tried not to make any nuisance,
Even during class with no tutoring due to fear,
It's more fearful if he asks to bring our parents,
He would talk about the performance of
ward at school, And our parents give him the right
to discipline their wards, He would mercilessly
fail students who he doesn't have faith, In keeping
the hundred percentage record of the school,
in the state level exams in the tenth standard,
Those who survive the cull had extra classes,
And he used to monitor our progress closely,
We had to get a signature from a parent,
That we did all the tasks on the checklist daily,
Without that teacher would make us stand,
We would hide on the sides of the window,
As he has difficulty seeing around,
One day he caught me standing during the
lunch break, I was asked to perform 100 squats
publicly, With my hands on my ears, The school's
good reputation was built by him, More than fear,
The urge to get good marks drives students to study
hard, The pride in being part of the glory of the school
help us too, It's funny to think now, he taught us not to
waste food, He used to check our lunch boxes after eating,
He taught us to wear dhoti, By making it a uniform on Fridays,
He was in front to feast us on a special day, The one rupee coin
he gave on Vishu is still special, The school assemblies and his
address, Remain a distant memory!
I saw my high school principal again in my dream last night. So I felt he is an appropriate topic to write on. I was scared of him and his punishments. He had an aura about him. Image from Adobe Stock.