Miss Alice was surprised. On the first day of the new academic year all her L.K.G students had been promoted to U.K.G., but Babloo was sitting in her class.
“Babloo you were promoted. You have to go to Std I.”
Babloo smiled and said, “No ma’am. I am comfortable here. Please let me sit here.”
“Your friends are in the other class; go and join them.”
“No ma’am, I don’t want to. I will be here with you.”
Holding his hand, the teacher took him to the next classroom.
Last year, when Babloo had joined her class, his mother had told her that his father had gone to Dubai and that there was no news about him for the last five years. “Now, I have to go out and work. I finish work at 5.30 p.m. Can you leave him with the security till then?”
“Don’t worry,” Alice assured her. “I stay nearby. I am here till 6 p.m. There are other children with working parents. I take care of them.”
The children played and when they were tired, they listened to the stories she narrated. Babloo picked up her good accent and language too. She would keep a sandwich for him in case he was hungry.
Everyday at lunch time Babloo was back. “Miss. Alice , please open my lunch box.”
Through the years
He was always there asking for help. “Miss. Alice, please help me to do this sum.” “Miss. Alice, help me to write about my pet.”
When he was in Std. VI, while playing football, he fell and hurt himself. The P.T teacher came to him, but he ran to Alice. “Miss Alice, can you apply some medicine?”
Soon, Babloo was out of college and graduating with an engineering degree. He got a job in the U.S. He came to Miss Alice and say good bye.
Years passed and Miss. Alice was getting old. She fell very ill and had to be admitted in hospital. Babloo heard this and came down to see his beloved teacher. When he saw his old teacher, he was saddened. She had become thin and frail, and did not open her eyes. He knelt at her bedside and called out to her, “Miss Alice! Miss Alice!”
The teacher’s eyelids fluttered open. It was a miracle; she had listened to her student yet again.
