The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
(A Short Story by M. Menonimus)
The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
The term ‘Venture School Teacher’ is a queer phrase made up of three known words. You will find the term in no dictionary-neither in English nor in any other Indian languages nor in other standard or vernacular world languages, nor do you find the use of this term in any other states of India except in the official documents of Assam. It is a peculiar invention of some broad-minded, long-handed, highly intelligent, higher educated, far-sighted, well-experienced, big-headed, powerful aristocratic Government officials of Assam, a north-eastern state of greater India and this strange phrase prove how fertile and creative the Assamese Government officials are who have been holding tight the mechanism of governing the naive people of the land since the time of independence! The term ‘Venture School’ is invented to refer to a class of schools that have been established by the general public at their own expense, feeling the dire necessity of educating the age-long illiterate nation, after the permission of the Government. Initially, the government gives cheerful opening permission and then remains, indifferent and blind to them. This class of schools is deprived of any government aid, land grant, building and other facilities; the children are denied to provide a mid-day meal and the teachers are pathetically deprived of their salary year after year. There are about two thousand such venture schools in Assam. About half of the total children of the state take their education in such schools.
Ashad is such a venture school teacher. He is born to poor peasant parents living in a village. He is an M. A. in English. And after passing the Post Graduate Examination he devoted himself to the mission of educating the poor village children and hence he has been teaching in J. K. Higher Secondary School since 1997. By the by one decade and seven years have passed. Within this period of seventeen years, he has suffered a lot. His school is about eighteen kilometres away from his home. Every day he has to spend fifty rupees on bus fare. For the first two years, he could manage the fare somehow. But from his third year, he could not. Since then he takes to a walk on foot to his school. It takes about two hours to reach his school on foot and another two hours for his return journey. His financial condition is so forlorn that despite his much endeavour he fails to purchase a bicycle. Every year he hopes that the government would come to sense and appreciate the plight of the venture school teachers. But his hopes get dry within his heart. Just before the constituency election, the existing government promises to provincialize these schools after the election and when the election is over the government forgets the existence of those schools. Thus month after month, year after year the venture school teachers have been becoming the victim of the false promises of the government.
Ashad is an early riser as he is the only working person in his family. His family is comprised of two children- Asha and Nisha, his old mother and Ashad himself. His wife Munami left him after the birth of his two children. Munami is the only daughter of a high school teacher. Until her marriage, she was unacquainted with poverty. First three years of their conjugal life, she remained with her poor husband biting her teeth. But in the fourth year, after giving birth to two children, she lost all her hope to be happy with poverty-stricken Ashad and left her husband leaving the two children behind with their father. Since then all the burdens, including the burden of the two children, fell solely on Ashad himself. Already fourteen years have passed. His wife had remarried off to a wealthy widower. Since then Ashad has been living like a bachelor. His two daughters have got maturity. For want of means, they have been deprived of giving proper education. Every day he imagines his wife and gets disappointed. Sometimes he thinks that if his school gets provincialized, then his poverty would come to an end and then he would provide his children with adequate education, he would get remarried and live a happy life. As the skylark keeps gaping up her mouth for the rain to quench her thirst so he keeps waiting to get his school provincialized.
Ashad, on a Monday morning, after performing household duties, makes a hurry to get ready to go to school. He holds his long pants and shirt in his hand from the hooks and is about to wear them. But he finds that the chain of his pants has got stuck. Moreover, the thigh of the pants has worn out. Such is the condition of his shirt. This pair of dresses was bought from a second-hand garment shop about seven years ago. Every day, when he goes to wearing the dress, he feels the urgency of replacing this pair of dresses. But the chance has never turned up. He falls into a dilemma and thinks about what to do. Then he takes a needle in his hand and tries to patch the pants but he fails. Already he hears a loud roaring and thundering of the cloud and it begins to rain heavily. He feels the need for an umbrella. But how can an umbrella be had by him whereas he can hardly buy food? His mind ceases to work. He lies long on his pallet. He closes his eyes and sees that he is in the sea of darkness and he has no strength left to swim across the sea. Then from the other room, his elder daughter calls out, “Father, it is ten o’clock. Would you not go to school today?” But there was no reply. Then she goes on to her father’s room and finds that he is lying headlong on his bed. She calls her father again in a loud voice but still, there was no reply. Then she touches her father and gives a jerk on his arm. But neither does he seem to move nor stir. He is already dead.
His two daughters along with the old mother begin to make a loud outcry. The neighbouring people come. Among them, an old man turns the head of the deceased, throws his eyes over the visage and utters, “Miserable venture school teacher, you deserve such a death.” 0 0 0
The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
N.B. The short story ‘The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher’ originally belongs to the book ‘The Fugitive Father and Other Stories‘ by Menonim Menonimus. The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
The Portrait of A Venture School Teacher
Books of Composition by M. Menonimus:
- Advertisement Writing
- Amplification Writing
- Note Making
- Paragraph Writing
- Notice Writing
- Passage Comprehension
- The Art of Poster Writing
- The Art of Letter Writing
- Report Writing
- Story Writing
- Substance Writing
- School Essays Part-I
- School Essays Part-II
- School English Grammar Part-I
- School English Grammar Part-II..
Books of S. Story by M. Menonimus:
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