Reading Time: 4 minutes
One class by a teacher was so different. Hemashri talks about her daughter’s and her experiences of studying Ozymandias, three decades away, from their respective teachers and the stark differences. She finds real-life Ozymandias in government offices, in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.
It was another session of PTM but the same old suggestion that our daughter can perform better. She cannot be labelled as dumb but yet not the typical studious type she is. She finds her other activities more interesting. Textbooks are dull for her due to her indulgent mother perhaps.To meet her teachers we went to the other building. In the lift, my daughter showed me “Ma she is Gitu ma’am! She is such a wonderful teacher. She taught us Ozymandias and she is the wife of an ACS Officer.” As we went closer I felt like greeting her ‘hello’. When I told her that she is our daughter’s favourite she told me, “But I have taken only one class” Our girl replied “Ma’am you taught us Ozymandias and it was such an interesting class. I enjoyed it.” Just one class and the lady won the heart of my girl! Really interesting! That reminded me of my first encounter with Ozymandias, some 28 years ago!
It was in the year 1988 that I got enrolled in Higher Secondary first-year class in Cotton College after
In the Statistics class, once I found a teacher expressing her annoyance when a student requested her to explain in Assamese. She spoke to him very rudely. He was a brilliant student who was the Best Graduate of our batch!
My daughter and I had studied the poem Ozymandias, in two different ages. The essence of the poem remains the same. The words:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
These remain relevant and valid for all ages and generations.
A teacher won my daughter’s heart in one single class explaining Ozymandias. Three decades ago, in another classroom, an Ozymandias Professor had robbed her mother’s interest in English Literature in a single class! Oh! What a teacher can do in just one class.
Ozymandias Lives on
The real-life Ozymandias that I have to endure in my world outside the home has a red nose and reddish eyes. Arrogance, my Lord, pure unadulterated arrogance to the tip of their noses, whereas their purpose and mission are to serve commoners. Their bloodshot eyes show off rage and scorn that these Ozymandias feel inside their tiny hearts of peanut size.
These are the fat rats who have erased their lesson of Ozymandias. Yet the message remains relevant and universal for every generation.
I do not know if their lesson on Ozymandias got erased by time. I recall the closing lines of Shelly’s poem:
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
One class changed it all for both of us, mother and daughter. Oh, Ozymandias!
©Hemashri Hazarika
Photos from the Internet
#Ozymandias #Poems #CottonCollge #TeachersOfLife #MotherAndDaughter #GovernanceGaullimaufry #DifferentTruths