2 Fellows – A villain and a few Mothers – A Masala story

Perhaps it was the statement, “I am the government here” or maybe it was the sight of a big black gate, built illegally, smack in the middle of a government approach road to our school, whatever it was that motivated a bunch of ordinary teachers, ordinary parents and ordinary everyone to take on and humble the might of a local strongman and the local M.L.A.

Act 1: The day began just like any other day at school except it was the annual day for the school. Amidst the hustle bustle and taking the art and craft materials to the venue close-by, there was only one inconvenience, the illegally built black gate across the road was closed and only the side door was open allowing only manual entry. Why you wonder, well the gate was put forth by the local strongman…because he wished and he kept it closed, because he wished. Every time a vehicle had to pass, you had to get down, open the gate and then cross, get down again to close it and then go.

One of the TFI fellows in the school simply thought it to be too ridiculous and just opened the gate. Little did he know that all hell will break loose by this simple act. Out came the 5 foot 6 inch strongman and his even shorter brother from both sides of the street, threatening that centuries ago, their great-grandfathers had ruled there and now also their writ runs in the area. Well the fellow was not impressed being from a defense background and he simply walked away. Something told the strongmen and their cronies that a fight there and then may prove costly!!

Act 2: Well as any good villain, our strongmen also promptly called up re-enforcements and closed off the government road. Their claim, “Here, we are the government”. Their demand, that until all school teachers apologize and the fellow is thrown out of school, the school shall remain shut. The principal declared a 2 day holiday to try and resolve the issue. The school management tried all diplomatic channels but good villains as they were, they blocked the road with 4 men sitting across the road on sofas with sticks and rods.

At that point, while the teachers were still debating on the next course of action, we heard one parent, mother of a student say, “Sir, will NOT apologize and neither will we”. Suddenly all the parents around joined the chorus and suddenly we knew what had to be done. We realized that our biggest strength were our parents. The 2 fellows in the school along with other school teachers set about mobilizing the parents against this hooliganism for an entire day and planned a 100 people strong march to the local elected representative, the next day.

Act 3: Morning 8, surprisingly the word spread like wildfire and we get a sizeable gathering of 150 plus parents, but there was something peculiar about this bunch. Apart from a couple of males, all the gathering was comprised of mothers with whom the fellows had build relations in the school and in the community and who knew that the fellows were not wrong and were willing to fight for their children’s education. Well the crowd marched to the huge mansion of the local M.L.A (wondering how he ever managed to get a palace on a 25k salary???). After an hour’s wait, the public servant came out and before we could say anything, declared, “Sir, has to apologize…after all we are Patils…kings, our law works here”. Soon we realized that the M.L.A is a cousin of the strongman and soon enough the strongman came and sat next to the M.L.A, mocking us. The M.L.A had a simple logic, “the fellows will go after 2 years, but you have to live here (do I hear a veiled threat???)…they anyways are not Marathis, then why are you bothered…Sir will have to apologize”. He passed his judgment and was about to walk off, when again a voice resounded…a mother…”Sir, will not apologize and if he goes then you will also go”. Soon enough, there were more than 100 ladies speaking to him and one of them made a point that a lady represents a family and 100 ladies will talk to 1000 families which is enough to make him lose the next election. After calling him a eunuch, they walked off, declaring that next day they will send their children to school…no matter what!!. The fellow standing there realized that this assertion was just not about this event, it was a revolt against repression, pent up for many years, finding expression and he knew that this was a special moment in the fellowship journey.

Act 4: The day the school is supposed to open, the fellow decides to come in early and be among the first to try and cross the gate…we enter the lane…lo and behold, the gates are open!! It seems, the local M.L.A apologized to the local strongman on behalf of school as he did not want the children to suffer, or so the story goes. The mothers came, the children came along with them and the teachers taught. Everyone had a slight smile on their lips…the gates were open, something had changed!!

Notes:

School name: Sunrise EMS Pune
Fellows: Shashank Shukla and Sandeep Malareddy (both 2010fellows)