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The Teacher

by M.Mohankumar

Two men revisit their school days and dwell on a teacher who taught one of them a valuable lesson for life. The Teacher, a poem by M. Mohankumar is about that conversation.

‘He was a great teacher,’ he said,
recalling our old school days
across a span of thirty years.

‘Do you remember the day
he slapped me in the face?’

‘I do,’ I said. ‘We were stunned,
every one of us in the class.’

‘I’d dozed off.’ he said. ‘He came
rushing but there was no anger
in his face, only disappointment.’

‘The pain,’ he said after a pause,
‘did not last long, but the sound
still reverberates in my mind.’

‘The sound of one hand’*, I said.

‘That changed my life,’ he said,
‘That and his words in the autograph:
dharmarthakama samameva savya’ **

My friend is now the M.D
of a multinational company.

*A famous Zen koan
**Partake of righteousness, wealth and pleasures in equal measure.

Mohankumar has published seven volumes of poetry in English. His poems have appeared in almost all reputed literary magazines in print in India. His first collection of short stories in English, ‘The Turning Point and Other Stories’ has been published by Authorspress, Delhi . Mohankumar retired as Chief secretary to Government of Kerala.

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