Chapter 5: chapter 5

A group of seven uncultured parents reported outside my school premises and declared, "Madam, why the need for online classes? We cannot expose our kids to mobile screens to do the class. Moreover, they will learn to explore unwanted content. They are too small. " One decent-looking lady accompanied by her man remarked, "It will be very difficult to sit with my son as we don't get enough time with all the members of the family at home. He is very stubborn. The business is not going smooth, we will not be able to pay for online education of our kids."  The lady in question had handed over the gadget to the little kid while talking to me during the admission counselling session. The child busily watched cartoons in our entire discourse. His eyes were vigilantly fixated on the mobile screen. She was behaving differently unaware.A stern man retorted rudely, "I am totally against the online class which will spoil the eyes of my kiddo drastically."I was standing locked inside the grilled door in the entrance hall. The guard kept them standing outside but they came closer and closer to the door. To my chagrin nobody was with a mask." These people are the real breakers of law", I spoke from within. I tried my level best to convince this set of parents but to no avail. They were prepared to thrust the gadget upon children for playing games and sending them on mute mode but not for education. Some had their older kids doing the online class as told to me by my teaching staff. Anyway, their sophisticated problems and explanations wearied me out of my wits but I tried keeping my calm and ended, "The classes are not mandatory. If you don't want to take the benefit of the online classes it's your wish."Many schools switched to online learning. I took an orientation online meeting with the parents wherein I explained and demonstrated the advantages of keeping the children engaged with the teacher for about a quarter of an hour because of the uncertain circumstances. Moreover, there were least chances for the reopening of schools. It was a pleasure meeting my kids on the mobile screen after a long hiatus. They greeted me enthusiastically which boosted my morale to take the plunge.Many parents rendered their consent. They downloaded the app and had their doubts cleared. A middle-class mother having her husband posted abroad in the army purchased her first smartphone to enable her daughter's education. The revelation melted my heart to bits. Still many didn't offer their consent. Online classes meant a hole in their pocket in the unforeseen pandemic. And some quietly slipped away after taking two months of benefits. The total strength of the school was reduced to less than half. Mine is a preparatory school, so parents are bound to have exceptional excuses to skip classes or pay the fees. Simultaneously, I started delivering online lectures to the final-year students in the afternoon. I conducted an online internal examination for the promoting batches of students. It was then that I joined Pratilipi and started expressing my thoughts in words. I took part in a poem contest and then in a short story competition which won me a cash prize. I was enthralled and this victory took me to a definite track of writing. I wrote several articles on the pandemic in my leisure. Meanwhile, the virus was spreading rapidly. The areas were divided into red, green and orange zones depending on the number of cases. The red zones were sealed entirely, nobody was allowed to move in and out of them. Soon there were cases in my locality. Some women fled to their parental homes to safeguard themselves despite travel restrictions. There were police patrolling everywhere.