Her 'illiterate' mother

It was a cool Sunday evening and I was sitting in my hall, when she came. She is the daughter of our colony’s press-wallah. She is mal-nutritioned and stick thin like her mother and the rest of the family who never skip a day no matter how kind or cruel the climate is to them (I feel they can much better feel the mood of the climate for they work everyday without any break under a tin shed clasped to a small tree).

Yup, coming to the actual thing, she came inside and saw me reading. I could see a twinkle in her eyes that comes only when she spots a book. She told me that her illiterate mother is very particular about her studies (she studies in a local govt school) and wants her to study to the highest level. She told me that her mother never ever discriminated between her sons and daughters and wants them to become educated and sophisticated and that she personally asks each sibling to explain what happened in the class, that she tells them not to throw garbage on roads and that to carry a book with them always to avoid any time waste. These thoughts look nice to hear but even nicer when they are come from an illiterate woman having half a dozen children.

Now in contrast, the ‘literate’ people who teach their kids attitude and arrogance, to treat public property like a dustbin, to use hook or crook to get things done, middle class mothers who start looking suitors right after their daughters’ graduation. And all those educated families preferring sons over daughters. Now the basic purpose of this post is what the meaning of education is – to be able to read and write or to be able to understand things and create a positive and open outlook? I feel that illiterate mother of six kids is far more educated then all the degree holders.

The English statesman and author George Savile (1633-1695) had said

“Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught”.

How true!!