Rama Maam

Some of my finest memories come from my SGRR days. The school may have lost some reputation now, but in those days it used to be just fine. There were many a fine teachers, each one unique in their character. Their voices and faces are still stuck in my mind as if I saw them yesterday.

Even though Rama maam never took a class for me, or at least I don't remember she did, there was something about her that made me admire her. I think it was her strong personality. Middle aged, she had a habit of supari chewing. She always carried a reshmi supari pouch with her, the one thats round and has a string at the rim so you can pull and close it. I don't think I ever saw her empty mouthed. As soon as she finished, she would open her pouch and ate a small helping. Because of this her teeth had become tinted, and there was big gap between teeth as well. For some reason, she also always limped while walking. One of my distinct memories also is that she used to wear dark green sari always. Sticking out from the short blouse, her extremely fair flesh always shone on the sunny days making her even more attractive.

When a new principal was once hired at the school, he tried to bring about a few changes, one of them being each one of us would bring the news highlights from last night's news or from the morning newspaper and read them to the whole school during the morning prayer gathering. Also, for the prayers, it was decided to make it more musical. It turned out that Rama maam actually knew how to play harmonium. So, then every morning from then on we sung different prayers like itni shakti hame dena maata or ae maalik tere bande hum with her harmonium and her strong voice took prominence over all other voices. Of course once the prayer was over, she took supari from her pouch for a fresh helping and sooth her dried mouth from all the singing. Such was Rama maam.

Link to Jaya Bhaduri's video for a morning prayer session at school, singing hum ko man ki shakti dena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbchuCfqBls&feature=related