One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the
names of the other students in the room on two sheets
of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they
could say about each of their classmates and write it
down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish
their assignment, and as the students left the room,
each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each
student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what
everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list.
Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?"
she heard whispered. "I never knew that I
meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others
liked me so much," were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She
never knew if they discussed them after class or with
their parents, but it didn't matter.
The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The
students were happy with themselves and one another.
That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in
"Kargil" war and his teacher attended the funeral of
that special student. She had never attended Funeral
of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so
mature.
The place was packed with his friends. One by one
those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was
the last one to bless . As she stood there, one of the
soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were
you Sanjay's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded:"yes.
" Then he said: "Sanjay talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Sanjay's former classmates
were there.Sanjay's mother and father were there,
obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said,
taking a wallet out of his pocket "They found this on
Sanjay when he was killed. We thought you might
recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn
pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been
taped, folded and refolded many times.The
teacher knew without looking that the papers were the
ones on which she had listed all the good things each
of Sanjay's classmates had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Sanjay's mother
said. "As you can see, Sanjay treasured it."
All of Sanjay's former classmates started to gather
around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I
still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk
at home."
Prithwiraj's wife said, " Prithwiraj asked me to put
his in our wedding album."
"I have mine too," Rashmi said. "It's in my diary"
Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her
pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn
and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this
with me at all times," Deepali said and without
batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all
saved our lists"
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried.
She cried for Sanjay and for all his friends who would
never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we
forget that life will end one day. And we don't know
when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that
they are special and important. Tell them, before it
is too late.
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