A self-inspired soldier of orderliness

 

This little sketch is inspired by a nice human being possessing a lovely positive approach to life. Ajay is a man in his fifties. He is an uncommonly sobered man. Smart, active, graceful with gentlemanly elegance, he is the principal of a government senior secondary school in Haryana.

One can clearly see that his school is an extension of his home and hearth: a constructive, creative zone of personal and professional elements that mix and blend harmoniously to form an outstanding institution.

No wonder the school under his charge stands out for its cleanliness, neat and clean garden, well-maintained building, clean bathrooms and well-meaning and concerned staff.

The head teacher’s kindly, ponderous eyes scanning the bestial blows of entropy and disorder spooling the typical mischief that has sadly become the hallmark of governmental schools in the country. 

Given the above facts, the school looks seas apart from pathetically neglected government schools surrounding this nice and cozy educational nest. The casual flightiness, so ubiquitous in state run schools, is missing in the school under his care.

He loves plants and trees. The kindly school chief’s spare energies are duly invested in regular plantation drives on the school premises as well as the surrounding areas. Many students purposefully footing along the chief teacher.

The soft crooner of melodies standing like a guiding star in the messy coop of boisterously squalid germs of ignorance and apathy in government schools.   

The gentleman principal has a great attitude towards life. When he finds something unnecessarily scattered around—some broken furniture, things disarranged and out of order, some randomness jutting out of the clean scheme of things—he is instinctively drawn to bring symmetry and order to it.

A little bulwark against the cranky, frisky, sneaky, rag-tag parliamentary disorder.

He has a very gentle and soft philosophy that drives this dignified urge to put things in order:

‘See, every disorder, any type of physical or mental disharmony, organizational disorder, clutter and chaos of things in a room or in a garden is seeking your attention. It wants to be remedied and put in decent order. It’s seeking symmetry and a well-shaped meaning. That’s a drive towards beauty and truth. But it can’t do it on its own. It seeks your attention; gropes for empathy in your heart to bring its ‘will to order’ into effect. So you have to be aware of this possibility of setting things in proper order. You have to be conscious that you are here to help the cause of positive change by rearranging the scattered things and elements around you.’