YOU ARE REMEMBERED ON EVERY “Diwali”

Diwali is almost a universally known festival now. It is 

overwhelming to see the BBC tv channel showing the

celebrations of highly spirited Indians all over the world. 

But my thoughts train rewinds this particular incident every 

year during this festive mood. It has been more than a


decade ago. However it will bring a good laugh yet…there is

something that I have learnt.

My daughter Akshara was 5 years old then, of course a very

naughty child. In the Navy circle especially in Goa she was

 known as “Discovery Channel”, Because she used to be 

hyper active and inquisitive to know about almost everything.

This behavior of my little angel used to worry me at times as

 I was also clueless like any other young mother.

This incident happened when she was in KG class. She has

 thick, silky and straight hair. I would make two pony tails 

and deck her up with all cute hair clips as I loved to so ( in 

fact even now! )


It was two days prior to Diwali and the kids were making 

Diwali cards as part of their activity. The teacher had kept 

the crayons, sketch pens, glue sticks, glitters, paints and 

also A PAIR OF SCISSORS!!!

This Teacher’s pet has finished her activity early and tried to

 help her. The naive teacher did not realize the big 

trouble..and left the class for some time to do some errands.

 She thought that the kids were engrossed in their activity. 

My super girl got fascinated by the snipping tool. So took 

charge of the scissors and cut her one pony tail first also

 convinced two innocent boys to become her client for a hair

 do. She was generous with their hair and cropped it 

randomly. This all happened in a minute and the boys were

 crying and my daughter was displaying mixed emotions.

The teacher was trembling with fear when she saw the 

plight. Because she knew that she was more responsible

 than my daughter. The next swift action was to make a

 phone call to the parents. And I attended the call as an

 obedient one! She narrated the entire episode with all the 

required emotions. Then she requested me to talk to the

concerned parents as she has given my phone number to 

them.

I did not know how to react; I was worried about my daughter

 and her disarrayed hair!! Husband was coming back from 

sailing after 15 days!!! My son was only a month old.!!!! And 

also one of the boys was a senior Army officer’s son!!!!!!!!! 

Her silly act became a serious issue and I had to handle it 

alone.Before I could decide on anything, I got a call from the

 Army officer’s wife bombarding me for her son’s hair. I really

 felt pity on that tiny boy and I kept saying sorry…what else I

 could do??????

There came blame and a sudden twist in the story that…

these were her words exactly….” You see Mrs. Ayyar! I came

 to know that you are a struggling young mother with two

 kids. You are blessed with a son recently. Therefore I feel 

that you are neglecting your daughter and thus resulted in 

this kind of behavior. Give her more love. I think you have 

baby blues now, this can be solved only by yourself and

 please have positive thoughts!!!”

I felt very bad and depressed after this. Was I neglecting 

her? Why people give advice if someone is not at fault 

directly? Why didn't the school use child proof scissors? 

Why did I agree to save the teacher? Does a mother of two 

young kids have time to think? I was almost in tears looking 

at my cute little boy beside me!!!

However it was a learning experience to me. The learning 

what I got was, When you become a mother your ego is 

crushed, dissected and at last it dies!!! But the other parent 

was mature enough and must have felt that it was not 

anyone’s mistake. Because they never blamed, complained 

or called. I salute them even today for their attitude. I would 

have expressed my apologies to them as well. But they 

became special to us as they underplayed completely. I 

never got a chance to meet them till date. But “THEY” are 

always remembered in my heart!