Collective efforts yield positive results
MOVED BY THE GOODWILL GESTURE OF STUDENTS, THE PRINCIPAL ARRANGED BOOKS NEEDED FOR PREPARATION OF EXAMS
The other day, I realised that a challenge can easily be overcome by collective and sincere efforts. It happened so that a poor student of my class was placed in compartment in three subjects. What added to his woes was that he had to seek a golden chance to crack his compartment. Since he had already exhausted other options, a special chance was the only chance.
But the student was beset with a problem. The golden chance entailed a huge fee and the students could not afford to pay it. His problem was further compounded as his father, who pulled a cycle rickshaw, had met with an accident. Whatever meagre funds the family had were diverted to the treatment of his father. The student was in a fix. His career would go south if he did not clear the hurdle of the compartment exam. But the biggest challenge was the fee.
He had barely 10 days to apply for the last chance. He begged for help from his relatives but in vain. All his dreams were crumbling before his eyes.
One day, he shared his problem with a classmate. Moved by his state of helplessness, his classmate shared a post about the miserable plight of his friend on Facebook. He made an emotional appeal to fellow students and friends to pool in efforts to extricate their friend from the mess that circumstances had landed him in. Within two days, every student in the college came to know about his plight. Several meetings were held in the college cafeteria to collect funds to pay the fee. Finally, a fund-raising exercise began in all earnestness. A few liked the idea. But a sizeable number of students opposed it.
Finally, a consensus emerged and it was decided that students would not hold the annual valedictory function this academic year and would use the funds to help him. Funds were collected and handed over to the principal. The principal was requested to keep the source of funds a secret. This was done to avoid the dignity of the student being hit.
Moved by the goodwill gesture of the students, the principal played his role. He arranged books needed for the preparation of the exams from the college library. No advance for the books was charged. Besides, he deputed teachers to coach the needy student in the subjects in which he had to take the exam. The teachers happily complied.
The most awaited day finally dawned. The student took the exams and cleared them. A few months later, when the student came to collect his degree and also return the books of the library, the principal spilled the beans about the source of the help. The student profusely thanked his classmates, teachers and above all the principal for scripting his success story.
That day, we all learnt a lesson: Collective and honest efforts always yield encouraging results.