I was on one of my regular visits to Government schools across the blocks in my district for my work as a Teacher Educator. It was a 2 teacher school, on the outskirts of a rural village, so you can imagine the lush and plush greenery. Seniors, colleagues and members of the local family (I am a victim of displacement from native city and family) had already apprised me  that there was a famous temple -Dhanvantri,there at a walking distance from that school, a must-visit temple. Don't miss the rare chance, they had told. Go to the temple during the lunch break, they had suggested. But once I went into the school, I had completely forgotten about that.There was much to be checked, much to be done.There were sweet children with all their rural innocence, for whom every visitor was a rarity.

I had squatted on the mats with the kids in their groups, reviewing their learning and checking their achievement levels as marked out by their teacher. There was a blackboard painted on the outside of the classroom wall - Kartik, Ibrahim, Sakuntala and so on. Oh! Were these national leaders I did not know? Well! It was that  the 50 around children (strength of the whole school), had been divided into groups, each entrusted with duties  like campus cleanliness, classroom maintenance, hair and nails checking and so on and these were the Ministers entrusted with these portfolios.Good! Democracy at the School level. Mera Bharat mahan!   The two teachers, one among them the Headmistress, were doing a good job. The 50 around children (strength of the whole school), had been divided into groups, each entrusted with a portfolio of duties  like campus cleanliness, classroom maintenance, hair and nails checking and so on. Meanwhile I had taken up the work of drawing 4-lines on the low level board for a puny I Std  boy, who was at the level of learning strokes for alphabet writing. Although he was a very shy one, who merely nodded a yes or no, he was reasonably quick in learning and moving from card to card.He was learning under the ABL - Activity Based Learning system, where children proceed from one level to the other based on colourful cards.

In the 11 o'clock break, I chatted with the teachers on various areas, ranging from the Civil requirements for their school to the pedagogical concerns they came across with these children to the functioning of the Village Education Committees and so forth. In the lunch break after a routine check of the food provided to the children under the Mid Day Meal Scheme, we resumed the talking over a shared meal with the teachers - we fondly call it Kootanjoru  in Tamil. It felt great to eat, watching the kids happily playing around , unmindful of the sun (Plenty of Vitamin D, I thought) Classes resumed after lunch and there was now checking of their  note books and other school records. At the end they had a joyful activity. The teachers gently reminded me that the last bus for the place where I was staying would arrive in another 10 minutes. Gosh!Only then I remembered that I had not visited the  temple, neither during the break nor during the lunchtime. And it was too late now. Dev! When will you become smart with yourself! I chided myself.The children were now rushing off home laughing and skating on the smother of dry leaves on the grass paths with their rubber slippers.Only the boy for  whom I had repeatedly drawn the 4-lines,as he enthusiastically went from stroke to stroke, curve to curve, remained like a small, lost bird, beside us. The teachers commented that the boy must have developed some liking for me.On an impulse, I asked him his name. 'Dhanvantri'  he said.