An Urban Classroom

This is a nice little poem written by my friend and niece Ashwathi Shenoi. Thanks Ash.



Clouds float by …..
As I watch them through the window,
Fluffy and free,
The trees whisper into my ears
Secrets of nature,
Stories of freedom,
Tempting me with
Promise of adventure.

The wind caresses my skin and lips
The colors outside
Satisfy my eyes’ deepest thirst
The leaves, grass, dew drops
And flowers
Lure me to come feel
Their texture
I rise and float out….

As I reach out to feel
The tulips
My ears capture
A new hum
It sounds familiar
As I try to place it
The drone grows louder
Making it impossible to think

Is it the buzz of some
Weird bee stuck in my ear?
I wonder to myself
As I look around me
I realize with a jolt that
Tis nothing but the
Monotone of the " " teacher
On and on she goes
Oblivious to the fact that
She hasn’t even conquered
The listener’s auditory senses
(Forget the heart).

What’s it she’s saying?
Oh, just ranting on
About setting children free
About education through nature
About love for learning
About joy for learning
About every damn thing
That the children
Listening to her
Are being deprived of
At that moment
They speak of injustice
Done to rural kids
Of showing far away ships
And kings and queens
Far away atoms and
Particle accelerators
That they have never known
And may never know

Rural kids?
Why of course!
Its injustice only to them,
For urban kids had
Hell Volhard and Zelinsky
As their next-door neighbors.
They’ve played around with
Potentiometers since birth
And would relate to
Complex numbers in a jiffy
Cause its their mother tongue
So why not?
Talk to them about all the
Unrelated complexities

Go ahead….carry on….
Preventing them from
Exploring and questioning
Confine them to the cramped
Space between four walls
Deafen them with
The continuous babble
Of fake accents
While they lose connection
With the Universal Truth.