Mother was right

 Mother was right

Mother was right

“Am I mistaken if I were to assume that you are Sushil Rao,” the stranger asked me. He seemed to be sure but still chose the polite way of confirming. When I responded by saying that it was me, it appeared he appreciated himself for guessing so well.

While I was on the escalator, I wondered for a moment why the person had stood almost where the escalator landed at the platform of the metro station at Nagole. He may have his reasons, I told myself as I tried to walk past him.

“మీరు సుశీల్ రావు కాదనుకుంటా?” he asked in Telugu. “That is me,” I confirmed to him. He was older than me, had a poise, was gentle, and friendly.

“I recognised you but I still wanted to make sure,” he said.

“I see your posts on social media. I particularly make it a point to notice in my feed when your posts about the courses you study show up in my feed,” he said.

There was a reason why that mattered to him. As we sat on the train, he explained why that fascinated him.

Every time I posted a photograph of me with the study certificate I had earned (which is mainly from the IITs through NPTEL), he said it took him back in time.

He and his mother used to do combined studies! That is because he and his mother were both students pursuing their studies simultaneously. After her marriage and the birth of her children, she chose to further pursue her degree studies.

“It used to be very interesting. My mother and I used to discuss various subjects and she would share her knowledge with me. I would also tell her what I had studied. It was an enriching experience for both of us,” he recalled.

He recollected one particular instance where his mother’s guidance helped him do particularly well in an examination when other students were taken by surprise when questions that when expected that were expected did not come in the question paper.

The night before the examination, he was doing some last-minute study. He was reading ‘Gora’ by Rabindranath Tagore. He was appearing for his Intermediate examinations.

“What are you studying?” her mother asked him.

“Gora,” he replied.

“Sketch Gora,” is the question he said everyone told him that should be expected and therefore preparing to write about Gora. That would be a wise thing to do to attempt the 20-mark question.

His mother smiled.

It was a form of correction and guidance.

“What if 'Sketch Gora?' is not asked in the examination"?

He had no answer for her question except to say: “Every student is sure about this question and everyone is studying with a focus on that,” he answered.

“Understand me,” she said. “It goes without saying that ‘Gora’ is important but what if that particular question that you are so sure about is not asked in the question paper?” she asked.

Guiding her son, she explained that it would be important to also focus on some of the other main characters in ‘Gora’. “Even if you are not learning about them up to perfection, some knowledge with a little bit of more focus will come to your aid,” she advised him.

The son grasped the importance.

There was no ‘Sketch Gora’ in the question paper.

Instead, there was a question ‘Sketch Sucharita’ (or Sketch Lolita).

While the other students looked blank when there was no ‘Sketch Gora’, he went about answering the question with ease.

Manikumar Maddipatla's mother was right.