Hope Against Hope

By Vikas Sharma

Hope Against Hope is an inspiring novel today due to the wide spread depressions caused by pendamic and its variants. The novelist makes an effort here to tell readers that the music of the bird Hope never stops. Due to positive approach of life Jag Mohan, Pummy, Nanny, Dr. Avasthi and Guptas struggle against all odd situations and don’t ever cry due to restless situations. Pummy remains a practical lady and gets the solutions of her problems through Jag Mohan. Gupta ji is prudent enough to settle Nanny with jobless Jag Mohan. Minti succeeds in her mission though a bit late. The novelist aptly convinces readers that the bird of Hope stands with prudence and wisdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9789355993427

Book preview

1

My father always asserted that one can learn a lot from different people and worldly events if one asks questions such as — Why it happened and how it happened? What was the immediate effect of that event and how did it influence the later generations? As a prudent man, he gave the examples of Aristotle and the First World War. He told me — Ideas of Aristotle on literature, political administration, science, mathematics, etc., didn’t die with him and are still studied all over the world. Scholars feel indebted to him for his books like Poetics. Plato is remembered for his theory of Idea that Idea comes first and the building based on the Idea is constructed in four-five months, and the same is the case with the writing of a book

He gave the second example of the First World War (1914-1918), in which Arabs of rupees were wasted, and more than one crore soldiers were killed. After World War, the major politicians of Italy, France, England, Russia, America, etc., planned to form the League of Nations. Yet these loving nations wanted to take revenge from Germany and regarded Germans as responsible for the war. Since 1918 the seeds of another world war continued to grow and the defeated soldiers possessed the feeling of revenge against Germany. At the same time, German Chancellor Hitler encouraged his people to take revenge from Allied Nations, and eventually, the Second World War broke out in 1939.

My father used to say that most of the teachers have nothing new to teach as the same chapters get repeated every year. But surprisingly, the new batches have new aims, and the new students get selected in different jobs though they had studied the same books. Perhaps Alfred Adler aptly said that even two brothers plan for two different schemes and their achievements always differ.

As a retired Associate Professor, I often feel that I’ve not lived in vain. It is true that I have to take fifteen tablets and insulin (once) every day and yet memories, good or bad haunt me. Through my mind, I realize my major mistakes of life and also feel — ‘I was sinned rather than sinning.’

My afternoons make me feel drowsy after lunch, and hence I enjoy my siesta for an hour. After my retirement, my favourite students and research scholars have almost forgotten me. But why to blame them? They too have their families and engagements to keep them busy.

Two weeks ago, I waited for my turn in the clinic of Dr. Arora and finally got a chance to get a new prescription for myself. He asked me — ‘What do you feel now? What troubles you now?’

I told him — ‘There is a pain in my legs and it is pretty difficult to enjoy walking morning and evening.’

As he heard my complaint, he said — ‘Don’t forget to enjoy walking. In winters you may come out of home after 10 A.M. and in the evening return home before 5 O’clock. Keep yourself relaxed as you can’t change the socio-economic system of the world.’

All this ended in two minutes though I had waited for my turn for more than two hours. The doctor had no time to recheck my M.R.I. report and X-rays. I thought that he had become busier than before and hence planned to consult another physician. To my dismay, there was a gathering of nearly one hundred patients here and I planned to visit him sometime else.

Quite often, my old students meet me on the roads and mostly pay ‘best regards’ with ‘Jai Hind Sir.’ That gives me mental satisfaction that my college lectures didn’t go waste as they still respect me without any axe to grind. The dealers of Provision Store, Medical Store, and Grocery Store send my articles to my home and ask — ‘Sir, you can make a phone call any time. Needed articles will be supplied within minutes.’

But then I am highly conscious of the movements of my limbs — In case I don’t move, my joints would lose their flexibility.

After retirement, a new routine of life began of its own though I didn’t plan it. No alarm to me to get up by 6 A.M., shave myself, have a rapid bath, put on my suit, tie and polish my pair of shoes. No more preparation of notes at night sacrificing T.V. serials. But then I was paid for my classwork and to be punished if I had failed to follow the college norms. Generally, the Principal got transferred almost every three years and I had to adjust with the policies of the new Principal. Of course, I failed to join any political party as I had no ambition to become M.L.A. or M.P.

Often I recollect teaching William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to post-graduate students, and the soliloquies of Hamlet were beyond their comprehension. Even after studying A.C. Bradley’s book Shakespearean Tragedy, there was no change in their understanding. Often I cut short my interpretation of these soliloquies, and the students failed to answer multiple-choice questions on the tragedy. Then I asked my colleague Dr. Aggarwal to teach this tragedy to new students and he found the same complaint. I asked myself — Was something wrong with Shakespeare when he wrote this tragedy? Was T.S. Eliot justified finding fault in this tragedy?

At the graduate level, I felt frustrated while interpreting pictures on the Grecian Urn. I sketched the picture of an Urn on the blackboard but the students failed to accept the identification of ‘beauty with truth.’ The last scene of Macbeth was taught with full vigour but in vain! Unfortunately or fortunately, the university Board of Studies recommended George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm. Students failed to follow the wide difference between Stalin’s Communism and Marxian Communism, Capitalism and Socialism, Fascism and Democracy, Imperialism and Welfare State, etc. Often I found myself lonely and frustrated as the novel could not appeal to the students and the lectures passed like an overhead transmission.

Such helpless situations often arose in the classes and I failed to cope up with them.

❒

2

Due to inflation of nearly 10 percent almost every year, it became difficult to pull on the family of five members with just five hundred rupees per month. Instead of spending time and energy on book reading, I had to accept the skill of teaching tuitions. One July morning (1978), Nishan Singh reached my home and stopped his scooter where I was talking with my next-door neighbour. After paying regards, he showed me his marks-sheet of M.A. Pre. (English) and I congratulated him for having passed. But he was full of anger as he had secured only 42 percent marks. He replied back when I had congratulated him on his success — ‘I’ve lost my career. What the hell will I do with this low percentage of marks?’

‘But then you’re responsible for this as I could not help you much in the duration of one month. You took all help from Madam Gazala for four years, and naturally, this was expected. As you must have noticed, she never pays attention to writing illustrations of the episode as well as grammar rules.’

‘I came to you with high expectations. Son of a poor widow as I am, perhaps destined to be a peon or at the most a clerk in some office now.’

As he continued to be rash, I lost my temper because I found myself overpowered by his dictatorial conduct. Out of anger, I called him ‘a fool’.

‘How do I look to be a fool, sir!’ He asked me with anger.

‘It means that I have to prove your foolishness, though your low percentage has already confirmed it.’ I retaliated.

‘Yes Sir and still?’

‘O.K. Nishan Singh, go home and write the answers of any two questions after preparing them well. Also, note the time for each question that you take in writing.’

He left without bidding adieu and I felt sad for no fault of mine. Many students normally blame the teachers and the examiners though they are never conscious of their mistakes and the way they have solved the answers. The next day he appeared before me and after touching my feet, he showed me his notebook. He had written the first question on Bacon’s worldly wisdom and I started evaluating it with a red pen and marked thirty eight mistakes in ten minutes. Then I evaluated his second answer on Reasons for Hamlet’s Madness and found thirty four mistakes. One question carries eighteen marks and at the rate of half mark for one mistake, he was supposed to get marks in negative, i.e., his marks were less than zero in two answers.

Secondly, as I told him — ‘A student has to divide three hours into five units getting nearly thirty three minutes for one answer. You have taken forty two minutes for the first question and forty five to answer the second question. Just multiply forty two into five and where do you stand? That way, you need two hundred and ten minutes and the question paper has got to be solved within three hours, i.e., one hundred and eighty minutes. Then an examinee normally takes five minutes to read out the question paper. Who’ll give you thirty-five minutes extra if I accept your scheme of things?’

Now he felt restless and his ego still controlled him. Since he failed to answer, I asked him to go to Dr. K.R. Joshi, Head of the Department of English living in flat number 10 and get it verified. Somehow he trusted my words and replied with agony — ‘My notebook has never been checked like this so far. No teacher has yet pointed out my mistakes as you have done. How to improve my career, sir?’

I realized that he was sensible all of a sudden and ready to mend himself. I put his notebook before him and asked him to point out the nature of every red circle that I had made. But he at once replied — ‘Sir, I don’t know how to analyze the nature of these mistakes. Kindly help me to evaluate myself and improve further.’

All of a sudden, he had tears in his eyes and he said — ‘My father died two years ago due to lung cancer and mortgaged the land that he possessed. After his death, my mother became a midwife in Government Women’s Hospital, getting eighteen hundred rupees as monthly salary. My maternal uncle helps and protects both of us. He is a transporter with his own family of four members.’

‘Look, I’m not concerned with the details of your family. No sickness asks the nature of poverty from a man. It just takes hold of him. If he takes medicines on the physician’s advice, he is cured or else dies. Similarly, your two answers confirm that you need coaching for at least six months if you really wish to improve yourself. Each month you have to pay me two thousand rupees. The first month you’ll have the option to discontinue if you don’t approve my teaching techniques and you get back your amount. If you don’t complete homework daily, I’ll have the option to say goodbye to you. Is it O.K.? Secondly, buy Stannard Allen’s Book Living English Structure and solve two exercises on each part of speech daily. You have to write what I explain and the next day express your thoughts in English as you have to face viva-voce this year. Is it clear?

‘Can we begin the work today? I’ll pay you the amount tomorrow.’ He mildly suggested.

As I trusted him, I began with Present Indefinite Tense and then told him how to use the question-words. Finally, I explained the socio-economic and literary tendencies of 18th century England as he had studied major authors of this century such as — Addison, Steele, Pope, Gray, Henry Fielding, etc. and asked him to write what he had understood. I granted him the liberty to consult the book History of English Literature, especially by Compton Rickett.’

The next day his notebook was examined by me and a number of mistakes created a feeling of shock in him. Now I encouraged him to start learning grammar with enthusiasm and zeal. He was being taught all this as he had no knowledge of how to use auxiliary verbs. He could not make out — whether the particular word was noun or verb in a sentence or vice-versa. In the first month, he wrote nearly twenty answers and learnt the tenses to some extent and felt a little satisfied. By now, all his anger had vanished as he gathered some confidence in himself.

He was always punctual and enjoyed listening to my lecture with notes on his notebook, sentences without verbs or with verbs but without subject or object. Next month I realized that a man can’t live in the past for a long time and hence I started delivering lectures on the authors prescribed for M.A. Final and told him about two authors every week. His enthusiasm grew as he found himself preparing for the next examination. I asked him one day — ‘Are you satisfied with the way I am working with you?’

‘Yes, sir. I repent for wasting my previous four years. Had I taken your help four years ago, things would have been different.’

Within six months, he learnt communication skills and could write 80 percent correct answers and speak for ten minutes on different authors. Then he joined the group of students paying rupees five hundred every month and noticed the difference.

After getting second division in M.A., he joined a coaching centre in Delhi, succeeded in the first attempt in the U.P.S.C. competition for Excise Officer and got posted at Mumbai AirPort.

After his marriage he came to see me with a packet of sweets and felt obliged for the guidance that I could give him. Personally I felt satisfied with my theory — If right means are adopted, goods books are studied, rules of language are mastered and regular studies are made with zeal, the students can gain the aim of life. He proved — ‘Failures are pillars to success.’ And only the defeated soldiers know the meaning of success as Emily Dickinson opined:

‘Success is counted sweetest

By those who never succeed…’

One morning I found that he had not done his homework. As I lost my temper, he shed tears and told me that his mother had no money to buy kerosene oil for the lamp. But I took it to be his lame excuse and threatened him — ‘Oil or no oil! Work has got be completed in case you intend to improve yourself.’ After he had taken his lessons that day, I asked him about his surroundings and the villagers of Swar Town Area.

He told me that the villagers are mostly illiterate, poor, orthodox, and superstitious there. Due to a lack of good schools and a proper number of teachers, the children fail to get a school education. Most of them have no books and there is no book shop even in the surrounding villages. Notebooks, pencils, and pens are not bought due to poverty. Most of the farmers get no proper medical aid as the physician and the staff nurses hardly visit the Primary Health Centre.

Due to his philanthropic zeal, he arranged a group of boys and girls and made them run in a limited period of time. Only on this basis, the results of winner and runner were declared. His maternal uncle gifted