Sound Of Silence

I am a teacher working in a remote border school. This was a normal busy monday morning of the week. I reached the bus stand on time in few seconds the bus arrived, normal good morning wishes from my students and friends. We started our journey for the school. The school bus was on its way to pickup school children and teachers. It was a very small and new school so everybody knew each other. One of the stops we saw a small girl along with her elder sister boarded the bus reluctantly. She was crying very loudly, and caught our attention. We tried to pacify the young girl but she was in no mood to listen anybody. slowly the bus started and moved to another stop, we also got engaged in our own sharing and talking and finally reached the school.

After arriving at the school we were all busy with our daily timetable and classes. Had our lunch during breaktime and one of the teacher mentioned about this young beautifu girl, she was crying silently without saying anything and the teacher was worried. After the break I had an arrangement period in one of the junior classes which I never liked but I had to go to that class irrrespect of my liking or disliking. I reached the class and saw it was the same class in which this young girl was crying. I went to her desk, she was sitting and tears were rolling down without any sob or expression it was unbearable to me I came to know that she did not speak to anybody, didnt had her tiffin and since morning she has been crying. As a mother and teacher I tried my level best to talk to her but she did not speak a single word. Then I decided to call her elder sister who was in 4th standard, she informed us about her father that he is posted out to Srinagar and had to leave in few days time. This use to be a very normal thing in our school because it was a border school.  People were coming in and moving out to different part of the country.

I explained to her in a plain simple way took her to staffroom and tried to make her understand that this seperation from her father will be for few months he will be back after her halfyearly exams and then he can take his family to his unit of posting. She gave me a stern look which I could'nt understand. By that time she has stopped crying and had a biscuit. It was the last period for the primary section so she went back to her class. I was happy that I could bring her back to normal.

Time will wait for none three weeks later in the school we heard that there was an ambush in Srinagar and this girls father's gypsy was blown by the terrorists. We were shocked to hear this... we went to this girl's house everybody in the house had tears in their eyes and this girl was emotionless..... she saw the teachers from her school came to us and holded my hands I could feel what she wanted to convey.  We came to know that she did not shed a single tear after hearing this news. Did she knew about it??? I have no answer but I can't forget this.