The classroom was filled with students. It had been just 1 month since this school had started. The students still sat in their packs. Some ice-breaking sessions were needed to resolve this groupism in the class. The whole purpose of this school was gathering students from diverse backgrounds, helping them acknowledge their diversity and uniqueness, and come up with a united group of wise young adults. Their class teacher believed that this ice-breaking will happen soon. Rather, it would begin in this very class. He wanted the students to get over the fear of the elephant in the room but we will talk about it later.
While they were all sitting in the class, chitchatting amidst themselves, a tiger walked into the classroom. Everyone bowed down saying,” Good morning, Rama Sir!” Rama, the tiger was one of the senior animals in the jungle and had been conducting this class for past one month. As the sound of “good morning, sir” echoed in the jungle, informing everyone that yet another class of this newly started school had commenced, it startled the nearest and the oldest member of the jungle. Ollie, the owl who resided in a tree older than him, had a balcony view of the classroom. The old wise owl was getting ready for bed when heard the sound. He knew it right then that it was time for his favorite jungle reality show. He would watch it every morning before calling it a day.
If you asked Ollie the owl, this was not going to last. It was not a good idea, to begin with. These relatively new members of the jungle, led by Rama the tiger, were trying to defy years and years of jungle tradition, by getting all the animals to sit together in one class. Even if you don’t respect the tradition, how will you overcome natural instincts? This new generation of animals believed that we have to overcome differences among the members of the jungle, work together, and educate ourselves to fight against bigger enemies, bigger problems and save the jungle. Even if these ‘bigger’ and imminent problems were quite evident, Ollie didn’t believe this school was the solution. So, watching them struggle every day to keep up with their vision was quite entertaining.
Ollie approached the window to look down at the classroom. Rama the tiger was just finished with the attendance. Between the attendance and beginning of a new topic, Rama always revised the lesson taught in the last class. He would ask questions to any random student about what they had learned in last class. This seemingly harmless practice frightened students to the core. Some were more scared than the others. It was, on one hand, because of this all-new concept of school but mostly because of Rama’s menacing and authoritative but calm way of asking questions in loud chuffs. Clearly, the students who were smaller in size were more scared than others. Rama was certainly aware of this dynamic. He was not as old as Ollie but he was certainly experienced. Being one of the greatest predators came in handy. He knew exactly how to study his prey. Not that he considered the students as his prey but it was a useful skill to possess. Studying the class silently, he knew exactly who knew what and how scared they were. Today, it was Jilly, the rabbit, who was called out.
“Jilly, tell me what did I teach in my last class”
All the heads turned to Jilly. Jilly, who was trying to avoid Rama’s gaze by looking down at his feet, was startled hearing his name. He rose to his feet, already shivering.
“Jilly, I asked you what did I teach in the last class?”
It seemed like Jilly’s voice had died in his mouth. He still somehow in his squeaky voice, in a volume lower than usual, managed to say,
“D…defense”
“Louder, Jilly”, roared Rama.
That was when Jilly’s voice completely died. Everyone knew that Jilly was right. Everyone wanted to help Jilly but who would break this silence. There was a long silence before Rama said again,
“Jilly, I am talking to you. Speak up.”
By now the students realized, this was unlike Rama. Their class teacher usually moved on to another student if a student was not able to answer any question. But today, Rama came with a different agenda.
“Jilly, come here in front and tell everyone what we learned in last class”
Jilly, who was lost in his own reverie, jumped at Rama’s roar. Jilly was struggling to breathe now. Though he didn’t want to leave his rabbit friends and go in front of the entire class, he didn’t want Rama to call him out again. There was no option left. He started walking towards Rama, with his shoulders slumped, looking everywhere but at Rama. Everyone was looking at each other. They weren’t able to fathom the scene taking place in front of their eyes. All students had always been scared of Rama from day-one but today, they were petrified. All of them, especially rabbits, were genuinely concerned about Jilly now. Jilly was standing in front of the class, with his helplessness quite evident.
“Jilly, I have asked you a very simple question- what…did…we…learn…in…last…class?”
The question was followed by a lingering silence. The only thing that was speaking volumes in that scene was Ollie’s smirk. Ollie, who was yawning at the beginning of the class, found this turn of events very interesting. I knew it. This doesn’t seem like the long-lasting, path-breaking, and jaw-dropping solution to our problems. The speed at which today’s class is crumbling down, this might just be the Grand Finale of this show.
By now, everyone understood that it was not about the answer, it was about Jilly finding his lost voice.
“Everyone, Jilly is struggling to answer the question. Don’t look at him like he is the only animal who has to answer the question. He is one of us. It is our job to help him out. So, does anyone want to help Jilly?” Rama was hinting towards something.
“Rabbits, do you want to help Jilly out?” As much as they were fond of Jilly and wanted to help him out, rabbits were terrified to break the silence and attract the attention that was currently on Jilly.
While everyone mentally calculating the consequences of helping Jilly and Rama’s hidden agenda behind asking them to help Jilly, a loud and sturdy voice emerged from the back of the class, breaking the silence.
“Come on Jilly. Your answer was right. Go on. You already know the answer.” As expected, all the eyes were turned to the back of the class, to the source of that voice. It was Sherry, the elephant. Why would she do that? Why would Sherry help out a rabbit? But she had. She had chosen to help Jilly.
She spoke again. “Jilly, you can answer the question. Last time Rama sir taught us the defense against humans. He had told us that we have to stand together to defend ourselves.”
By now, Jilly had managed to gather himself and found his voice, now that the attention had shifted from him.
“Humans have t…tools, with which they are able to attack us from lo…long distances”
“Very good, Jilly. You are right. Thank you for reminding us of the last class. Thank you, Sherry, for practicing what was taught in the last class – Teamwork!” Jilly could not believe that Rama had just appreciated him. He nodded at Sherry, acknowledging her help. Sherry smiled at him and sat down. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and was very proud of Jilly and Sherry. All their eyes twinkling with this newly found joy. They were all contemplating what had just unfolded in front of their eyes. The class was silent again. This silence was much different though. It was filled with smiles and reflections. It was when Rama broke the silence and suggested to continue with the class, Ollie realized his jaw was dropped.
