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Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Lohian (Jalandhar), September 4
He walks barefoot. His feet are covered with layers of sticky silt. His trousers are folded as he holds on to a spade pulling out the silt which is deposited as thick layers all around the flood-affected Government Senior Secondary School, Mundi Chohlian campus.
As a senior teacher, Kulwinder Singh could have easily got arranged some labourers and supervised the cleaning work. But showing his extremely down-to-earth side, he himself begins the exercise. As he does, some village youngsters carrying brooms and wipers also join in but Kulwinder does not stop at their arrival. He continues to toil to bring back his school in a workable condition at the earliest, not minding the fact that his clothes are also getting soiled.
“The riverwater receded just a day before. Examinations are set to start from Monday. Children from the village are at their relatives’ place. By the time they return in two-three days, we have to bring the school back in order,” he tells while pointing out to seven to eight rooms, a covered verandah, a library, a computer room, a store and a huge open space, which is all covered in muck.
“There are other teachers too but my house is in the vicinity of the school. Hence, I can spend more time here than other teachers,” he said as he keeps on picking up chairs, tables, computer terminals, CPUs and UPS, all of which have remained in 8-10 feet of floodwater for 10 days and are now completely soiled. The teacher himself got teams for fogging and got it done in his presence.
“There were swarms of mosquitoes everywhere. I have been bitten all over. But the students have to be kept safe,” he makes a point. As he gets tired, he takes some rest and then calls up some of his colleagues from the adjoining school at Gidderpindi.
“If two of you can come here and help me”, he asks. Clearly, since he has maintained good relations in the fraternity, they join him quickly for help.