Madame Mona Sadhwani. I have no hesitation to say she would dislike being called Madame. With a broad grin and a characteristic gesture of the hands she would say yeh Madam kya Hai – Call me Mona. That was enough to take you closer to her. Of course we would never drop the Madam. It was tagged towards the end and her name was Mona Madam for us. Mona Madam was a teacher in the kinder garden section of Anandalaya. Before she came here, she had worked in many other schools and on any boring afternoon she would show curious people, photographs and other remembrances of places where she had worked earlier.
Mona Sadhwani was not a teacher. She was a friend, a friend who loved children with all her heart. For me she was a living example of learning and love. This was evident whenever she sighted an erstwhile KG student presently in I and II std. She would say जब KG से चले जाता है ो individual होजाता है बच्चों को थे difficult होता है I. She believed children needed help. They were trying to grow and to learn. Mona madam was always there. Another thing that endeared her to many was her cheerful disposition. She was never one to complain or fret about developments. Even at school where there was enough competition to be in the thick of things, Mona would never push her way through. For her there was no happier moment, than the first sighting of her by the KG children during the day. They would rush to her calling out Mona maam Mona maam.
She was a commuter from Baroda. After a few months of friendship, we chose to travel with Mona to Baroda on some work. She took us to her home and we met her brothers and sisters. Mona was the eldest. They were a compact family. They had lost their parents and Mona remained unmarried. The house had the charm of an old world Sindhi house. Mona madam showed us the family photographs. She tried to keep the conversation at a general level about life in Baroda, movies, TV shows, weather etc,
But occasionally we would take her into more personal things and she would talk of her hopes for her sister, the education of her brother and his girl friends. I had wanted to ask, why did not Mona madam marry? I did not. I felt she was never conscious about marriage. She was never in distress that it had not happened. She had obviously been taking care of the children as she was now at school.
She was always the smiling, genial Mona madam and one image that would remain etched in my memory is Mona madam sitting in the shade of the trees near the KG section and making the children go through their favorite antics of an afternoon. At Anandalaya the way to the Kinder Garden classrooms needed us to take a diversion. They were a little away from the main building. The two sections were lovingly called Kush and Pallav. The kids had a relaxed schedule, while the elder ones grappled with the higher subjects. They did not attend the morning assembly. Instead they began their day with games in the sand pit. Singing rhymes and learning songs followed. After that they had short periods in which they drew and painted. At 11’ clock when the high school had its interval, we could see the kids trooping out in their colorful attire to the ground. They usually had games in the lawn or physical exercises in the garden. The classroom had a different look. There were no benches or desks , only cute little chairs scattered all over. Bright, beautiful pictures were hung here and there. One could also see beads hung in chains, colorful boxes, clay figures , puppets and toys. The tiny tots needed no other motivation, except the face of their teacher to speak. Cries of Mona madam, Olvy madam, Rama madam broke out instantly on their lips. It was wonderful to watch the teachers take them into their arms, giving a patient ear to their prattle. It was never easy, with a bit of Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, and a dash of Tamil or Telugu evolving from all around. They tried it all with their teachers. Their lunch break came around 12 P.M. They had food shorn of chilli and spice. A fruit or two was served as dessert. A long lunch break would end , with the mattresses being spread for their ‘Siesta ‘and the kids rolled on them jostling for space.