KK Shailaja (Photo: Facebook/KK Shailaja)For someone who has taught students for 23 years before taking voluntary retirement to join full-time politics in 2004, CPI(M) central committee member and prominent woman face in Kerala politics, KK Shailaja is well aware of the pressures of the classroom and what it takes to teach young impressionable minds.
She was herself mentored by one such teacher, Janaki, who had shaped her early years at the primary school in Madathil village in Kannur.
“Janaki teacher taught us all subjects as that is the practice in primary schools, but more than that, she was motherly and affectionate. In those days, my parents were very concerned about my health and had told the teacher that I should be given special care. Our school had uppumavu as a noon meal. I liked it very much, but my parents did not allow me to have it. They wanted me to take lunch from home, which was not far from school. But realising my likeness for upma, Janaki teacher kept a small box of uppumavu for me every day.
“She used to call me to the staffroom and give it to me. If my hair was messy, she would comb it. At school, she had been like a mother. Later, I felt that that is how a teacher should be, like a mother in school,’’ says Shailaja, who had remained in touch with her favourite teacher till her death a decade ago.
“Even after I entered politics, Janaki teacher wanted to meet me frequently. I always found time to spend with her,” she says.