Nim Dreme's unlearning

Tsering Droima/Pic Don Sebastian

To,
The Headmaster
Government Primary School, Mohan Camp

Sub: An application for leave

Sir,

With due respect I would like to inform you that I have been suffering from fever since last night.
Therefore, kindly grant me leave for One (1) day only.

Yours faithfully,
Name: Nim Dreme
Class Four (4)
Hall No: Fourteen (14)
Date: 19/11/07


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Seven months after Nim Dreme wrote this leave application to headmaster Y Kishore Singh, it was still embedded on the first page of the attendance register of Government Primary School, Mohan Camp, Nyukmadung. Arunachal may be India’s rendezvous with the first rays of Sun, but it refuses to shrug off slumber. It embraces the snail’s pace and refuses to toe the world which moves on.

This is the state which late Marxist ideologue EMS once described thus: “the land which India claims is India’s and China claims is their’s”. A volcano of controversy erupted then.

Don’t know whether the Marxist doyen ever set foot on this mountainous terrain which is overwhelmingly green, fascinatingly pristine and tucked in the warp of a timeless era, with only the camouflage of olive green military fatigue spoiling its serene charm.

Nim Dreme and his 55 school mates, predominantly kids of migrant Nepali labourers who toil to put roads in shape and remove the trees and roadblocks that hinder traffic with alarming regularity, share an attendance register and two teachers.

Y Kishore Singh hails from Balia, Uttar Pradesh, and his lone colleague is a local lass –the dazzling Tsering Droima. Between them they dabble with Social Studies, Maths, Drawing, English, all and sundry...
Nim Dreme and his school mates get the first taste of knowledge from them.

Near the notice board in front of the school a bill board proclaims:

बेह्थर सिक्षा भरपूर प्यार
बच्चे का पहला अधिकार

That seems unlikely. After Standard V, Nim Dreme would have to walk miles to go to the upper primary school.
Tough luck, but perhaps Dreme’s destiny would be to be a better human being, untouched by the wrong notions of worldly gains and far ahead of the fake pride of “doing well in life”.

Nim Dreme’s wisdom belongs to the virgin woods and lofty heights of Arunachal. Priceless.