Small Goodbyes

In Kerala, the school year ends in March, meaning that I only have one more month to enjoy my hostelmates’ company before they leave for summer vacation or for the next step in their education. Classes have stopped at Buchanan Girls’ Higher Secondary School while the students study for and then take their exams throughout the month of March. Needless to say, this has led to quite a change of mood for me. I am sad because soon I will have to say goodbye to many of my hostel friends and happy that I get to spend more time with my teacher peers—the staff room has become quite a playground for us!

Last Friday, I had to say farewell to my aniyati (little sister), Shanu. Shanu is studying in 7th standard and completed all her exams last week, so her mother came Friday morning to take her home for the summer months (April and May). Shanu was one of the first BIGHS students to welcome me to the hostel life. While most of the other girls were, at first, shy and deferential to me, Shanu would talk to me every day, beg me for exercise classes (of which she was the only student with perfect attendance), show me around the school, teach me Kerala children’s games and encouraged the other girls to do the same. With the other HS student boarders, it was a hard fought battle to get them to call me “Sarah Chechi” (big sister) instead of “Sarah Ma’am,” but Shanu immediately adopted the new form address and delighted in greeting me every day with “Good morning Sarah Chechi!”

Shanu has been my constant companion and teacher these past few months, Under her tutorship, I have learned how to wash my clothes by hand, how to tell biting ants from more harmless (if not less annoying) ants, how to catch falling leaves from the “lucky tree” (every leaf you catch guarantees you 10 rupees!) and how to look at life through rose-colored glasses. Shanu doesn’t live far away from BIGHS like her hostelmates, but she has to live here because her parents cannot give her the attention she needs at home. Shanu has a brother and sister, both with severe medical problems that require constant attention. Her brother cannot attend school and her sister can only attend part-time. Shanu’s brother needs kidney surgery, but has to wait until he is older and stronger for it to be a safe procedure. Shanu’s sister has trouble breathing (I believe it’s severe asthma), for which the Kerala climate (hot and dusty) is not exactly helpful. Shanu’s mother has to work and take care of her two sick children, and her father’s job as a truck driver keeps him from home a lot. Shanu herself is not perfectly healthy; she has a small heart defect.

Despite all of this, Shanu has the most cheerful spirit of all the BIGHS boarders. Whenever I was feeling down—having had a bad day or being a little homesick—Shanu could always make me smile again. One day, my classes were very rowdy and I was missing my friends and when Shanu asked me if we were having exercise class I told her that I was too tired. I was sitting in my room later reading, when I heard someone tap on my window. It was Shanu, with a bouquet of fresh flowers she had picked for me. She told me the name of each flower and showed me how to arrange them so that they were the most aesthetically pleasing. She banished my bad mood with a simple act of kindness. Whenever we talked about her family or her home, she would get a little said because she missed her family, but then she would smile at me and say that she was glad she was in the hostel because she could play with me.

I know Shanu has been looking forward to going home, and I’m glad that she will get to spend more time with her family during the summer holidays, but I will miss her terribly. Thankfully, she will return in June with her smile and her feistiness.