Excerpt from "The Lady with the Dog", by Anton Chekhov

"He (Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov) had two lives; one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know, full of relative truth and of relative falsehood, exactly like the lives of his friends and acquaintances; and another life running its course in secret. And through some strange, perhaps accidental, conjunction of circumstances, everything that was essential, of interest and of value to him, everything in which he was sincere and did not deceive himself, everything that made the kernel of his life, was hidden from other people; and all that was false in him, the sheath in which he hid himself to conceal the truth - such, for instance, as his work in the bank, his discussions at the club, his "lower race", his presence with his wife at anniversary festivities - all that was open. And he judged of others by himself, not believing in what he saw, and always believing that every man had his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy, and under the cover of night. All personal life rested on secrecy, and possibly it was partly on that account that civilized man was so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected."

Teacher's Day

It was a memorable teacher's day at the "511 school". That's what we call it. "We" meaning myself, and a group of good friends from the organization I work for, who once in a while, spend a few hours with the school kids. Watch them bending over the books trying hard to calculate a 9+6, enacting a skit at the Independence Day celebrations, or wishing us "Good Morning Teacher" in unison. Eyes bright, sparkling with a dream to change their life and livelihood. They are poor, but the parents, who labour hard to earn the daily bread, want something better for their children.

They come to study. With the usual mischievousness of a 10-year old, the children spend six days of a week in the school. They have not yet become victims of unhealthy competition, and don't know how to operate a cell phone or play computer games. Neither do they bother. Let them continue to be this way, and grow up to be good human beings.

It was teacher's day, so the usual teachers got some respite from their daily job. And the few of us who were there, spent a few minutes with the students teaching them painting, dancing, maths or science. Wonderful time!

In the evening, while climbing the overhead bridge at the railway station, I heard someone calling me. It was a kid from the school. A small girl. It took me fraction of a second to recognize her as she was not in her school uniform anymore. We exchanged greetings. She smiled and wished me "good night".