A Teacher

“To be, or not to be-that is the question,” he often quoted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet whenever I came across him on the streets of Karaikal years after I left school...
Usually he would be returning from a bar near his house.
In those brief chats he blurted out his personal grievances to me.  He deeply regretted leaving the seminary where he went to become a priest. Choosing marital life over priesthood was a mistake which he later in his life realized. 

He taught us R.L.Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Not many listened to his lectures.  The classroom would be the very picture of a market place.“I will kill you” was his usual refrain to silence us. He was not harsh, however. We had fun.

As time passes by, all of us do confront that question several times (like hamlet) although, for different reasons. Because life keeps scowling: ‘I will kill you,’ and unlike the teacher life means it.