One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. “Really?” she heard whispered. “I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!” and, “I didn’t know others liked me so much,” were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students who joined the Army was killed in action and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never attended Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless.
As she stood there, one of the pallbearer came up to her. “Were you Sanjay’s math teacher?” he asked.
She nodded: “yes.”
Then he said: “Sanjay talked about you a lot.”
After the funeral, most of Sanjay’s former classmates were there. Sanjay’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
“We want to show you something,” his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket “They found this on Sanjay when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.”
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay’s classmates had said about him.
“Thank you so much for doing that,” Sanjay’s mother said. “As you can see, Sanjay treasured it.”
All of Sanjay’s former classmates started to gather around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, “I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.”
Prithwiraj’s wife said, ” Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our wedding album.”
“I have mine too,” Rashmi said. “It’s in my diary”
Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. “I carry this with me at all
times,” Deepali said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: “I think we all saved our lists” .
That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Sanjay and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
Life is but a stage on which plays are enacted.
In the Moral it says density instead of destiny
Very Nice Story. Thank You
Hey, in the moral, instead of destiny, it says density.
We are daily writing our paper for the judgement day. This is the ideal time to start doing good so that much will be said about us.
Sara, I enjoy your evangelism. Please keep it on
That’s a moving story. I like it. I am keeping a letter my friend wrote to me so many years ago bidding farewell after he had finished his secondary education. He wrote in the letter things about me I did not know. I was in primary school then and it was this letter which encouraged me to pursue my studies up to university. today I enjoy reading it.
cool experience..thanks for sharing.
no doubt life is too short to love then how people get time to hate each other,sara you are doing a great job to make realize the worth of friends and relations.
Dear Sara.
Thanks for the stories, that makes lot of knowledge and interest to learn from past.
Welcome Mirza.
Share with us if you have any good stuff.
I was touched when i read that story because I once had a loving teacher who was so carring to me.
Teacher did a remarkable job by drawing all the positive qualities that might have been buried in the paper and in the heart of everyone. Love and esteemed felt in childhood and adolescence is always pure and soulful, and therefore eternal.
What an idea to have given a copy to each one, cimenting further their collective
sentiment.
Thanks for sharing a very touching story, bringing out positive side of human nature. Definitely contributes to making the world a better place to live. Please continue your efforts.
Sure Khan!
sara u r doing great
Thanks!
i like ur jokes so much
after going through this article , i am badly missing my maths teacher . she was so sweet and humble .
thanks for sharing this , i so agree with the moral of the story .
life is so short , live it with care and dignity . thanks for the wonderful piece of writing.
Hi Sara, am always following up with your post’s…. and always it has been an incredible with its information….
Good work I!!… keep up…
Thanks Tanveer for the kind words. Its so nice that ppl like our posts. Pls share it with your friends as well 🙂
Thanks Tanveer for the kind words. Its so nice that ppl like our posts. Pls share it with your friends as well 🙂
After reading dis story i decided to tell everyone that how special they are for me. Let’s start from FFJ..
Hey all my ffj friends and Sara, I really thankful for making this site such a beautiful that I can’t miss even a single post. Sometimes it makes me laugh, it makes me cry and reminds me where I am. Believe it or not, I never used to read stories and all. But after joining ffj, I started reading them and comments as well.
Thanks sara and Thanks one and all.
very beautiful and touching!
i live far away from family members, and when i see their emails i feel so happy!
We all love each other and we know it, it’s just the pain is more memorable than the joys!
Think good of other because they would think good of you Inshallah
so sanjays’ never used his brian at combat ~`
nice one
nice story but sanjay ??????
since when was india in a war?????
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.>>>Very very nice and touching I can’t tell how amazing it is =)
may be you will not trust me ,but i wanted to say that this story make cry not becuase the boy has died,but it makes me remeber all those peaple i love but i missed to tell them so ,and now i am living in another country far from them.thank you so much
you’re not the only one seperated from loved ones….
i’m sure many of the people at FJJ are ….=S
very very nice and touching story, thanks very much.
very nice story, love is the path for a beautiful world.