Police sergeant Prakash Ghosh is familiar with the salute. On Saturday, the officer said he did not know how to react when a packed auditorium saluted him.
“I cannot imagine such an honour,” he said later. He remembered his father who passed away from Covid last year at that moment. “My father valued education. I wish he was alive to see this today,” Ghosh said.
What Ghosh has done deserves no less.
While on duty near ITI Ballygunge on Gariahat Road in February, Ghosh got chatting with a boy and his mother who live on the pavement. The woman, who lost her husband and was working at an eatery, complained that her child wanted to quit school. That was when Ghosh took up an assignment on the side. He chose the lean traffic hours — early morning, afternoon and public holidays — to teach the kid.
Police sergeant Prakash Ghosh teaches Akash Rout
Ghosh, a sergeant with the South East Traffic Guard, uses his motorcycle as a desk to teach.
“As there were hardly any classes during two years of Covid, he had forgotten almost everything. I taught him numbers and alphabets. I gave him tasks and checked them the next day. The boy gradually started showing interest in learning,” Ghosh said later.
On Saturday, Ghosh was honoured by The Telegraph Education Foundation. He also gave away scholarships to seven students.
The student Ghosh teaches — Akash Rout — also received a scholarship to continue his studies at The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence on Saturday.
After the awards, Ghosh said that he felt especially content that Akash did not drop out of school and received a scholarship.
Akash and his mother could not make it to the awards. Ghosh took the scholarship letter to them.
“I will help them do the necessary paperwork,” he said.
When Ghosh was on the dais, the packed auditorium saluted him, some seated and some standing.
Renu Khatun, a young woman who had lost her right hand to domestic violence, used her left to show her respect for the police officer.
Among those who were handed scholarships by Ghosh were Aloka Tudu, a Class XI student and a first-generation learner; Kuhu Malik, a Class IX student whose parents are in correctional homes; and Pranab Dinda, a Class XII student who scored 87.28 per cent in Maydhyamik. Pranab’s father went missing when he was 6 and his mother is a daily wage earner.
