The Stately Ruler

The Stately Ruler

Certain objects always seem to be the species of past. They remain not of the time which has been faded by the rhythmic ‘tick’ of the clock. They stay in the remote corner of one’s memory. When silence engulfs the memory, solitude gives life to the past and brings it to the present with an exquisite beauty. People may call it by the names ‘nostalgic’ and ‘memoire’. When an object of the past comes to the present in such a fashion it brings everything of the past and enchants the one who ponders it. If anyone thinks about the ‘ruler’ it must be the matter of reminisce.

Ruler is certainly an object of the past. One has to explain it to the present generation like a forgotten red post box which stands at the corner of our street. Ruler is the very short staff cylindrical like shape. For us in Tamil Nadu, scale is the flat measuring device. But Ruler refers only to the cylindrical wooden staff. The shiny surface of the staff tells us that he has been here in this spot for long time busily handled by many strict teachers. His only function is to draw lines on the ‘unrulled’ paper. Wooden scale is not good enough to do such a laborious task. Thousands of ‘unrulled’ ones need to be margined by it. His sole function is just to margin the papers. To see a white paper without margin is to see an undisciplined student.

Drawing the margin is not a lifelong work. It takes place only before examination. At leisure he will stay stately on principal’s table. An uncontrollable one will be brought to his room. Principal commands him to lay his left hand on the table. Ruler bangs on his left hand. The next day, the story of this incident will be narrated from eighth standard senior ‘annas’ to the first standard boys. The fear of the ruler will stay for one month in the school campus. Nowadays printing press has given an end to the violent act of the ruler. Teachers have forgotten the ruler. Consequently students are very happy to handle the paper with the printed margin. Once the very presence of our ruler gave both teachers and students the sense responsibility of drawing margin. Now no one cares for it.

Laziness prevails everywhere in institutions. Teacher is in urgent need of ruler not to draw margin but to show her integrity. Only with that he can execute the ultimate verdict on the uncontrolled ones. An uncontrolled ones too starts to yawn in the examination hall. We mean papers. Contagious yawning starts to spread in the entire exam hall. Steel scale cannot stop such a contagious spreading. It was used to measure petrol in the tanks. In those days it was too costly to use it in schools. But one ruler is good enough for entire school that too from principal’s office. It is not just the good memory, and hard preparation of subject before the examination that brings the stuff on the while paper. It is margins which beautify the presentation. Without the margin, skillful the student may be but the presentation does not look nice. Spare the ruler spoil the paper.