ODE TO MY PRINCIPAL, LATE SIR AARON ELIS

My daytime reverie got rocked when the shattering news of your departure rang my ears…..

My sir, my principal, my mentor, my guide, my inspiration, my icon, my role model…..

The nostalgic feeling reverberated in my world, and I still recall the poems and prose and grammars you taught us.

The poems of William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Oliver Goldsmith, Alfred Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, John Keats, John Milton, Robert Frost….

The prose texts/plays of William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas, RD Blackmore….

You taught us how to write letters and applications and the correct use of vocabularies, similes and figures of speech in their right contexts….

You were our serendipity of happiness….

You were our mascot of luck….

You were our role model, and your teachings still echoes in my ear as though it was yesterday.

I still remember how you loved sports so much, especially cricket and baseball…..

I know I am terrible at sports, yet I can still remember and appreciate your brilliance in sport activities….

Your teachings in Christian ethics are still a driving force to me and many others….

You were a harbinger of truth….

You were a propagator of honesty…

You were a forerunner of decency…

You were a torchbearer of brotherhood…

You were an embodiment of love….

You were a champion of excellence…

You were a force to be reckoned with…

You were an example of God’s proud creation…

You are gone, but your legacy as a gentleman, an educator and an architect of students’ future will continue to linger on.

Your charismatic personalities, your noble approach are still etched in the hearts of your beloved students whom you cared and loved like your own.

Your selfless and unselfish advice to build self esteem, to nurturing positive mindsets and to developing broadminded persona are visibly taking shape in many of your students.

Today, the fruits of your labour are eminently shining in many of your beloved pupils who are bringing laurels in their respective endeavours….

They are excelling as second to none as Bureaucrats, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Law Enforcement Agents, Scholars, and in many many other fields.

Your sad departure caused a silent lucidity and gloom which pierced many hearts….

Your valedictory parting caused a soundless lull and for a moment, halted the river to stop flowing, birds refusing to sing, the sun forgetting to shine, the winds and breeze ceasing to blow…,

Yet all these returned back to normal by the thought and fact that, you are now in a better place with your maker…

You are now rejoicing with the Angels up on high, singing and praising on cymbals, trumpets, violin and harps….

Proud of your achievements….

Gallant in your accomplishments….

The mission that you were tasked for…

The purpose that you were sent for…

You have fought the good fight….

You have kept the faith…

You have finished the race…

ADIEU AND FARE THEE WELL MY DEAREST SIR.

Submitted by:

AV Chophi (Amento V. Chophi),

An Alumni (1982-1992),

Love Dale Higher Secondary School