Caned to be able.

Corporal punishment is what they call it these days…and they have banned it too. An unfortunate incident brought out of the closet this instrument of discipline.

I grew up at a time when the cane was part of the monthly grocery list and played a prominent part among the shopping list which included books and stationary at the beginning of an academic year. This was a ritual followed in most of the households of the time. Along with new textbooks, notebooks, pens, erasers and good old yellow coloured wooden scales you brought home a brand new cane which had a multicoloured plastic loop at one end to hang it on the wall.

But back home the cane had a very strategic location; it was placed right behind the portrait of Jesus Christ, the instrument of discipline placed behind the image of forgiveness. When I was up to any wrong doing I ended up looking at the image of Christ and my dad looked beyond or rather behind him to discipline me.

At school I also had some teachers who resorted to the so called corporal punishments and I distinctly remember one who followed the ritual of slowly pulling us back and forth using both our earlobes all the while explaining the ill effects of our wrong doings and at the same time looking for remorse in our eyes, and if we showed none, the back & forth movement ended in a slap on both the cheeks releasing the grip on our earlobes almost simultaneously, an act that needed excellent hand eye coordination and perfect timing. Let me tell you though we felt a little humiliated we did not nurture any hatred towards the teacher for long. The humiliation or the hatred element lasted only a few hours but the lessons we learnt stayed with us for the rest of our lives. We knew very well it was part of our grooming, a step in shaping us to face the world ahead.

Caning, impositions, kneeling, rap on the knuckles with the edge of a wooden scale were all common modes of punishment, corporal was a word we didn’t know then...These were just modes of punishments used to correct us, not abused to warrant a complaint.

I’m now a reasonably respectable citizen of the world thanks to my dad & teachers for having used the cane, sparingly though, to make me what I am today.

I’m happy I was caned to be able in the life ahead…