365 days, June 24th: Morality play
Morality Play
I went to a convent school in Rawalpindi. I was in third standard. We had a lot of subjects some of them were familiar. There were two that were new and quite interesting. One was Moral Science, and the other was, Good Manners.
I liked Moral science a lot, there were questions and answers that we had to learn by heart. I was never used to rote memory. We had to learn a few pages at a time and then given a test. I always scored 100%.Naturally it was my favourite subject.
I remember a few, questions and answers. One of them was : Did man make himself?
Answer, no man did not make himself.
Who then made man? God the maker and creator of the world also made man.
What is temptation? Temptation is an inclination to commit sin, which needs an effort of the will to resist it.
There were others but I just mentioned a few to let everyone know where I got my Moral Science education.
Of course my mom also taught about right and wrong.
My eldest brother always teased me when he saw my, Good manners Book. He said, ‘see how quickly your teachers knew you must learn to be mannerly, that is why you had to buy the book? ‘
……………………………………..:)
Sabethville 
Dear Ranu,
Thank you for sharing this nice story of learning about right and wrong, morality, and being a good person. What can be more important?
All good wishes,
robert
Dear Robert,
Thank you so much. 🙂
Lifelong lessons, well remembered!
Thank you Peter, I only remember the important ones. 🙂
Your eldest brother’s comment in the conclusion is funny though frankly a little annoying, too. Maybe I’m remembering my older brothers teasing me. The title of “Morality Play” is clever. School is often a matter of performance, isn’t it? I’m intrigued by “Moral Science,” which I had never heard of before. I might enjoy that class for its novelty, at least. Good manners must be so relative. Having lived in several places, you must be experienced in what one group accepts as good manners and then what another group prefers.
Great work!
Thank you Couch. I have no memory of my first school, I was too young, I was always preoccupied singing songs I learned.
In the second school nuns were my teachers, their motto was, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child.’ May I please were the words we said, if we needed the teacher’s attention.
In college we had American nuns, they were also very strict when it came to manners.
At home we used jee if mom or Dad called us, but kee with others. Both means ‘what.’
But the first one is for our parents, which carries with it respect. Almost like your honour.
I found the people who speak Urdu are very polite. There is a story about two gentlemen waiting for the arrival of the train at a station, when the train stopped each told the other pahlay aap, pahlay aap. It means you first. The train only stops at the station for three minutes, the poor gentlemen missed their train, it took them too long to get on, so the whistle sounded and the train moved on little did the conductor know he ruined those men’s travel plans. 😦