KOCHI: Not an eye was dry at the funeral of the braveheart teacher who saved the lives of her students at the cost of her own, when a car rammed into them near the school. Revathy M K, the 26-year-old Malayalam teacher of Vivekananda Vidyalayam at Vazhappally, was given a tearful farewell by the students, her fellow teachers, members of the school management and the people of Arikuzha in Muvattupuzha on Tuesday.
“If not for Revathy’s selfless action, many children might have been seriously injured,” said a teacher of the school. “We can still hear her shouting at the students to run away from the speeding car and that too while lying injured on the ground,” said the teacher. What more can be proof of her selflessness but the very first question she asked on regaining consciousness for a brief while was - ‘How are the kids?’,” said a family member. The only solace her family members have is that she died doing something she always loved.
“Teaching was her passion,” said K K Dileep Kumar, school secretary. “She was a very energetic person and for the brief period of a week and a half that she was with us, Revathy made her presence felt everywhere on the campus,” he said. According to him, the funeral which took place at 6:30 pm, was a very traumatic experience for everyone present.
“A promising young life has been snuffed out. It was just last week that she organised the Reading Day programmes at the school in a very efficient and perfect way,” said the school secretary. According to R Anitha, headmistress, she had recently finished her BEd course and this was her first appointment. “I remember calling Revathy to notify her about her appointment. She was so ecstatic to hear the news. She told me as to how she was looking forward to starting her job,” said Anitha.
The passion she had for the profession was evident in everything she did, said one of her colleagues. “We never knew that she came to the school every day from so far! We realised it only today when we went to attend her funeral,” said the teacher. According to them, her in-laws told the teachers that Revathy used to walk all the way from her house to school daily. “We always thought her husband might have been dropping her off.
According to her in-laws, it was her passion for the profession that gave her the energy and will power to overcome all hurdles,” said the headmistress.
Meanwhile, with the death of the teacher, the case registered against the school academic director Krishnakumar Varma under section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and section 337 (causing hurt by an act of endangering the life or personal safety of others) of IPC has been changed to IPC section 304 (a) (causing death by negligence).