another coincidence

Yesterday I had a call from an old student of mine way back in 1965 and he wanted to meet me as he had just got back from Australia for a holiday.His name is Harbachan Singh and I can vaguely remember him.The meeting was fixed at Starbucks Bangsar Village.When I arrived there a couple of minutes before the appointed time he was already there and when I commented on that he said" Sir,with you we always have to be punctual .You taught us that"That got us off on a good start.
Over a big cup of coffee we talked about the good old days(He wanted to have a couple of beers with me but I told him I dont drink,but that he could go ahead.Out of politeness he said he will also have coffee).
He told me that he had stayed in Australia (Melbourne) since 1974 and is now happily settled down there.He was talking about how if you are hardworking there are endless opportunities there.Hmm sounds interesting but I told him too late for me.What amazes me was that he brought a photostat copy of his report card which I wrote in 1965.I cannot imagine how he kept it for so long and it was because he wanted me to see it.
I wrote that he was by nature a playful and mischievous boy ,very weak in Geography and Science and that he needed to work harder if he wanted to pass and overally I rated him as a poor student.It was that report which actually motivated him to work hard and he said proudly that it changed his life and he is what he is today.
he still remembered my first car a Volvo 122 a grand car those days and he told me that me and mum were their role models as an ideal couple and a lot of the boys looked up to us because of that.
It was quite amazing that he could remember so many things about his school days and he had some good memories.Today he is about 60 + and totally different ,a testimony to the fact that everybody changes with time some for the better and some for the worse.As a teacher I guess nothing makes us happier than to see our students make it in life and to know that in however small a way we made them what they are.
On hindsight I feel that I should not have been so candid in my assessment of him and surely if I were to write that report today it will be different.I was 25 then and not a trained teacher yet and did not realize the impact of what we say of our students.That is also part of my own learning process.
We left each other after more than 2 hours of chatting and Harbachan promised to keep in touch and invited me to be his guest should I ever be in Melbourne.