AN OUT OF THE CLASS BUSINESS

We were the only group who got beatings even in our high school. Those days our language (Malayalam) teacher used to take rounds and rounds of questioning. It needs no explanation to understand how hard the Malayalam grammar was, where we have to identify in which meter a poem is written depending upon the number of short sounds (laghu) and long sounds (guru) used in a line. Usually we pass the first round of questioning. But by the second or third round we will be out. And in the last round there will be only one student remaining in the classroom (the class topper). She too fails. I think it is in those Malayalam classes we learnt the real sense of the Darwin’s law ‘the survival of the fittest’. And those students who failed to answer were supposed to go out of the class with their book to write the imposition of the whole chapter a hundred times. The process wouldn’t complete with one hour. So the very next day when the bell rings for the hour we all rush out of the class room with our books and greet the teacher from outside the class. The teacher will be calling out the attendance in a loud voice and we will be shouting ‘present teacher’ in a louder voice, as it is an out of the class business. In a way, those hours were like leisure time for us, as most of the time we were out. And we have practised the technique of talking and writing. The only painful thing was the teacher’s treatment with the cane before we were pushed out of the class.

The fun of the leisure hour ends with the ringing of the bell. Because, by the time our teacher comes out of the class, the students from our nearby classes will be out for their break. The place will turn in to a real pandemonium. Girls will be giggling at us. I will hide behind my friend, who in turn hides behind another girl. Our neighbours who were our rivals will be parading there to have a good look at us. They were lucky enough to get a language teacher who has no impositions and canes. But when the results come we will be scoring good marks in the language paper.

After this burden we will go home to free ourselves. But my new tuition teacher was waiting there for me. Things got worse when the tuition teacher too took interest in giving impositions, again a hundred times. I couldn’t understand why these teachers are this much interested in the number hundred. When I say this you may think that I am exaggerating things. No! It was hundred itself, one zero zero! I got confused. Which one should I finish first? My parents, who were unaware of these facts, were well satisfied to see their daughter writing and writing whole day and night.

One room in our house was reserved for tuition, ‘The Tuition Room’. One day we heard a big sound. My tuition teacher turned back in shock. Not a soul. But we heard the sound of someone laughing and running away. It was my little brother who was an expert in making paper crackers. He took it as a pass time to burst the paper crackers right at the door of the tuition room.  He blew air into the paper crackers, put it down and slapped it with his slippers. Then he runs for a hiding. This continued. I will try to keep on a serious face hiding my smiles. But all the fun came to an end within a week. One day teacher came early. My brother was busy preparing paper crackers for the day. He saw the teacher right in front of him. He didn’t get a chance to run. He was caught red handed. The teacher asked him ‘can you give me some paper crackers? My sister has two little ones. I want to give it to them to play.' He handed over two paper cracker which he had hidden in his hands. The teacher burst into laughter. She was taking everything as a fun. But poor boy! All the drama ended with that episode. 

In fact our language teacher was not a cruel being. While in the class, she cracks a lot of jokes. We all got nick names in her class. Some of us shiver during the questioning hour. Then she calls us ‘Shivering Grandmas’. My friend has got cute little eyes. She named her ‘The little star eyed’. She was one of the best teachers I had in my life. Whenever I think about my school days, I feel a snowfall within me. I was blessed with such great teachers. Today, if I could write something over here, it’s all because of them.