Teachers' day special

Priya has 'remembered' her teachers and I felt a post to thank my teachers was called for. Bear with me, my reminiscences.

Even before Kindergarten, I was in a Creche and though I have no memories of it, I am told that I had a great time with Vasumathi aunty. Starting school, I simply have to acknowledge the benevolent Principal of Karthikeyan at that time, Mrs. Balamani.

I believe that there is something about Anglo-Indian Kindergarten teachers. My KG teacher Beena was wonderful. Later having also seen my sister's KG teacher Esther, I have to say they just fit the bill. Like a Nair tea-kadai.

My First standard teacher, Mrs. Sitalakshmi had some trouble with me, what with me refusing to accept her as my teacher. However all the antagonism was offset after my parents found out that we shared some common friends and worked on building a personal rapport. Needless to say, I became one of her favourite pupils after that.

If there was one person who was the 'terror' of my primary school, it was Pushpa miss. Cane in hand, she sent shivers down every student's spine (and pee down the pants for some). The martinet, she has made us kneel-down in the sand for hours, trained us mercilessly for the Parade and simply made our lives miserable. A few years later, I understood how her iron-fisted regime shaped me and I was fortunate enough to see her softer side too before she passed away.

Then came the Golden age... some of the best times in my school life. Meena Subramanaiam ma'am, Mahalakshmi miss, Sharadha miss and many others teached me during this time. Meena ma'am was the Tamil teacher and she groaned unremittingly that I needed to maintain my classwork. Three years I got by without writing down stuff from the board in her class (and I continued that in my 9th and 10th under Latha miss).

Sundarrajan Sir (Maths) with his straight-out-of-sumo-wrestling build was sinister despite the permanent naamam in his forehead. He hated all of my extra-curricular activities and wished that I would settle down to spending more time on acads instead of squandering good time writing crap. Krishnamurthy sir (Physics) saw an aptitude to teach in me, I guess. He encouraged me to teach lab for the rest of the class and I think of him when I do lab demonstrations now in Australia.

The favouritest ofcourse were Mahalakshmi miss and Sharadha miss. Maha miss taught history and geography. She also helped out in school administration and when she was relieved of teaching our class in precedence to her administrative duties, I led a rebellion against it. Students of 9-A refused to eat their lunches. My sathyagraha was noticed and I (and my co-conspirator) were sent for by the Principal, who failing to convince us, let Maha miss continue to teach one subject (History).

If I ever wrote a My experiments with Truth, that would be the moment I realised the power of Sathyagraha. I went on to repeat it again; this time for Indra miss. Fresh out of college, she was so sensitive that she would start crying as soon as someone said something harsh to her. Students of 9-A again forwent their food to stop her from resigning her job (she resigned after a skirmish with the principal) but this time we weren't so successful.

Sharadha miss deserves an entire post for herself. She was the one who induced in me a love for language, introducing me to the joy of reading and writing. One thing I can never forget about her is the way she cried (not so secretly in the staffroom) after having punished me for not completing an assignment. She loved me so much she couldn't bear the thought of sending me out of class. I have never thanked her enough for being the best teacher in the world.

There were many others after that, in high school and later in college.

I am indebted to all of them for sharing their knowledge with me and for sculpting me chip by chip. I know it must have taken a lot of effort and I may not have expressed my gratitude earlier but 'Thank God for all teachers'.