Everyone believes that I am teaching kids in the village and helping them out but from where I stand, it is just the opposite.These kids teach me so many stuffs without the intelligent curriculum or confusing lesson plans.They have not mastered in any language but correct me every time I get wrong.

I teach them Science and my goal is to make them curious but they are the ones that make me wonder. On the way to school, they plug a green leaf from a bush; then they break down the stalk carefully making a loop out of the stalk skin and then blow out beautiful bubbles. It was my job to fascinate them with all the cool tricks and experiment but they beat me in this. I always get fascinated when many colors sparkle in those bubbles.

I ask them “makai kailey ropney?” and they will give me that look and reply “miss, makai ropdaina k makai charcha…dhan ani kodo matra ropcha…makai ,tori chai charcha”. I never gave thought on this.

I stress out my brain thinking about the ideas to motivate my students but turns out they are the fuels that help me drive. I was teaching Grade 7 and 9 chapters on Simple Machine. I wanted a model of pulley to demonstrate in grade 7. I asked grade 9 if they had made the model in their previous classes. They replied “chaina!”. Next day I enter grade 9 and then what I saw hanging on the wall nearly made me cry.There was this wooden model of pulley. Upendra had made the pulley; it was like getting the best birthday gift ever. He had used bamboo and wood to make the model.

There is this topic in Chemistry which I dreaded so much as I had never understood that when I was a student. I begin scribbling in the whiteboard with the marker that I held in my nervous hand. All I knew was the question and the answer but not how to make the kids understand “Why?”.I was praying they don’t catch me being nervous; as I started writing this and that in the board suddenly those words I jotted started making sense to me. By the time I reached the frame of white board I had explained “Why”; while explaining them answer even I understood the reasons. Then I said “timi haru lai bujhauda bujhaudai mailey ni bujhey”. (I know it was not the right thing to say but I was so happy and excited that the answer finally made sense after all those years. I had mugged up the answer when I was student; knowing the reason was not less that revealing a grand secret).

Being a teacher I am practically supposed to teach but now that I am playing the role of a teacher, I have never been so much of a student. I learn. I grow. I know!