He sits(rarely that is as I always see him standing) at end of the first bench, few feet away from the giant black board. I remember my teachers asking us to not roll up our sleeves but for him I say “khet jana lako ho?” and remind him not to roll the length of his blue pants. His light blue shirt is almost too small for him, not appropriate to tuck in. His face, he has this smile on his face that shows off his zigzag stained white teeth. The boy is just precious.

thats dawa smiling… 🙂

I was there in the class, I didn’t teach. I was bored doing nothing so I just sneaked into Grade Six where my co-fellow was teaching. He was teaching the kids passive and active sentences I guess; I was not paying attention to the topic as few of the boys just had me hypnotised. They had so much energy in them, as if they were high on energy drinks.

If you ignore the two shades of blue they are wearing and picture adults instead of kids, the scene would look like that of a stock market – stock brokers and buyers screaming. It is so nerve pleasing to sit on the last bench and see these students shout answers at the teacher; each of them trying to overshadow other’s voice, each wanting to be heard FIRST.

Now, getting back to the previous scene i was narrating; everytime the teacher asked for an answer, he would just stand up and shout the answer at the top of his lungs. He managed to write down the answer and keep up with the teacher and stand up at the same time. Not only would he stand up but also he had his hands raised, his arms making obtuse angle with his body. While answering, his little hands with his pen held tightly would almost poke the teacher’s eye if he was not wearing glasses (Sorry, I am exaggerating but he was so energetic).

The teacher asked him to write down the answer on the board (may be he got scared of the poking thing). The kid just lit up. He stepped on the support and started writing the answer. I just clicked! Then I was so proud of myself with the moment I had captured – he holding the blackboard which made him look so small.

If you find yourself in this amazing class, you will not be able to not smile. They not just answer one time but they will go like an echo, repeating. For example, if the teacher asks if the statements are true or false, they will go “True true true”… fill in the blanks with a,an, the; they will be “a a a” “the the the”.

Every class I stay to watch them, I find peace in those loud voices. My confusions, my doubts, everything gets drowned in that noise. I smile at their innocence, feel warm at my heart seeing them happy and together making noises.

Remember those last few minutes when you are inside the exam hall and all the answers flood into your brain and you try so hard to get them on your exam papers. You are at the moment, stressing your palm to slide fast through the papers and focusing all your energy on your fingers to make your pen scribble as much as it can (or a bit more than it actually can); then there comes your teacher standing next to you, asking you to hand out the papers RIGHT THEN but you just won’t. You lose all your senses especially hearing ,then your teacher snatches your paper. You curse silently and rest your pen , then you turn your head around to examine your friends. You then shout “Miss! The people at last benches are still writing their answers.This is so not fair. Why do you always collect papers from the first benches.”

I always used to feel my teacher was being unfair to me then; now that I am the person collecting and snatching those exam sheets, I feel the pressure my teacher must have then. I get the same complaints in every tests I take. I feel like shouting at the class and say-“I don’t have 40 hands to collect the papers at same time.”
This is one of those countless moments that make me think of my teachers now that I am standing in their shoe (not literally though). Ah! and my favorite is that flower giving part.I remember going to school with freshly picked bunch of flowers and giving it to my favorite teachers( trying to make a beautiful bunch with all that flowers and leaves). Now, little kids come up to you and gift you those little bunches of flower .I feel so nervous and awhed at the same time; mostly I wonder how my teachers must have felt when little me handed them flowers.

Whenever miss wore a new kurta or changed the side of partition of her hair or even when she shortens her hair by uno centimeter , we would notice that and then exchange glances with our friends sitting across the room and then later talk about it. I should have known this was coming back to me; students specially girls would just notice each and every details. I make a hair bun after I get my hair short so that the students won’t notice but then my hair do would fail to conceal that. They would just know! They will not only merely observe you but also come and talk to you about how great you look with your gajal and pearl earrings. One of my friend shared how the students were even copying the looks.

I so remember me starring at the face of my teacher as if I was attentive and thought I was being cunning but now you can tell by the look of their face that the curtains in their ears have fallen down and their eyes are automated to look and not see. Thinking about this now makes me feel stupid for being so confident then on believing to have fooled my teachers.

When I was a student I would get into panic mode as soon as friends started counting days in their hand for exams to come. Then I would think “aba sir/miss lai ananda hune din aye…padhauna ni pardaina, revision matra huncha ani exam ko din ma ta class ni hudaina.” Little did I realize how much pressure the teacher has to be in during exams, worrying about student’s performance. Then comes the paper checking part; I feel so sorry for my teachers for complaining they didn’t get our papers checked sooner than they did. When my teacher would get the total makings on paper wrong even by few marks while they grade our papers i used to think how dumb and careless he is to get simple addition wrong but now I know; checking the papers and then adding those numbers you tend to make few mistakes and miss out marks hiding on corners of the paper.After all teachers are not a calculator,even calculators make errors.

Every other person tells me how it is necessary for you to be a teacher once in your life. Now, I have been realizing why they said so. Being a teacher , I am not just living the life my teacher lived but also I am learning what she must have learned then. Most important things that I have learned is to be observant , be in other person’s shoe and think.

One thing that tops everything about living a teacher’s life is that feeling of pride when your students excell or even when they show that they are trying. They would just draw a cow that looks more like a dog or a giant flower growing near the house with huge pumkins on the roof but to see that intense dedicated look on their faces as if they were creating a masterpiece just soothes your heart and bring that faint smile back to your tired face.Then a thought comes to my mind “Did my teacher also feel this way?”

“How about tracing the leaves instead of drawing?” “Yesssss”

She said” i don’t know how to draw at all.” I asked her to just draw what she could make and then color. She was proud of how the picture turned out to be with those bright happy colors.