Teachers

Saw TZP over the weekend ( review on We are like this only) which led us to reminisce about the teachers we had through school. It was a mixed bag - there were some who were truly inspiring, there were some who were lazy or boring or just plain cruel, and there were some who made you feel ten feet tall...

There was Mrs. Bhattacharya, who used to teach science or something. Quite the sadist, if she found that someone hadn't done their homework, she used to bang their head against the wall. Her nephew was in my section and used to come in for this treatment quite regularly. The Hindi teachers, way back in primary school, would give you poor marks if you expressed an honest opinion, as opposed to the 'ratta' answers they had dictated to each question.

Pankaj Sir - who taught maths - was known as Paan Chabau because of his habit of chewing paan, and woe betide you if you sat next to a window. Streams of paan would come flying past at any point of time during his class, and you were easily liable to get some red flecks on your white uniform. Our PE teacher, in line with the general trend in Delhi schools, had trouble with his English. Like an 'angrezon ke zamaane ke jailor', he used to divide the class into three halves. If you ever interrupted him in the middle of a conversation, he'd say, "I talk she talk, why you coming middle middle?" He also used to ask for windows to be opened so the climate could come in. He frequently made us do something which I still haven't figured out the real name for - 'Table cards' exercises!

Our maths teacher, Mrs. Kharbanda, loomed large in her stern glasses, plaited greying hair and rather colourful clothes. If you ever asked her a question, she would turn to the class toppers in Maths and ask them if they had understood. As soon as these toadies nodded yes, she'd turn back and say, "If they can understand, why can't you?", and rap you on the knuckles with a wooden ruler. I have a feeling that she was responsible not only for my fear of maths but my feeling, throughout my educational career, that I was not capable of understanding maths.

Mrs. Raman was our chemistry teacher from class 6. An extroverted, fast-talking Tam-Brahm, she really got us all excited about chemistry. She had a way of talking which would make the subject come alive. One of the weird things I remember from her class was a ghost story she narrated about someone who was driving down Purana Quila Road late at night in the winter and suddenly found a white film on the windscreen. When the wipers couldn't wipe it away, the chap got out to wipe it off himself and found it was just not going. Then he realised it was a supernatural presence and started reciting the Gayatri Mantra. The thing vanished and he drove home at a terrific speed. Funny mix of the arcane and the prove-able, eh?

Our English teacher in class 6 was Mrs. Chawla. She used to be stern, with cat-shaped glasses and her salt and pepper hair always in an immaculate French roll. She was no-nonsense and all of us used to be scared of her. One day, right after the exams, she called me up to the board and asked me tio wipe it clean. As I was doing so, she turned to the class and said, "This girl has done something I didn't think any of you were capable of." I froze in place, wondering what terrible thing I had done. She went on, "She has come first in all four sections in English, and scored over 70%." I was so relieved I hadn't committed any sacrilege that it took a while for the news to sink in. Our English teachers always used to be fun - young, excited about the subject and thrilled if they found someone who showed any signs of prowess.

I continued my love affair with English teachers through my years at American school too. There was Mrs. Morano - one of the original flower children, and I wouldn't be surprised if she'd gone to Woodstock. She taught Advanced English, and made us read Romeo and Juliet and A Separate Peace, The Catcher in the Rye and the Bible. She gave me a special assignment once to read and interpret part of Milton's Paradise Lost. Mrs. Banck was more easy-going and lots of fun, and again, passionate about her subject. She took us through Beowulf and Macbeth, Shakespearean sonnets and the Romantic poets. As a result of the English teachers I have had, I have always loved reading and writing and the analysis of literature - it seems like something that is necessary for a full life.

So much of who we become and what we enjoy gets shaped by our school days. The attitude of teachers towards each and every student is so important in shaping that person's view of himself or herself, in their self-esteem and how they perceive their own abilities. The impact of the school days and school teachers is lifelong. If only we as a society would recognise the criticality of the function they perform, and pay them fittingly for the influence they have on our children...