It was a late morning hour. Mrs.Prema was trying to teach us a word or two in English. The catch was, for most words, she had to draw the respective object on the blackboard using a white chalk piece. Chalk pieces were the most prized possessions of the teachers and students equally back then. I still remember the sawdust packed boxes in which they used to arrive
Alright, so - what's the big deal? Well, the word she used for the letter "c" was "crow"! Now, talk of drawing a crow using a white chalk on a blackboard and explaining to kids like myself as to why the white lines are there on a crow that is supposed to be "black"! :)
We indeed gave her some tough time! But one of the things that all the students asked from the subsequent teachers who came to teach was to leave the crow intact on the board as-is! Mrs.Prema came later in time for another session only to find how much her class had actually liked the crow on the board!
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I am notorious for being late to school. Definitely had to be late by a minimum of 5 minutes or so. I could have any explanation for that - from a puncture on my cycle tyre to my sister walking slower than myself..!
Enter Mrs.Sophy's Moral Science class in my III grade. And right during the 1st period. I am trying to stand at the door, being late by at least a good 15 minutes. Give it another 15 minutes and the class would've almost been over. Not the one with a richest vocabulary for that age within the class, I faced this puzzling question as she asked me "Why aren't you punctual?"
I still remember throwing a puzzled look at her. I just didn't know what that word meant. Then, the moral science class, of course, took a shift to become a very brief session in English. Mudassar Mallick, my classmate, managed to pull off an answer and responded - "Its being on time"!
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விடை தருக - meaning, give answers. This is how the question paper used to be for our தமிழ் examinations. So, in the III grade - and probably even before that, one of the things that was marked out to us was to ensure the section names, number and headers on our answer sheets match up with the ones on the question papers as well. Usually, our teachers were pretty kind and lenient with us jumbling the answering sequence. This meant more often than not, I would've answered question 1 followed by question 3 followed by question 7 etc.
Alright, so what's the deal with a language paper of all things? Well... just that in lieu of marking up விடை தருக, I have marked up several times as "வடை தருக". Mrs.Dixcy Rani would, while distributing the answer sheets in the class, jocularly quip at me (and several other students too) asking if she was running a canteen to give us all a வடை - which is a popular south indian snack :)
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So, this happened when we were listening to our Geography teacher Mrs.Nirmala Natarajan... She was explaining about the uses of the alternate sources of energy and as to how it can be leveraged to reduce the impact of the greenhouse effect and global warming - YES, we did have those sessions back in the 90s as well - more as serious sessions in a classroom discussion than debates in television as it is today.
The concept of "gobar" gas was being explained. And she was talking through how cow dung can be used to prepare this gas and then kind of get funneled to homes. When this was being spoken, I threw a very surprised face and as if reacting to someone that had just farted, pulled myself back in the seat as well. Seeing my reaction obviously because the cow dung was mentioned, she quipped, "Ravi, the gas is what makes it to your home eventually. Not the dung!"
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This was during my 6th grade. The very first period was "FREE". And wow! What a way to begin the day - or so we thought until one of the substitution teachers came in and said, "With the upcoming sports day, we need to clean up the school ground. Therefore, the class should head to the ground to help with this activity". As always, a bunch of folks preferred to play in the field. Another bunch choosing to walk around. Another bunch sincerely proceeding with the de-weeding activities.
There are some weeds that we have always been warned about. And the clear cut instruction was not to go near them. However, as always, curiosity was to take the better of us and many of us decided to go and check out every other plant that was around. Result? Itching sensation in the skin for many of the kids. If you forward this to the current scenario, even in an Indian context, I wouldn't know what could this be resulting in!
We enter the next class / session. It was a science class to be handled by Mrs.Yashodara Jeyapaul. With several of us getting an itching in our hands from handling of the weeds, there was a visible commotion that slowly started to set in. Seeing this happen even before any of us could be up and running with our notebooks / textbooks, she quietly enquired us all - "What did you folks do?" We answered to her about the exercise in de-weeding. Promptly, she sent the class representative to the school canteen and asked him to get some common salt. She then put the pack in her desk. Asked everyone that felt extremely itchy to come and take some salt and gently rub it up in the affected area. And voila! It WORKED!
Of course, all this didn't happen without a good 30 minutes of her period having to pass away. She was left with the last 10 minutes. Not being enough time to handle a regular science class, she told - "Children, your lesson in science for the day is uses of salt!" We all cheered - partly amused, partly astonished.
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