The new English teacher walked into the class. The noise that existed died it's death, a slow death. The girls and boys who were everywhere except their prescribed places, grudgingly moved towards their respective seats. And order was restored, class IX A was finally in order.
The new teacher appeared a nondescript kind of object, of medium build, bespectacled, dressed ordinarily but neatly.
The teacher introduced himself first and waxed eloquent on how he would change the behavior of the class, how he had sorted out all kinds of indiscipline in his previous assignment. If his veiled threats were having any effect on the class, it wasn't visible, thus far.
It was now the turn of the students to introduce themselves. Primarily three inputs- name of the student, name of his/her father, and father's occupation, the last input was what the teacher actually wanted to know, it would define how he would treat a particular student.
The teacher listened through the introductions while seated in the armchair, provided.
Now he sprang to his feet with a purposefulness that appeared new found.
"Considering the general standards of English in our state ( Bihar)", he started, "I assume that the standards of English of this class are not what it should be. So I will start with a vocabulary test", and with that he put on his "thinking cap" and went into deep thought.
The class waited with baited breath for the difficult and unheard of words to come out of his repertoire. The time that was being taken by the teacher to come up with the fearsome words, added to the trepidation of the students.
Thunder struck as the first word came out - SWIM ( Sweem as he pronounced it), the class went up in a chorus, " What Sir?"
"Sweem" he said again. Sinha the most restless of all was now looking right and left, the one on his right Tiwari had written SEEM, while Mazumdar on his left had written SEAM in his notebook, apparently a hangover from his cricket.
Sinha ended up more confused, not one to let go of any opportunity to irritate a teacher, new or old, he stood up - " Sir! Could you please write down all these difficult words that you are about to test us with. "
The new teacher stared at him as if he had committed blasphemy. Very reluctantly he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote down the terrifying word SWIM, there was a roar of disapproval from all sides.
The next word was absolute murder. This time there was no confusion as it was written in white on black, and it read 'SHOES'.
The new teacher appeared a nondescript kind of object, of medium build, bespectacled, dressed ordinarily but neatly.
The teacher introduced himself first and waxed eloquent on how he would change the behavior of the class, how he had sorted out all kinds of indiscipline in his previous assignment. If his veiled threats were having any effect on the class, it wasn't visible, thus far.
It was now the turn of the students to introduce themselves. Primarily three inputs- name of the student, name of his/her father, and father's occupation, the last input was what the teacher actually wanted to know, it would define how he would treat a particular student.
The teacher listened through the introductions while seated in the armchair, provided.
Now he sprang to his feet with a purposefulness that appeared new found.
"Considering the general standards of English in our state ( Bihar)", he started, "I assume that the standards of English of this class are not what it should be. So I will start with a vocabulary test", and with that he put on his "thinking cap" and went into deep thought.
The class waited with baited breath for the difficult and unheard of words to come out of his repertoire. The time that was being taken by the teacher to come up with the fearsome words, added to the trepidation of the students.
Thunder struck as the first word came out - SWIM ( Sweem as he pronounced it), the class went up in a chorus, " What Sir?"
"Sweem" he said again. Sinha the most restless of all was now looking right and left, the one on his right Tiwari had written SEEM, while Mazumdar on his left had written SEAM in his notebook, apparently a hangover from his cricket.
Sinha ended up more confused, not one to let go of any opportunity to irritate a teacher, new or old, he stood up - " Sir! Could you please write down all these difficult words that you are about to test us with. "
The new teacher stared at him as if he had committed blasphemy. Very reluctantly he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote down the terrifying word SWIM, there was a roar of disapproval from all sides.
The next word was absolute murder. This time there was no confusion as it was written in white on black, and it read 'SHOES'.
