Beyond being a Teacher

My English teacher walked in with a Hindu crossword puzzle every day. The paper was folded in 4 and tucked along with the “Julius Caesar” or the “Anthology of poems” that we did in ICSE. While we stood up to greet  her , she showed her hands in a way that said “ Never mind sit down”. She would then loudly ask “High conservative, small at heart ?  It is difficult to believe“, it is 4 letters and 5 letters. Can anyone guess this one? I have been thinking about this since morning. Very rarely anyone of us got a brainwave and shot off some word that fit her boxes right and of course to see that flash of a smile from the one person I knew who could bring literature alive in class.  Well,  The answer to this one was 'Tall Story' .

She kept our class rapt in ways , I confess. She read the words and rattled the interpretations in way that we ended up feeling we wanted more. Few  unforgettable experiences were the way she showed us in words and actions what a love-knot was in the  Highway Man, showed us the country side of the Solitary Reaper. One wondered why Wordsworth didn’t use those words too!  Her ‘Daffodils’ lesson was in total pin-drop silence. Till date I can remember that day, when the poem finished and she had explained the beauty of what Wordsworth saw everyone of us were transported to that plain where ‘when our heart with pleasure fills’ and danced ‘with the daffodils’. The stabbing of Caesar by the conspirators was imagined to the last detail by her interpretations of Shakespeare’s otherwise licensed writing! You could tell she liked Antony and she despised Cassius.

Looking out for the colour of the crisp cotton sarees she wore was the event of the day. Classy and charismatic. An occasional small string of jasmine lit her face but so beautifully that all we girls looked at her longer than we normally did. The red bindi set off her fair skin very well and of course she played with the plaits as she read the lines out in such astounding eloquence. The modulation was impeccable. Language flowed and ebbed its way through the air. A complete command over what she delivered and oozing passion of what she was saying. Heart and soul into what she taught us. She let us argue with her, have our piece of fun between the discussions and ask stupid questions.

Our batch was a high achieving batch in academics and outside and whenever we won something she will say a one-liner to us and make our heart sing for that smile that went with it. It was special in every sense of the word.”Give it all you have”, she told me once when she prepared me for an elocution competition. That line stuck with me till this date and I often say it to my girl.

She was a feminist and was so well read that she could take on any topic under the sun to discuss it with us fiercely. She fought for what was right and called a spade a spade. There was a spirit she had that was unconventional and untamed. We girls loved it..every bit of that! Its one of those see it to know it kind of feeling! A true woman of today with values of yesterday – all intact! We loved the combination and yes she was someone I idolized. Loved her ways and many a times aspired to emulate!

Many many years later when she was present just as beautiful as she has always been on my wedding reception smiling at the camera and the video, I turned to my husband and whispered, “ I grew up looking up to her all my life in school.”

There are many things in life that stay stuck with us. In ways we never realize they will. Its almost like those aspirations has gotten to our nerves even before we realized they had. Many things she did left an indelible mark in our personalities and that I think is being a role model. So here is to that teacher!!