Some days do
not simply hold out much of a promise; while some others just crawl by without any
reason or rhyme. And then there are days which bring a ray of sunshine to your
otherwise meaningless existence, without you being aware of it initially.
I wan
frantically going through the essays of standard IX B, in the 3rd
period, when our Vice Principal, Mr. Tsheten Dorji, popped in: “Sir, I would
like to observe your lesson today. Are you free in the next period?”
“No, Sir.
I’ve a class with IX A.”
“Good. I
will come to IX A then’
The matter
settled, he turned away, leaving me trying my best to keep a straight face.
Today being Wednesday, there will be a deduction of five minutes from each
period for the club activities after school. A quick glance at the watch told
me that it was nearly 11 O’clock. The third period will be over within the next
quarter of an hour, giving me some 20 minutes more to take stock of my lesson
plan for IX A.
I found our
V.P. in the assembly ground conversing with our Academic Head, Mr. Somo
Tshering. Having invited him, I scurried to the class. But it took a couple of
minutes more for the class to settle down as some of the students were on their
way back from the CC room. I made sure
that all but Kado, were present and signaled Namgay Chodenf, the presenter of
the day to go ahead with her presentation on Phrasal Verbs. She shot through
her presentation in style.
While
commenting on her presentation, I thanked her for the trouble she had taken in
preparing the charts, not forgetting the mistakes either. Her score being noted down
and pointed out, I asked them to write their essays on the topic: What is Friendship?
I was in for a rude shock therefore, when the students cut me short by
informing me that I was supposed to teach them a narrative essay from the
textbook! I could not believe my ears and tried to argue with them feebly. If my
memory served me right I had asked them in the previous class to browse through
the net, in order to collect some information on the topic and expected them to
finish if off in the class. The whole class shook its head vehemently, leaving
me no other option than to do some quick thinking. I decided to put an end to
our discussions on expository essays requesting the captain to collect the
papers from the class and leave them on my table in the staff room. I also reminded
them to try to write as many expository essays as possible in the next few
months for a feel of writing them properly. I helped them by writing one more
topic on then board :How to make friends at school and
made sure that they knew how to go about writing this process
essay. The time was almost a quarter to 12 by then and I had 20 minutes more to
get started with the textbook essay.
I wrote the
title: Nature is Not Always Kind
while telling them to note the capitalization of the last three words. Then I
scribbled the rest of it – By Hellen
Keller. All on a sudden, I had the goose bums running down my spine as
Hellen Keller seemed an alien from a distant planet! I asked a volunteer to
read out what is written in the text book about the author. Namgay took the
bait as she raced through it. There were just some 5/6 sentences really. So I
had to ask a question or two to keep my thought process active and going:
“Who was
Hellen Keller?”
“Someone who
was deaf and blind,” they chorused.
“Correct.
She wasn’t born blind and deaf though. But when she was a mere child, aged most
probably 8 or 9 ( I didn’t sound very confident even to myself!), she suffered
from a terrible disease and lost her eye sight. The present extract is taken
from her autobiography; The Story of My Life. I spent some time making the distinction between an
autobiography and biography clear to them.
I also
wanted to know if anyone in the class had seen the movie titled ‘The Miracle
Worker’ mentioned in the paragraph. No one had. Nor had I. So the only thing
for me to do was to talk about its Hindi version entitled ‘Black ‘starring the
Bollywood great, Amitav Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee. I also told them briefly
about how Ms. Sullivan instilled a love for all things living and a sense of
self-confidence in Keller.
Time was
trickling by as I asked them to predict the content of the essay from the
title. Three students volunteered with Karma Zangmo remarking in the end that
though Nature is all bountiful most of the times, there are times when She is
rather cruel.
FINE! I
realized that I was doing my job only half-heartedly. Meanwhile Dechen Yosel
had raised her hand to read the first paragraph. As Namgay was the first one to
do so, I let her read first. She cantered through the paragraph as if there was a
predator in the class! My unpreparedness was going to cost me dearly. Nothing
was making sense to myself, let alone to the students! Shrewdly I hit upon the
idea of reading the paragraph again, trying not to lose focus this time around.
Afterwards I asked someone to summarize the paragraph. Damcho Tshering did. He
is a darling. Laxmi had started reading the next paragraph by then. I stole a
furtive glance at the watch. 12 O’clock. Five minutes more. I read it out for a
second time, eyeing around to see if anyone was interested in summing it up. The class
was silent. I knew I had to do it myself:
In the
summer of 1887, just by being out one day on the river bank with Ms.Sullivan, Keller
learnt about the beauty and bounty of Mother Nature. What’s the best lesson she
learnt that day? The class joined me as I blurted it out: That all living
beings are peers – friends, pals and mates. And for the common good of all, we
should live in harmony and peace.
DING
….DONG..…DING ……DONG. The normally screeching bell chimed. I asked the class to
read through the rest of the essay and note down the difficult words along with
their meanings. As I glided out of the class, VP sir asked me to meet him in
his office for the post-conference.
Continued on page 2/-
