Respected Teacher ,…………..?

A Story by AspiringAuthor

"A teacher's perspective of her first day at work"

“Amma, I have GREAT news!!! I got a job in Bangalore!”.

“That’s Really good news Priya, I’m so proud of you!”

“Now I’m a Physics lecturer in EFS Engineering College! Also, I got my results… I have secured 1^st class amma!”

“Congratulations my child.. I’m very proud of you.. keep up the good work and you will surely come up in life”

“Yes amma, I will.. I have to read the text books and prepare well for the job.. I have 1 week to go”

“All the best dear.. I’m sure you’ll do a great job”

“Thanks amma.. bye”

“Bye”

Priya hangs the phone and steps out of the telephone booth.

On her way back to her room, Priya buys an Engineering Physics text book from a secondhand store. The whole week she spends looking through the lessons in the book and planning how to teach it.

Finally the big day arrives.

Priya puts on a neatly ironed salwar kameez, prays to God and leaves her room with a spring in her step and a tune on her lips.

At the college entrance she pauses for a second and notices the campus buzzing with activity. There are students getting out of swanky cars, some talking on expensive phones in fluent English and some in languages she is unable to even recognize. Priya, determined not to show her anxiousness, walks in with put-on confidence.

She finds her desk and checks the time-table. Her class is in the third hour. Happy to find that she has some time to explore the place, she deposits all her belongings at her desk and leaves the room after the first bell rings. After finding her class she heads back to her desk and decides to start the class with a physics problem as it would involve lesser speaking.

The bell for the third hour rings. She says a little prayer in her mind and steps in. Curious glances follow her as students cynically welcome her to the class. She introduces herself briefly and starts the class by giving them a lengthy problem to solve. She starts to write the solution on the board and in her nervousness misses a step and ends up with a wrong solution. Some of the students, having solved it, make use of the opportunity to jeer and laugh at her and others join in. Her blood starts rushing through her brain, making it impossible for her to think clearly and identify her mistake. Finally, the sound which she is longing for, is heard. The bell rings and with an assurance that she would solve it in the next class, she rushes back to her desk.

Priya then slowly consoles herself and says that it was only her first class and mistakes were bound to happen.

She decides to complete that problem and begin with theory lessons the next day. She reads the full chapter and writes down the points which would guide her in class. With a fresh mind she again enters the class (this time a little more confidently) only to meet the mocking stares of the students. Choosing to ignore it, she begins the new lesson. The class goes on quite uneventfully and almost comes to an end when a hand goes up. She had just hoped this would not happen. A back-bencher had a doubt. “Madam, why can’t the Unified Field theory be applied here?”.

The theory had no relation to the topic she was teaching. She pauses for a minute. She tries to explain it in her own way, nervously. The students feel elated at her discomfiture. There are hushed giggles and murmurs throughout the class. Again with the same assurance, that she would clear it in the next class, she leaves the class as soon as the bell rings.

The same torture continues for a month.

One day she comes back from a class and sits at her desk, brooding. She makes up her mind. She can no longer take the abuse. Deciding to tell her mother about her decision she picks up the phone and keys in the number.

Her mother answers the phone and gushes “Hello, Priya.. I hoped you would call today. Your aunt from the city had come yesterday. Remember the way she had treated us when we had asked her to help you fill your forms? I was happy to see her today. I told her about the completion of your M.Sc. and your job.. You should have seen the expression on her face. I felt so proud. Thank God! Your sister won’t have to struggle for her fees like you did! Is your job going on well?”

A tear rolls down her cheek onto a paper on the desk. She picks up the paper and printed on it are the letters ‘Pay-cheque’.

“That’s what I called to tell amma, my new job’s great. I get so much of respect here. I’m very happy amma.”