With all the dignity of a village mukhiya (chief), this dhoti and rawhide shoe clad true "son of the soil"- shouted loud and clear-"Saaaavdhaaaan"(attention). The platoon of unruly school children reluctantly came to attention. Some one audibly grumbled" Sir, angrezi mein boliye".
His ears immediately picked up the words" thik hai, ab angrezi mein'-" Eshtaand at eeeash". The group stood at ease and girls broke into uncontrollable fit of giggles, boys followed suit and soon the air was rent with adolescent, high pitched laughter.
Not one to be left behind, his face broke into a sheepish grin . Next moment he had composed himself and bellowed "claaaass dissshmisssh".The lines broke up. In midst of all the hilarity and chatter,he made his way to the school gates with his head, held high and back, ramrod straight.
Sudhanshu sir made his appearance at a time when we desperately needed a good hindi teacher.On this particular day, he was filling in for a sick colleague, the P.T. teacher. His generosity and leadership abilities having been severely put to test on this first day. He went on to take several other parade lessons, all commanded in chaste hindi, while english speaking teachers stood on the sidelines and chafed in vain.
.Our school was a convent school, run by nuns and fathers; mostly from Kerala. Where our school was exemplary in all other subjects,Hindi and sanskrit suffered . Due to obvious reasons.The present incumbent was more interested in telling us ghost stories during the said classes. Needless to mention, the marks obtained were also ghostly,precipitating certain fainting episodes.
It was rumoured that Ajay sir(the aforementioned ghost story teller ) was a good purohit(performer of religious rites). That did not necessitate a good knowledge of the scriptures.
Enter Sudhanshu sir. Not only was he strikingly differently attired, ha had a profound sense of pride in the languages he was intended to teach us. He had no patience for people who made fun of hindi, sanskrit or the attire that he donned. Some of his fierce loyalty, must have rubbed onto us proteges, for not only did we do well in the language exams, we went onto win debates and elocution competitions held in Hindi.
He could recite entire sanskrit poems verbatim, had the meanings , comprehension of the passages at his fingertips, trashed the locally available guide books,(in a swift , didactic move having gathered everyones copies and confined it to dustbins) and generally quelled all signs of rebellion at his rustic appearance.
During the long , harsh winters of the plains, while everyone made a beeline for sweaters and jackets, he smugly wrapped himself around in a coarse blanket.
That scarcely dimmed his brilliance. He was happy to be himself and had no regard for the popular opinion on his sartorial eccentricities.He taught us to take pride in our inner being and not be too bothered by the external appearances. Our marks soared and his detractors were silenced.
No one laughed at his parades conducted in hindi any more.From the most laughed at teacher, he went on to become the most venerated. And sought after. Apparently, his maths skills were also legendary.
His ears immediately picked up the words" thik hai, ab angrezi mein'-" Eshtaand at eeeash". The group stood at ease and girls broke into uncontrollable fit of giggles, boys followed suit and soon the air was rent with adolescent, high pitched laughter.
Not one to be left behind, his face broke into a sheepish grin . Next moment he had composed himself and bellowed "claaaass dissshmisssh".The lines broke up. In midst of all the hilarity and chatter,he made his way to the school gates with his head, held high and back, ramrod straight.
Sudhanshu sir made his appearance at a time when we desperately needed a good hindi teacher.On this particular day, he was filling in for a sick colleague, the P.T. teacher. His generosity and leadership abilities having been severely put to test on this first day. He went on to take several other parade lessons, all commanded in chaste hindi, while english speaking teachers stood on the sidelines and chafed in vain.
.Our school was a convent school, run by nuns and fathers; mostly from Kerala. Where our school was exemplary in all other subjects,Hindi and sanskrit suffered . Due to obvious reasons.The present incumbent was more interested in telling us ghost stories during the said classes. Needless to mention, the marks obtained were also ghostly,precipitating certain fainting episodes.
It was rumoured that Ajay sir(the aforementioned ghost story teller ) was a good purohit(performer of religious rites). That did not necessitate a good knowledge of the scriptures.
Enter Sudhanshu sir. Not only was he strikingly differently attired, ha had a profound sense of pride in the languages he was intended to teach us. He had no patience for people who made fun of hindi, sanskrit or the attire that he donned. Some of his fierce loyalty, must have rubbed onto us proteges, for not only did we do well in the language exams, we went onto win debates and elocution competitions held in Hindi.
He could recite entire sanskrit poems verbatim, had the meanings , comprehension of the passages at his fingertips, trashed the locally available guide books,(in a swift , didactic move having gathered everyones copies and confined it to dustbins) and generally quelled all signs of rebellion at his rustic appearance.
During the long , harsh winters of the plains, while everyone made a beeline for sweaters and jackets, he smugly wrapped himself around in a coarse blanket.
That scarcely dimmed his brilliance. He was happy to be himself and had no regard for the popular opinion on his sartorial eccentricities.He taught us to take pride in our inner being and not be too bothered by the external appearances. Our marks soared and his detractors were silenced.
No one laughed at his parades conducted in hindi any more.From the most laughed at teacher, he went on to become the most venerated. And sought after. Apparently, his maths skills were also legendary.
salute people who can be themselves!
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