The Lone Respondent

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.
Shakespeare

Every day we pass through several emotions and incidences that can be transformed to a story. Some sad, other hilarious; some boring, other interesting; some with a definite end, other with unresolved mysteries. So far our heart continues beating, stories continue birthing. It’s another thing which of them are available to our memory and which are forgotten. Of course, the one's that were more impactful (may be negatively or positively) are remembered more easily.

When I read of the Hive Learners current featured contest, I went through my memory lane to look for some shareable story. The flashbacks of a day came in front of my eyes as if the incident had happened just now. It was a happening that made me feel happy, proud and humbled simultaneously. It was spontaneous and instant without any prior plans.

The story belongs to the time when I was a student of Grade 10. There was a course of Mathematics in that class. Unfortunately, our maths teachers weren’t that good. I mean their teaching skills and style weren’t good enough to make the subject interesting and easy. Two of the teachers were replaced. Some teachers came for demo classes but they only seem to be a headache.

One day, we heard there was another teacher for a demo class. We were praying for a skilful teacher to join the school. The teacher came in and with him three senior teachers came to analyse his teaching skills. They sat on the back seats of the class while the new teacher started teaching.

Whilst explaining a topic, he asked a question from the class. I was the only one to raise my hand for answering the question.

After getting the permission, I stood up and responded with a correct answer. He told me to sit back and continued the topic.

After a while, he again asked a question. This time, again, it was only me raising the hand and responding to the question. I have no idea why any one else was not trying to answer. I was not the only intelligent student of the class. There were many other bright students too. Perhaps the pressure was due to the senior teachers sitting behind the class. One of them was the vice principal and the other was our class teacher. Whatsoever was the reason, the scene was just this way.

The teacher moved to another topic and started explaining it. Amidst the explanation he asked the question “what is factorization by breaking the middle term?” This time, again, nobody tried to raise hand except me. After getting the permission I stood up and started explaining the method for this particular kind of factorization. It took me some time to explain the method verbally (without the written text, that is the requirement for mathematics sum). Whilst my explanation the teacher said, “How long will you take to solve the sum when you are taking this much time to explain?” Without any hesitation I instantly replied, “Sir, I will solve it in much lesser time.”

He smiled a little and came to my desk. He took my notebook that was opened in front of me and walked back to the board turning the notebook’s pages. He kept my notebook with him till he was in the class. Later, when he was confirmed as our new mathematics teacher we found out that he knew graphology- a pseudoscience to understand people’s personality by analysing their handwriting. Perhaps, he took my notebook for such an analysis. I am not sure😏 but I prayed for him to be selected because he taught so well in the demo class.

Whenever this incidence comes to my mind, smile spread on my face. While I responded to the teacher’s “taking time question" I had a glimpse of my class teacher. There was a proud smile on his face, that gave me happiness, of course.

About that newly selected teacher, I would say that he is the most mysterious person I have come across in my life. There are some other instances I can never forget. Those are not the part of this story. So for today, enjoy this piece 😉.

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Image from pexels by RODNAE Productions