A Teacher like no other :) PART 1

4/20, 7/20, 14/50, 29/10. Believe it or not, these were my scores in mathematical tests during the 10^th grade in my schooling days. I had barely made it to the 10^th grade . I was warned tha thte 10^th grade was the most important grade for CBSE students and that there would be exams and tests practically every couple of weeks. I’ve never really feared numbers. But during that time, numbers, symbols and formulae would haunt me not just during the day but even in the nights. My sleep wasn’t spared. I would have nightmares of numbers chasing me, haunting admonishments of my mathematics teacher. It reached a stage where my teacher decided to have all the ‘dummies’ sit down for an hour after class and ‘interact’ with the brilliant students. No prizes for guessing that I was the leader of the ‘dummy’  pack. Not the most noteworthy of achievements. I had already started hating the subject. I mean, come on, it was coming in the way of my precious cricket time!!! Other kids would play and I would be racking my brains to figure out some ridiculous combination in Trignometry. Sin, Cos, Tan. Bleah!! And half the time, my question to my classmates was ‘Are we EVER going to use any of this in our real lives’. They wouldn’t answer. Most would go ‘tch tch tch’ and continue.

My parents tried sending me to coaching classes. But I was more interested in distracting other students than actually learning anything. I do believe that this was my way of ‘getting even’ with the subject. I was in a zone where I told myself that I would more and more people hate maths and that I would show the subject my middle finger after the 10^th grade (after which Maths ceases to be a compulsory subject). Just another year and half to go.I had to somehow make it past the pass mark of 40 out of 100. But back then, it seemed easier to get the sun to rise from the west.

When we were half way through the 10^th grade, my maths (the poor thing) teacher was genuinely worried. In our half-yearly tests, I had scored 23/100. The lowest in the class. She would plead, shout, scream, beg to try to find out what was wrong. But nope, I refused to improve. I was adamant. Mathematics had become my mortal enemy.  During the Parent-Teacher meeting, my teacher lamented that I would probably not even be allowed to take the board examinations if I went on like this. My scores in other subjects were fine.

And so my mom, the perennial fixer, spoke to one of her friends. She explained in detail my attitude regarding the subject. Her friend, a man named Ravindran, said that he knew someone who could ‘straighten me’. She warned him, though, coz I had already changed two tutors. He told her not to worry.

That weekend, when the bell rang, I was greeted by Mr Murugappan. He asked me ‘Are you Jaideep?’ I almost felt like saying ‘No, you’ve got the wrong house’, but my mom came out and welcomed him saying that she was expecting me. I looked at her quizzically, wondering what on earth was going on. Aah, got it. This is another one of her efforts. I said to myself ‘Okayyy, just play along’.  After a hot cup of tea, he sat me down. Now, Mr Murugappan was one of the most ordinary men I had ever interacted with. Right from his attire - a crumpled shirt and a pair of trousers which had clearly seen better days- to his means of Transport- the modest rickety old bicycle.

He introduced himself as the Head of Statistics in Presidency College, Chennai. I was like ‘whoa, and he comes here on a bicycle’. He then went on to tell us that his daughter was in the US. He had saved all his money to give her good education and preferred a simple life. Now that she was gone, he sought solace amongst his students, treating them as his own children. I was like ‘good luck with this one’.

Having narrated his story, the attention now turned to me. He asked me some very basic questions. There was no way I couldn’t answer them, they were that simple. I mean, not exactly, what is 2+2 but something more relevant to simple stuff that we learn in our 9^th grade. After his third question, he announced ‘madam, the boy is fine. There is nothing to worry about. I will take him under me, your worries are over.’ .Mom was elated. I was deflated. He fixed a time of 5-6pm every day for the first 2 months.  My play time just went out of the window for the umpteenth time.

Although I vividly recollect his entry into my life, I do not clearly remember the first few classes with him. I guess they were unremarkable. After about a week, he came home on a Saturday evening. I was playing but he called out to me. When I saw him, I was not happy. This was my play time and what on earth was he doing here on a weekend. I actually was rude enough to tell him that I was busy playing. He led out a throaty laugh and said ‘no problem, I will wait upstairs’. Whatever!!! I continued playing and after a good one hour I went back up. He was sitting with my mom and chatting away. As soon as he saw me, he said ‘looks like you’ve played hard today’. He then pointed to the dining table where I saw a packet. He said ‘I was at my friends house for a function, and I remembered that Jaideep likes sweets, so I bought some for you, I must leave now’. I was so embarrassed. He had come on a Saturday evening just to give me some freshly made stuff because he knew I liked it. I couldn’t even apologize. Mom too knew I was feeling bad but she and my grandmom didn’t say anything. Needless to say, the sweets were delicious. It was an ice-breaker of sorts which made me soften my stand. Towards him, but not towards the subject.

TO BE CONTINUED…