I was never a teacher’s pet. It was not possible for me; I was a notorious kid back in school. I don’t even know how I kept graduating to next grade until secondary school. I have this vague memory of me and one of my friends helping each other during exams up until 3rd grade and by “help” I mean we use to copy from each other without realizing it. I was a troublemaker for the longest of time until puberty hit and I became this under confident loner who always tried extra hard to fit in.
I was really great at art and craft, so my diagrams were impeccable too. I remember being the last person in 5th grade who was still writing her science paper and the teacher legit had to make me understand that he had actually given me 15 extra minutes and the exam hall was completely empty. I remember getting A++ in art. I remember getting the highest score in history during one of the 9th grade exams. I also remember turning up in the second half at school for my GK exam and they didn’t allow me to attend it. Now that I think of all this, I was always stubborn and liked to use my brains a little too much. I was this invisible student like most students unless I was being naughty. In school, if you want a teacher’s attention you had to be one of the top five rank holders or be an amazing athlete or just a very active student. I think this is where we all learnt that mediocrity is of no value and we have to elbow each other out to grab the eyeballs and the best possible opportunity. In college, I really don’t know what I did but I know one thing, I never followed anything in class and that’s why my friends had to teach me mathematics before exam.
I have a ton of fond memories of my school and college but if you were to ask me about my favourite teachers then I can only name two. Now I have had some good teachers who have helped me throughout my childhood and college life but there are only two who have created this lasting impression and I will never forget them. The first one is Aggie sir. I would have never been this good in English if it weren’t for him. He taught us to be curious about the meaning and pronunciation of each word in the textbook. Aggie sir was my English teacher in Adarsh classes, the tuition classes I went to when I was in 10th grade. Now I had heard everyone talking about him and how amazing as well as strict he was. I am sure we all have come across that one teacher in life whose attention really mattered. I think most of us wanted some amount of special attention from him and I will be very honest, it was hard to get and I didn’t get it and he sure won’t remember me if we were to meet today. But it really doesn’t matter because what I got from him is a life long gift and that’s more important to me than being his favourite student. To be honest, I don’t even think he had favourite students.
So, like I said he taught us English and the lessons went beyond textbook. He always had amazing stories to share and would give so many great examples. I remember him telling us how he used to add up the license plate numbers and that’s how he was good at calculating until calculators took over. He would ask for synonyms and antonyms of the words he just explained to us in thorough detail. I always use to read my novels and books without understanding the meaning of some words or how they were pronounced until I got into this habit of looking up for each word in dictionary, all thanks to him. He actually made me want to work hard on my English. Not just this but he was a very logical man. The English test papers were quite lengthy and I almost never finished my paper on time, so he gave us these tips and tricks which we can use to complete our paper in time. I scored great marks in English and I realized how powerful the language is. If you can articulate your thoughts, you have won half the war. I am yet to learn a lot about English and I still make a lot of mistakes but I am always aware about them and that awareness is my gift. He’s taught me to keep getting better, not better than someone else but yourself. It’s a life lesson.
Fast forward to my second year of degree college, semester two and we have the woman who changed how I look at things in real life. Dr. Zuleika Homavazir taught us Personality Development Skills, which would have been the easiest subject and one less thing to worry about during exams. I would have just opened the text book a day before the exam and it would have been a cake walk. Little did we all know what lay ahead of us! Firstly, there was no text book suggested and we wouldn’t dare ask for it. Zuleika ma’am used real world examples and current scenarios. I don’t really remember her ever opening a book or writing on the board. She was empowering, no non-sense and strict, but she was the best and I was very lucky to have learnt from her. I have two very strong memories of those times. She used to give us assignments and if you have copied from someone, then may your God save you. There was this one assignment where she asked us to give a feedback about her, what we liked and what we didn’t like about her; and somehow, I was the only one who remembered and completed it, it had skipped her mind too. She was pretty surprised by that assignment and to my horror, she had to remind everyone else too which means they had a few minutes to complete it, thanks to me. I still remember the conversation I had with her about that assignment and I won’t forget it. She was strict but she didn’t want to break our confidence.
Another memory is of the time when we were supposed to give a presentation on our role model. Mine was J. K. Rowling; now don’t come after my blood because Rowling has done some great work and is an achiever, no matter her public image at the moment. So, we were encouraged to ask questions during these presentations so that means you would have to be thoroughly prepared to take these questions head-on. I was not prepared to present but for the questions…I was. Hers was the only subject where I was completely sure about my performance. I will never forget that feeling of being sure about myself. I always look for that exact feeling when I am working on something. I am so grateful to have learnt under such a phenomenon that Zuleika ma’am is. She encouraged healthy debates, she gave everyone a chance who were brave enough to take it and she is very influential. One of those teachers who push you to do better and not be afraid to stand out. I haven’t come across a lot of people like her, hence I will always feel grateful and lucky to have had this opportunity to be her student.
I am very bad in keeping touch so I am not in touch with any of my teachers but I am still afraid of disappointing them. If Zuleika ma’am or Aggie sir were to read this, I would be soaked in sweat. Don’t ask why. Also, I don’t think this blogpost is enough and does justice to my two phenomenal teachers, so please refer the links below to know more about them:
Hope you like this blogpost, let me know your feedback. See you next Wednesday 😊
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