Imsai Vaathiyaargal

Of late newspaper columnists frequently lament about the insidious teachers playing havoc with the future of the students in our government schools. During the sixties when I was in high school (private school) the situation was no different either. With the saying ‘maatha, pitha, guru dheivam’ we tend to treat all teachers (including those who get that job by bribing somebody) as God and exclude them from accountability. Reforms in the education sector need to focus more on the accountability of teachers. Anyway, since I do not expect serious thinkers to look at my blog, I refrain from social activism and let me narrate my experiences with some such insidious teachers during my school days.

During the three years when I was passing from 6th to 8th class, an innocent-looking soul was assigned to teach us drawing. He was the only Drawing Teacher of our school. Every year his first session will pass with the customary introduction of all the students. During the second session in the next week he would draw a sketch of either a banana or a mango or a lotus and ask us to repeat. During the subsequent weeks he would never touch the subject of drawing and pass the time by telling Tenali Raman stories. Since tests were not mandatory for the subject of drawing in those days, he merrily continued his misdemeanor.

In the 9th class there was a teacher whose sole (but effective) technique to control unruly students was by squeezing their testicles. Thank God, there was no girl student in our school.

In the 10th class there was a Tamil teacher who used to call one of us to his room after conducting any test. There he would take out the bunch of our answer sheets and give it for evaluation. Don’t get astonished. This is nothing if you know what I came across later on a day during my first year bachelor’s degree course. That day my friend showed me in his home a bunch of answer sheets given to him by his professor uncle for evaluation. The bunch contained the answer sheets of final year university exam. May St. Peter give some grace marks to those final year students, whose answer sheets were evaluated (devaluated?) by the first year student, when they arrive at the gates of Heaven.

During my 11th class there was a teacher who was assigned to teach us Algebra. The only problem with him was that he scarcely talked in the classroom. As soon as he entered the classroom, he used to take out some sheets containing a few mathematical questions and their solutions and copy them on the blackboard and we were expected to silently copy them in our notebooks. On one such occasion while he was writing on the blackboard, I could not resist raising my hand.
“Enna?”
“Sir, third step puriyale.”
“Third step puriyalenna, atha vittutu fourth stepa eluthiko.”

Then there was our P.T Master who was assigned to teach us sports. The main playground for our school was about 500 metres away located near the river Cauvery. During the sports hour all our class students used to walk in a row followed by the P.T Master on his bicycle on the busy road leading to Cauvery Bridge. On the way many of our students used to gradually drift away towards their homes. Guess who among us reached home first! Usually it was the P.T. Master.

You may ask me “indha vaathiyaargal ivvalavu kottamadikumpodhu, head masterum, assistant head masterum enna panni kondirunthargal?” Oh! That is another story. The Head Master was an Iyengar and the Asst Head Master was an Iyer. This minor (major?) difference was enough to sustain a simmering pugaichal during my six years’ study in that school and each of them was always busy planning the next defensive strategy against the other. Ooru rendu pattal koothadikku kondattam! So our teachers periodically added adequate sambrani to that pugaichal and continued their own koothu merrily.