The other day, I overheard an
exchange between two ladies. An old woman and a middle aged one. Let us call
them O and M. The conversation starts with M wishing O a good morning.

M : (smile) no maam I wasn’t your student, but my sun was.

O : Ohhhh is that so. What was his name.

M : Z

O : Z , yes Z , I remember him. (loudly) Very naughty boy. A real naughty boy.

At this stage every body in the scene starts staring at M, who seems to be smiling. I wonder, “Why on earth this poor lady had to wish that old cranky teacher, who has announced to all that this lady had mothered a little monster”.

O : He was equal to ten ...... ....... ..... By the way what
is he doing now?

(    Her eyes wide in anticipation. Picking pockets, cooling his heels in .......)

M : (with triumph) He is in IIT Bombay.

O : IIT Powai ???? emmm, all these pranksters seem to do well. Only seedha saadha type end up being losers.

Ladies and Gentlemen clearing JEE and entering any one of the IITs is an achievement for any engineering aspirant. Only the brightest of the bright achieve it after putting in one or two years of hard work. I wonder, this teacher had bright and intelligent  student in her class and all she saw was a naughty boy.

Lord alone can save our education system. I hardly had any kind of respect for my teachers (baring one or two). I always believed, they are there (in teaching), because they can’t do anything else. We used to joke, “those who know, practice and those who don’t , teach”. This episode only made my views stronger.

Let me confess, all my life I had been a bank bencher. Never been in the good books of any teacher. Nobody expected anything out of me, hence nobody is complaining.

Those who still believe in, “ guru Brahma, guru Vishnu ------”, kindly accept my apologies.