One October morning, sleeping on my cozy bed, I heard dad, knocking at my bedroom door shouting that Sailaja called up.
So it is 5:15 already! Feeling bad that the day has begun already and cursing the morning hours for being so prompt, managed to get out of the bed and reached the receiver. "Lechava?" she asked trying to sound as if she woke up some hours back and was only waiting for the clock to strike 5:15 and called me. "ha..." I said lazily and we decided to meet at bus stop sharp at 5:45. I am a late riser and so was cursing T.I.M.E. people to arrange the classes in the early hours.
I managed to get ready and reach the bus stop on time and the bus also came on time. Strange, it seemed everybody was being very punctual and some how I did not like that knowledge at that time. I was hoping that the bus wouldn't come and so I could go home saying that it's no use going to the class late. But then, it came ON TIME to throw us on T.I.M.E. By the time we reached, sun, still lazily sleeping at his home left us in dark. Street lights managed to throw some light on the lonely lanes of Narayanguda. My phobias surfaced and I was wondering whether it would be the same all through the winter.
We finally reached the NRUPATUNGA college and I felt relieved. But the feeling didn't stay long. There were hardly 3 people inside, each one thrown in each corner of the college ground and the fourth corner must be feeling lonely. For some reason I was not that comfortable and immediately looked around for the in-charge. There was no one. But we saw a black board and our batch codes was written on that stating the class room allotted for us. Trying to find our classroom, we went through a narrow passage. It suddenly opened into a huge courtyard kind of a thing with rooms all around. So the school was larger than we imagined and thus making our job of finding the classroom tougher. We went inside, climbed the staircase, went round and round and round and round....... couldn't find anyone there. The place was very very scary. Cursing the T.I.M.E. people again, we finally reached a classroom and a boy was standing in the corridor. Finally we could find a human being! Sailaja asked him whether the classroom allotted for our batch was the same one or not. He nodded yes. I think he was sleeping. I don't know how he managed to sleep while standing. So we went inside and there also, was no-one. Feeling extremely uncomfortable, I was standing at the door, thinking that if anything unwanted happened, I could run. I wanted to ask sailaja not to go inside but felt that she would laugh at me, so not knowing what to do, I went out and to my great relief a few students came in walking. (No, they were sleep walking) Feeling relieved, I went inside and sat comfortably on the first bench. Then HE came. he was wearing some odd chappals and black trousers and some odd shade of blue coloured T-shirt. He was looking as if he were thrown out of the bed into the classroom. One single throw! That was it! So he is the one who is going to teach... somehow I did not really like him. My spirits fell. I was wondering what subject he was going to teach. Like any other GRE student, I was more worried about the verbal faculty.
He did not introduce himself and directly came to the point. HE IS GOING TO TEACH VERBAL! Trying to feel optimistic, I tried to listen to what he was going to say. And then, he TALKED. He was releasing words and they were coming dancing to my ears and they stayed there. Now I understand the meaning of casting a spell! Like the bagpiper, he created magic out of the music of his words and we were all drowning in the sea of wonders. We didn't know when the class ended. We only knew that he is a brilliant TEACHER. At the end, I felt very confident that I was going to make it. Now, the guilty feeling of wasting my friend's money on the exam has gone. Sailaja felt the same and has already framed some questions to ask him before leaving.
Then, he introduced himself. His name is ADIBABU. He also gave his contact number. Adi Babu, Adi Babu... trying to say the name as many times as possible,( yousee, I have this odd problem of forgetting names) wrote the name and his phone number on the top of the paper neatly. (I do it very rarely. My friends say that my handwriting shows my carelessness) And then, saying good day, he's gone. We almost ran out immediately, but could not find him anywhere.
I only hoped that this magician with the special magic wand of sensibility and wordly wisdom will come again to the next class....
So it is 5:15 already! Feeling bad that the day has begun already and cursing the morning hours for being so prompt, managed to get out of the bed and reached the receiver. "Lechava?" she asked trying to sound as if she woke up some hours back and was only waiting for the clock to strike 5:15 and called me. "ha..." I said lazily and we decided to meet at bus stop sharp at 5:45. I am a late riser and so was cursing T.I.M.E. people to arrange the classes in the early hours.
I managed to get ready and reach the bus stop on time and the bus also came on time. Strange, it seemed everybody was being very punctual and some how I did not like that knowledge at that time. I was hoping that the bus wouldn't come and so I could go home saying that it's no use going to the class late. But then, it came ON TIME to throw us on T.I.M.E. By the time we reached, sun, still lazily sleeping at his home left us in dark. Street lights managed to throw some light on the lonely lanes of Narayanguda. My phobias surfaced and I was wondering whether it would be the same all through the winter.
We finally reached the NRUPATUNGA college and I felt relieved. But the feeling didn't stay long. There were hardly 3 people inside, each one thrown in each corner of the college ground and the fourth corner must be feeling lonely. For some reason I was not that comfortable and immediately looked around for the in-charge. There was no one. But we saw a black board and our batch codes was written on that stating the class room allotted for us. Trying to find our classroom, we went through a narrow passage. It suddenly opened into a huge courtyard kind of a thing with rooms all around. So the school was larger than we imagined and thus making our job of finding the classroom tougher. We went inside, climbed the staircase, went round and round and round and round....... couldn't find anyone there. The place was very very scary. Cursing the T.I.M.E. people again, we finally reached a classroom and a boy was standing in the corridor. Finally we could find a human being! Sailaja asked him whether the classroom allotted for our batch was the same one or not. He nodded yes. I think he was sleeping. I don't know how he managed to sleep while standing. So we went inside and there also, was no-one. Feeling extremely uncomfortable, I was standing at the door, thinking that if anything unwanted happened, I could run. I wanted to ask sailaja not to go inside but felt that she would laugh at me, so not knowing what to do, I went out and to my great relief a few students came in walking. (No, they were sleep walking) Feeling relieved, I went inside and sat comfortably on the first bench. Then HE came. he was wearing some odd chappals and black trousers and some odd shade of blue coloured T-shirt. He was looking as if he were thrown out of the bed into the classroom. One single throw! That was it! So he is the one who is going to teach... somehow I did not really like him. My spirits fell. I was wondering what subject he was going to teach. Like any other GRE student, I was more worried about the verbal faculty.
He did not introduce himself and directly came to the point. HE IS GOING TO TEACH VERBAL! Trying to feel optimistic, I tried to listen to what he was going to say. And then, he TALKED. He was releasing words and they were coming dancing to my ears and they stayed there. Now I understand the meaning of casting a spell! Like the bagpiper, he created magic out of the music of his words and we were all drowning in the sea of wonders. We didn't know when the class ended. We only knew that he is a brilliant TEACHER. At the end, I felt very confident that I was going to make it. Now, the guilty feeling of wasting my friend's money on the exam has gone. Sailaja felt the same and has already framed some questions to ask him before leaving.
Then, he introduced himself. His name is ADIBABU. He also gave his contact number. Adi Babu, Adi Babu... trying to say the name as many times as possible,( yousee, I have this odd problem of forgetting names) wrote the name and his phone number on the top of the paper neatly. (I do it very rarely. My friends say that my handwriting shows my carelessness) And then, saying good day, he's gone. We almost ran out immediately, but could not find him anywhere.
I only hoped that this magician with the special magic wand of sensibility and wordly wisdom will come again to the next class....
Labels: Memoirs
posted by Anupama at 3:14 AM
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