Gerald D'Cunha

A student of mine remained absent for the third consecutive class, this morning. Without informing me, that is! In the case of this young man, mostly, it’s a habit… and, it’s so deeply-rooted, that no amount of persuasion, coaxing, scolding and even threatening has helped the cause… The dog’s tail has remained only a dog’s tail! So, this morning, when I did not see him in my class – despite his promise yesterday to attend – and, when he failed to respond to my calls and messages this morning, I declared in my mind:   “I shall put in this fellow’s mind the fear of God!” The moment I said that in my mind, I heard a quiet voice inside me: “Hello, do you remember how often others put the fear of God in you… and tried to straighten your tail?" I remembered my own school and college days… The fear I had in my heart every time I missed a class or skipped my homework… I was very scared of my teachers… I was very scared of facing the Head Master or th...

Pic.: Malabika Ganguly A n expression I, often, use in my class – and use it with quite a lot of force – is this one: “Time and tide wait for none!” Yes, it is a very, very old one. S ome of my students have a thick skin… No matter how much I remind them, coax them, cajole them and, even, threaten them, they keep bunking the classes, keep skipping the home-work… and, yes, they keep getting it from me: “Look honey, time and tide won’t wait for you.” And, I am, here, on another chapter… What is gone is gone! “Time and tide did not wait for Kajol Sharma*,” I teased at the end of my class today. Kajol had joined my twelfth-standard class just some two months ago, when I had done with, almost, eighty percent of my syllabus. I had told her not to miss any lectures, particularly, my revision lectures, where she could cover-up whatever she had missed. But, then, Kajol being Kajol, would let it in from the left one and let it out from the right. One day, sh...