On the other side of the line....

We all have heard of proprietorship, of boundaries and trespassing. In todays world it could be a tricky business and fairly dangerous too. I got a chance to transcend one of those recently. As it turns out, I am no mercenary who crossed the LOC but someone who was made a teacher for an hour from being a student all his life.

It all started with this email that I recieved a few days back. The science teacher in our campus KV (who apparently has a bio background) was not very comfortable with topics on physics. So she requested one Shyama mam (who i happen to know through some vague connections) to see if someone from IIT would want to volunteer for the same, which I appreciate for reasons of honesty and goodness of intentions on her part. With me trying innovative ways to kill time, i could not let go the opportunity.

I was on time or rather before time (now thats a surprise for ppl who know me!!) for my class. I was supposed to be teaching "Nuclear Fission and Fusion" to class X children. I had done the googling and also made some notes from the text book.Anyway, I entered the class and suddenly sensed this air of mischief pervading the 50 minds sitting before me. What designs they had, my mind could not fathom. Anyway, i began with this little speech that i had prepared on the way: "Hah..well! I have been to numerous classes but this is the first one i am standing on the other side of the line....". Some heads droop, some turn at the back. "Ah well! I would want it to be a very infomal session and i am sure with little cooperation from ur side...". More heads turn and droop and the noise level suddenly rises in a crescendo. Ahh,did i say something wrong or anyways forget the speech. So i began with the chapter. The rest of it i guess was a pretty good experience. I did pretty well to sustain their interest for an hour and in fact exceeded my own expectations as a teacher.

In retrospection, I feel it was an humbling experience. It brought me the perspective of the other side of the line. A realisation that it is no mean job to be a good teacher and a degree of respect for the profession. On the funny side, i got to observe the entire bunch from the mugoos who read the chapter in advance to impress the teacher to the naughty ones who have such a perfect sense of timing and anticipation in carrying out their mischiefs. Then there were those who would occassionally peep at you hiding behind someone's back and then evade your searching glances lest you ask them a question. Aint it common to all generations!!

I probably will take a couple of more classes to wind up the chapter and the problems. I just hope they turn out to be as good and refreshing as the last one.