This is for Shail Aunty’s festival… I’ve written of not one, but two teachers, who I think have taught me the most about not just their respective subjects, but about life itself…
The first one is Ms. Khorshid Avari (fondly called Miss K. by us). Ms.K. was my classteacher in KG (Kindergarten). (in the photo, she's the one in the bottom-left-hand corner) She is also an ex-prattler and was my mother’s senior at school. I really don’t remember too much about KG, except this one fateful day. As a kid I was really dumb…I used to roam around with my mouth wide open, saying, “ooo” or “aaaa” whenever I saw anything new or whenever I was utterly confused.
So, well, there we were doing our classwork one day…and instead of my usual seat in the front bench, our places had been changed and I was sitting towards the back…it was like a class test, and I suddenly realized that I couldn’t see anything on the blackboard. So, instead of going and pointing this out to ma’am, I said, “aaa” and tried to copy the questions from the girl beside me. So ma’am thought I was cheating and she said, “Nidhi, please look only at your own copy.” Great…now I had nothing to do, coz I didn’t know what the questions were and I was too dumb to say that to her. I very clearly remember, I sat on my chair and said, “aaa” as I looked at the ceiling, then at the fan, then out the window, then at the tubelight, then at the wall to my left, my right, and then before I knew it, I got a slap on my cheek…You see, I had completely exhausted Ms.K’s patience (which is an immensely difficult task, really. I have never known her to be angry, apart form this).
It was at this point that I chose to open my mouth and say, “But ma’am, I can’t see the board!”
My mom was called, I was taken to an eye doc who said (in a rather filmy way, really), “You have brought her at the right time. It’s very serious…she could have gone blind if this had not come to your notice.”
So, you see, in a way, it is thanks to Ms.K that I CAN see, I have been wearing specs for the past 16 years (phew!!), and I am capable of blogging…hehe…
The next year, when I was in class 1 (and Neha Di was in class 5), both of us joined the Guide Company (Girl Scouts) of our school…I think that was the bestest education-related decision my mom ever took for us!! Every Friday, both of us would stay back for the meetings…we’d play and learn, camp and also do social work…it was great fun. Ms.K.is the Guide Captain of our Guide Company, so, obviously, all guides are very very close to her.
She has taught us so much – the nine parts of the Guide Law, the 3 parts of the promise – and what’s more is that she is a living embodiment of all that she has taught us...She practices what she preaches. And when you have an excellent example like her to follow…well, Pratt Memorial Guides are known to be the best guides in every camp they attend…
We have learnt so much from ma’am…knots and lashings, setting up tents, making gadgets, teaching underprivileged kids, serving in old age homes and being patient of others. I have been in countless camps with ma’am. It is difficult to be tolerant of everyone if you have spent 4 days in a mosquito-infested campsite with the examiners jumping at every opportunity to humiliate you…but we managed remarkably (I’m talking about our Rashtrapati Puraskar Camp – the Rashtrapati Award is the highest award a guide can get). I will never forget the glow of pride on Ms. K.’s face when she told us what the Head of the Camp (some lady who had come from Delhi, I forget her name) had told her about us. This lady was famous for being the strictest Guider and she had told ma’am, “When I see your girls I think that of the 100 guides in this camp, your 11 girls are the ones who most deserve his award.” And she had said this in front of all the guiders!! We were elated!
Class 12 was the most difficult year of my school life. At a time when the whole school was gossiping about me and all teachers were behaving weirdly…she was the only one who always stood by my side and said, “I’ve known this girl since she was 5 and she cannot do something like this.” In fact, in class 12 whenever things got a little too much, I would just go to her KG classroom and cry. She would not stop me and not ask me why I was crying. She would just tell me to cry it out, and when I was done, she would hug me and send me back to class. For both Neha Di and me, in fact, for all the girls who have been close to her (and that is a considerable number, believe me!), she was our mom at school!
Even after school, I have been to some camps with her as her assistant, helped with the guide Exhibition and the Fete. And whenever we meet her, she gives a bone-breaking bear hug. 
P.S.: The delay is due to my being unable to find a GOOD photo of ma’am’s
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