I became a teacher just by chance. After I failed to get a bank officer's job, my father advised me to try for a job in my old alma mater - an institution run by nuns. As I had been a good student, the principal kindly appointed me as a lecturer for teaching B.A. and pre-university students. I did not know what was in store for me. When I faced a sea of faces in the pre-university class (of more than a hundred girls), I nearly fainted. Being a novice, I had a tough time managing the students. As I was (and am still) on the thinner side, I did not have the stamina to speak loudly to control the students. After a couple of months, however, I worked out strategies to control them and teach them too! It was the same with the first and second year B.A. students - but somehow I learnt to cope with them.

The best class was final B.A. Economics, as there were only about thirty students. They were well behaved and vibed well with me as they were only two or three years younger than me. By the time their final exams approached, they became so chummy with me that I even acceded to their request to sing a song for them!

When I joined as lecturer, the teachers who had taught me in college became my colleagues! Imagine, we used to hold them in awe for their long years of teaching experience. Of course, there were younger girls like me in science and mathematics departments. We used to have a jolly time joking and chatting with each other. Just as I completed one year of teaching, I got married and landed up in Durgapur along with my hubby and mother-in-law.

Ten years later, one of my close friends persuaded me to apply for a teacher's job in the primary school where her daughter and mine were classmates. Accordingly, I applied for and did get appointed as a teacher for classes III and IV. It was quite a different experience teaching small girls. It was fun teaching them actually - how different from my first attempt at teaching precocious college girls! The Bengali girls had such unusual names like Kinjalkini, Sanghamitra, Banya and so on. There were South Indians, Punjabis and U.P.-ites. In fact it was a mini India out there - Durgapur was cosmopolitan with people from all over India working in the many factories and industries there.

Since it was a convent school, we teachers had to work hard and sincerely and the headmistress was a strict one. Daily we had to lug along stacks of notebooks for correction. But we had our enjoyments too. During the recess, we teachers used to assemble in the teachers' room and have tea and snacks. Tea was made by the teachers who had free periods just before recess. The snacks for all of us would be brought by one teacher - by rotation. We had fun tasting different dishes each day - sometimes South Indian, sometimes Bengali or sometimes Punjabi. We used to have chit-fund parties once a month by turns in our houses. Besides tasting the gorgeous food prepared by the hostess, we would have small games, quiz, singing of songs etc. that year was a memorable one. However I resigned the next academic year as I found it difficult to manage both home and teaching. My husband had to work in shifts and so our working hours clashed. When the children came to know I was not continuing next year, they were so upset that they created a rumpus, clinging to me and crying and pleading that I should not leave. It was a really heart-wrenching scene.

After a gap of ten years, I again temporarily took up a teacher's job in the primary school where my younger daughter was a student. The timings in the Steel Town schools (private) as before were from 8a.m. to 12:30 p.m. though the afternoons were free, it was a great struggle to get ready, as hubby had also to go by 8 a.m., while my daughter and I had to start by 7.45 a.m. My elder daughter was in hostel in Calcutta. I did enjoy teaching kids again and making new friends. As in the earlier school, we teachers did have tea and snacks. However, many of the teachers were temporary - and so snacks were brought individually and shared with a few sitting near each other. Here too, the children were loving and it was fun teaching them. Though I left after that year, I realised one thing - that people regarded ladies with more respect if they were working women.

It's a long time since we left Durgapur and settled down in Coimbatore. Since it is not possible for me to go out to work, I am doing the next best thing - coaching children at home. At present, I teach Hindi - that is helping out two boys of class 9 with their difficulties in understanding the meanings, making sentences etc. Since they are Tamil-speaking, they need help. My stay in Durgapur had helped me improve my Hindi (which I had studied only up to the Intermediate level). The boys also seek advice on many other matters and are improving their spoken English too in the process. Interacting with young people makes old people young at heart. Though I had become a teacher by chance, I love it and hope to continue as one for as long as I can.
Warning: main(commenter1.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.barton/nsigamany/zine5.com/archive/indira22.php on line 131

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'commenter1.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/.barton/nsigamany/zine5.com/archive/indira22.php on line 131