I don't know if I had told this before but this is one of those memories (an unpleasant one) which I wish just goes away.
A new English teacher, Lawrence, came to my school when I was around 14. He was quite friendly and since I was sitting in the front seats of the class (with always a wish that Lakshmi seated far back might start noticing me), I chit-chatted with him and he was friendly as well. Maybe he also wanted to have some good vibes created around him being new to the school. He was very scholarly in English, which I think may have been helped by himself being a Christian. He took some nice poems like Lucy and Ozymandius which he explained with great zeal and clarity (relative to our standards). Then oneday, he asked everyone to come with the notebooks covered or wrapped up and labeled. I'm not exactly a devoted student and so I didn't do it. When he saw this, he scribbled in big bold letters, 'I'm a fool'. I thought...there goes the pretty look of my notebook. But then, on a lighter vein the way we have been all this time, I said...'Sir, why are you signing your autograph on my notebook?'. He looked at me blankly for a moment. He then asked me to come and meet him after the lecture. Then, he got up and asked me to tell the class what I had just said. I saw that he had taken it too personally and so I said sorry. But he will have none of it. So he brought me before the whole class and asked me to say it. It wouldn't have been a big deal if only Lakshmi was not there. So just as I was trying my best to build up a good image before her, I was made to stand like a culprit. Not only this, after this, he took me to the next class and asked me to kneel down in a corner. But this didn't matter much because Lakshmi wasn't there. And even then his anger didn't subside. He asked me to meet him at lunch in the staff room. There he asked me to sit down on the floor asked me to write 'I'm a fool', a 100 times in my notebook. Again, a little bit of my self-respect went out as some of my teachers came in and out. Some of them liked me while some of them knew me to be a bad boy of the class. After I had given this to him, he told me that I have to come and do like this every day for 1 month. I didn't think about it except to have a guilt feeling. The next day I reported as required but this time thankfully, he let me off with a smile. I was relieved and forgot the whole thing almost immediately.
A new English teacher, Lawrence, came to my school when I was around 14. He was quite friendly and since I was sitting in the front seats of the class (with always a wish that Lakshmi seated far back might start noticing me), I chit-chatted with him and he was friendly as well. Maybe he also wanted to have some good vibes created around him being new to the school. He was very scholarly in English, which I think may have been helped by himself being a Christian. He took some nice poems like Lucy and Ozymandius which he explained with great zeal and clarity (relative to our standards). Then oneday, he asked everyone to come with the notebooks covered or wrapped up and labeled. I'm not exactly a devoted student and so I didn't do it. When he saw this, he scribbled in big bold letters, 'I'm a fool'. I thought...there goes the pretty look of my notebook. But then, on a lighter vein the way we have been all this time, I said...'Sir, why are you signing your autograph on my notebook?'. He looked at me blankly for a moment. He then asked me to come and meet him after the lecture. Then, he got up and asked me to tell the class what I had just said. I saw that he had taken it too personally and so I said sorry. But he will have none of it. So he brought me before the whole class and asked me to say it. It wouldn't have been a big deal if only Lakshmi was not there. So just as I was trying my best to build up a good image before her, I was made to stand like a culprit. Not only this, after this, he took me to the next class and asked me to kneel down in a corner. But this didn't matter much because Lakshmi wasn't there. And even then his anger didn't subside. He asked me to meet him at lunch in the staff room. There he asked me to sit down on the floor asked me to write 'I'm a fool', a 100 times in my notebook. Again, a little bit of my self-respect went out as some of my teachers came in and out. Some of them liked me while some of them knew me to be a bad boy of the class. After I had given this to him, he told me that I have to come and do like this every day for 1 month. I didn't think about it except to have a guilt feeling. The next day I reported as required but this time thankfully, he let me off with a smile. I was relieved and forgot the whole thing almost immediately.
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