Why History...

Text books, Note Books, Lectures and above everything Exams…Do you love them…Uhmm, I don’t…Rather I hate studying for exams…But the issue was I had this big ego of always be among the Top students…During my 10 years in the girls only convent school, I did have a rough patch in my studies…Those were the years, when I really flunked in studying…The whole year I was behaving as if I was allergic to text books..and the days before the exams were days of Tension and pressure for me…Bcoz, it was then I would think of.. “God, I can’t fail in my exams…I have to get good marks…I HAVE TO DO WELL IN EXAMS…”…So days before the exam, I will take out my text books and start studying… Somehow, with me, grew my over confidence that I can study the whole text in 2-3 days…just like that…and still get good marks…and it always worked with me…so the more I became lazy…

During those days of last minute studying, every year, I promised to myself… ‘From next year, I will study daily portions…Please god, help me this time to finish these portions before the exam day and also help me get good marks…’… Now, as I write these lines, I really feel ashamed of myself… For making promises I never fulfilled…Wonder, why god always spared me from embarrassment of getting bad marks…Somehow, I always managed to get good marks…I was so from 01st standard to 09th standard…and trust me, I might study any other subject…but never ever Social Science…which comprised of History, Geography, Economics and grrr..there was one more in the genre…what was it…god, I really forgot what I used to hate…

So, when I used to get good marks for all other subjects, I was like “just pass” for the Social Science paper…For that reason, I used to get a fair share of my mom’s scoldings…still I was shameless…I continued the same hatred towards that subject…

Now, as a general tradition, the 10th Standard was considered a TURNING POINT phase for all students…I remember, my mom telling me when I was 5 years old that I should get highhhhhhhhhhhhhh marks for 10th standard exams…lol!!! Naturally, I grew up with this fear, when will I reach my 10th standard…I could guess, that it would be a nightmare year for me…and finally the year came in…

Soon after the schools reopened for 10th standard, one of our neighbouring house got vacant…not for long, the tenants came in..and guess what…My nightmare went worse with the new neighbours…The new neighbor was none other than one of the teacher at my own school…and…………..

She was a Social Science teacher……….

U can imagine…my mom’s happiness…the very next day, I was sitting right near the teacher…as a new tuition student…I had no emotions in me to show…I was blank…Bcoz, at school, u could sit very well; as u could waste ur time by drawing pictures, dozing off, playing book cricket..and anything…But here, just below her nose, what can I do..other than listen to her…She made it more worse for me, when she decided to ask questions after every class to make sure I was not sleeping (with eyes open...)…Thank you God…you made my life wonderfulllllllllll….

Soon, I got company…6 more girls from my school joined us…(maybe they too had mom like mine...) hehe !!! the best was, one of my neighbor, G, a boy who was a Complete idiot (not sure, if he was an idiot or just lazy like me) in his studies too joined the batch…thus he became the only boy in the class with 7 girls…naturally, he never studied his portions and when it was Question Time, he generally found his way outside as Punishment…and tht embarrassed him…The teacher even started new styles of punishment by making him sit amidst the girls…Lol..u should have seen his face…

Anyways, what ever said and done…nightmare or no nightmare…this new tuition class brought in a change in my approach to studies…rather, I was forced to…I started studying my daily lessons and always got good marks and appreciations for the teacher…Naturally, I wanted to be the best among all the other students…How meaaaaaannnn….Right??? But, trust me…furing 10th standard, that was the spirit every students had in that class room…except for G…(hey, btw to avoid suffering alone, he forced one of his friend also to join the class…so he got company…he didn’t have to sit alone in the class of girls…but then, his friend managed to study a bit better than him…sooo…during punishment sessions, G had to be alone at times…)

There was another horror waiting for me…I could never play or enjoy with my cousins and friends during that year (uhmm, we used to daily play hide and seek…and being me, I used to scream and shout during the game due excitement…and the whole locality could hear me…)…bcoz, the moment the teacher heard my voice, I would hear a long call… “Hey girllllllllllllll….what r u doing there…??? Playing….???? Come here….Bring ur text books…” and with a sad face I will go over to her place… She made me sit there at her house and study and even read the portions loud enough for her to hear…Needn’t be Social Science…But any subject…I would sit there reading aloud from text books... at times hiding my face to my cousins who would be peeping in thru the door and laugh sarcastically at me...I think it was my teachers Ultimate Aim not to let me waste my time…(Lol, I literally had to play with no sound coming out of me…or would completely make sure that she was not at home…)

At the end, I scored a 99% for my Social Science…Would u believe that…and trust me…even today, if u ask me to explain French Revolution…I can recite the whole essay even while sleeping just like any poem…I learnt my subjects…or rather she made me study…that well...For the results, even today, my mom is grateful to her…She always says, "IF NOT FOR TEACHER, MY DAUGHTER WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT THIS MUCH MARKS…"

Sheepishly, I have to agree…. The truth here: I have to admit that the whole treatment really helped me do my exams absolutely well...and I scored a total of above 90% for the Public exams…which in turn, meant an easy admission to any school / college I preferred…Even G managed to pass the exams…even if not for other subjects, he got decent marks for Social Science…

Now, you might wonder…What is there to teach in those subjects…It was not about teaching the subject…It was all about somebody being constantly there behind u to NAG U, FORCE U to study the subject…and that’s exactly what my teacher did…and trust me…I had many teachers in my life…But the gratitude I have for her, I have for none…She was the Best Teacher I could have ever got…

And today, after years, I feel sad, I am not in touch with her for long time…as once I came here, she shifted her house and heard she went to some other city…and thus I lost contact with her…Today, I promise to myself, that during my next vacation, I will surely try to locate her and go and see her…

Well, now, the big question…that I still think of…

Why trouble the poor kids…Why we need to have exams…Why study to get good marks…or atleast…

WHY HISTORY ??? :( :( :(

NB: I should really be adding this one line too…As expected, I got admission in Science stream..and thus I finally said goodbye to Histories and Geographies…(atleast I thought so…)…But as fate would have its final say…The very ME who had sworn that I would never ever study those subjects finally ended up studying only them during my graduation….lol!!! For my graduation, I decided to take up Communication with English Literature…and thus ended up studying not just History…but all sort of histories…British History, World History, English History…that history, this history and what not history….and see today, now I am writing my history and making u people hate History….hehe!!!

Mensaa...Mensii....Mensuuu...

During school days, the first hour after lunch break started at 01:15pm….You can imagine how we kids would be…after a heavy lunch the first class was always hell…drooping down with sleep and even snoring at times…

There were students who could even sleep with their eyes open…I have tried…never could succeed…somehow, my head hit the desk top many a times with a bang and I would try covering it up by acting as if I was just kneeling down to take some pencil or book from the floor…To be frank, I used to even deliberately drop things to the floor and then stoop below the desk just to close my eyes for atleast 1 minute…

Now to my story…That year, most of the days in a week, the first hour after lunch break was Mathematics…and we were taught by a Nun…We called her Sister Theo…She was damn strict and did know real Mathematics…Yeah, she really knew all the mathematics that her students could play with her…Naturally, she had crossed our age long back and didn’t need much intelligence to understand that she could find majority of her students sleeping off…

To avoid this situation, one fine day she came up with her so called BRILLIANT IDEA…(brilliant just to her…and for all of us, it was the worst idea to be implemented ON us….) Uhmm…so, what she did was…every day, during her class, she kept aside the the first 10 minutes for Exercise…grrrrr…Yeah, u guessed right…the real 1(Hands Up)…2 (Hands Down)…3 (Hands to the Side)…4 (Hands Down) Exercise…and it didn’t take much time for us to HATE her idea…and start praying if she had fallen sick and didn’t come to the class…lol!!!

Anyways…days passed…we used to get upset just by the thought that we had to go through this Exercise routine soon after lunch…Jumping and Running…Hopping and Shaking…Gosh…Wasn’t it boring…Ask me…The worst was that we had to witness occasional glances and sarcastic smiles from onlookers….uhmm…when someone cross our classroom door…and they see the students doing such silly exercises inside the confined space of the classroom…they could never go off with a Laugh…and we, students, did our level best not to end up looking like FOOLS….

In between, students started coming daily with excuses to not to do the exercise each day…Some had headache, some had fever, some had asthma…some had this…and some had that….as the number of excuses started soaring, Sister Theo gave her next RULE…. “NO EXCUSES…”…Even if you are going to faint, still you have to participate in this exercise regime…

Point to be noted here was…Till that day, I was Sister Theo’s pet…I was the Best Girl for her…I did everything she asked to…I was punctual, clean, well dressed etc…and now I was in a tiff…I hated the exercise, but couldn’t show it out..as it could affect my reputation…uhmm…I had to go through the PAIN daily…with 100% smile and enthusiasm on my face and frustration and desperation (for the damn thing to get over) in my heart….Anyways, I never came up with any excuses…It could tarnish my personal stand with Sister Theo…lol!!!

The D-Day…I was having a real bad headache and really didn’t wanted to exert myself with the daily routine…I knew, my excuse might not work with her…and I didn’t wanted to either try my luck as I didn’t wanted to risk myself getting embarrassed IF SHE SAID NO EXCUSES…lol!!

Sister Theo entered the classroom…there was a sigh of dismay amongst the students…how much they wished if she hadn’t come that day…uhm…Me too….!!! Soon, I saw a number of my classmates walking towards her with their Bundle of Excuses…and soon I heard Sister Theo shouting…

“Everybody listen, I don’t want any of you to come to me with excuses… I am not going to accept any such thing from any of you…Only those of you are having Me_ _ _ can skip the exercise…Rest all of you start with me…”

Now, I wasn’t actually listening carefully to what she was saying… For the same reason I didn’t exactly hear WHO SHE HAD GIVEN EXEMPTION TO…I just heard some word that started with "M" and I assumed it to be Migraine…and there goes me…plunging down into my seat….I was finally happy…Sister Theo was so understanding to know that I had Migraine and she exempted me from exercise, I thought thankfully…

But what I missed was a sudden rush of whispers between my friends in the class…They started looking at me in the most ODD way…I wondered WHY…WHAT… I guessed, “Uhmm, maybe they are thinking I am lying…” …I looked at them and showed action that I was not lying and indeed I was not well…They were laughing at me with alarming looks in their eyes…I was like… “Uh…what is the problem with them…”… Unexpectedly, I found that I was the only person who had Headache that day and the rest of the class had already started their exercise…I was comfortably sitting in my chair when I saw different Hilarious poses as my classmates did their exercise…hehe!!! It was fun…

Exercise over…a set of mathematics class also done…finally the bell rang …time for the next teacher to come in…As soon as Sister Theo left, I saw my best friend S and R running towards me…some others too joined…they were excited for some reason…and S asked…

“Hey, you…why did you lie…Why did you sit…”

I said, “No, I didn’t lie…I was really having headache…”

R said, “But Sister didn’t ask you to sit for headache…then how could you sit…”

I said, “Noooooooo…Sister told…She told all those who had migraine to sit…and I have migraine…”

S and R started laughing… “You idiot….She didn’t say Migraine…She said Menstruation…Do you even know what does that mean…and u openly told in front of all other students you have it….haha!!!”

I still couldn’t get the joke of it…as stupid enough I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS MENSTRUATION….grrrrrrrrrr…

I was sweating by now… “Hey, but then what does this Mesi…Mensa...Mensation mean…”

S continued.. “Stupid…Not Mensation..Menstruation…GO ask your mother…” and then all of them dispersed laughing to each other…ON ME….

I was left wondering…WHAT THE HELL…

Finally, I had to go home and after much hesitation had to ask mom “afterall what was this Mesn….” Gosh, I could never pronounce that word for long time…Anyways, my mom explained in a short way…Think, even she was a bit embarrassed to explain it to a girl who was just 10 years old…

But you can imagine, my situation in the class after that day…For long time I was teased by my class mates…They never left a chance without pulling my leg on that incident...Very often as I walked by, I could hear them calling out…

“Mensaaaaaa…..Mensiiiiiii……Mensuuuuuuuuu…”