Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Full Moon

You may have only read it in stories but I have seen it - how hermits turn into wolf when the full moon appears. Just looking at most of my classmates you can never tell they could become a wolf in the class. Their side-parted hair, innocent eyes and decent outfits picture a humble saint in the form of university students.

But when our computer teacher enters the class, the same students who never spoke a word during the Physics lecture start howling and teasing her. True that her beauty added to her smile shines like the full moon in the dark night, but she, though being a lecturer, enjoys it when the boys go crazy and even teases them back.

The class? who cares about C Programming when we are enjoying the few perky moments we can have in this university. Most classes pass without even a mark on the blackboard. She comes to the class, shares some laugh, records the attendance and leaves the class, most students following her up to the entrance to the department. 

When I see her talking, it reminds me my past days as teaching assistant at Kathmandu Academy. I don't understand what she talks about: she often talks in Telugu, but the emotions, the closeness to students, the carefree moods resemble. The only difference here is that I had less course load there, those were the days I was taking revision classes after finishing the syllabus. If the students had questions to ask, we would discuss otherwise just talk about life, cricket, college application, etc.

However, in her case, neither has she completed teaching whole of the syllabus, nor do we understand what she is talking about. She does not seem to bother teaching us. Hence, the results of the last mid-exam were bad, the students who got 100% marks in both maths struggled to obtain 50% marks in C-Programming. Some of my friends and I had interest in learning programming but we can't study in the moonlight, can we?    

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Kakinada Express

She is the fastest, yet so accurate, simply brilliant! The kingdom she drives through is rough and full of difficulties. But, she never diverges from her path nor lessens her speed, no matter what. Some experienced passengers enjoy her speed, most are sick of it.

This is our math class. Our math teacher has a sharp mind and sharper than that is her pride. She never waits for any students to complete the solution to her questions. She drives on with full pace, whistling time and again "chesaraaa, ChEsArA, (meaning 'completed?' in Telugu, however, she doesn't need an answer for this question)" and sometimes she whistles as "nexta methode". If you show any confusion or have a question, she will just come to your desk and write the solution in your notebook, nothing less, nothing more.

Why she does this? Maybe because she is an amateur teacher, her frequently using Telugu words (in a class where there are 20% international students) shows. Or maybe the majority of students, the Andhra people, know the contents already since it was in their grade 12 syllabus. But Hello Madam Express, there are new passengers, the Nepali & Srilankan, & Bangladeshi people. Please guide us properly through to the semester final!!