Saturday, August 27, 2011

On how I grew so smart!

I have had very tough early school years. Behind this “Bright” kid, is a long struggling success story.

Most of you know by now that my sister and I were problem kids. It wasn’t always our mistake that our mother got called to the school often. Like that time when the teacher asked me that dogs question.

She said: “Deepali, if I give you two dogs and then give you two more dogs…how many dogs would you have?”

I said: “Five Dogs.”

The teacher asked this question many times and every time my answer was five. I think after the seventh attempt, she lost her cool and called in my mother. My mother’s answer was ‘Four Dogs’ and even after I reminded her that we already had a dog at home, and the correct answer was ‘Five Dogs’, she only gave me a stare.

But the best part about my growing up years was, that we never had to stay put at one school for more than a year. Thanks to my dad’s profession, we shifted cities so often that we didn’t really have to care about creating a positive impression on our teachers.

In Pathankot, we were admitted in a Convent school. The first day changed everything – they took me to a hall where they had publicly nailed one student on a giant plus sign.

Just to confirm, I asked the girl sitting next to me(who in later years grew to be my BFF ) : “Why do you think that guy has been nailed to a big plus and hanged on the wall?”

Priyanka replied: “Maybe, he failed maths. Why else, would they nail him on a big plus.”

I thanked God, he hadn’t failed English…imagine being nailed to an ‘A’ – a nail through the head for sure.

I didn’t want to meet the same fate….and ended up becoming the best student the school had ever seen.

Now, I could get my report card signed on the same day it was given to me by my teachers – not because I was getting good marks, but because now my classmates had stopped borrowing it to scare their parents.

Soon I became the pet of my teachers. To avoid sitting in classes, I would simply stand outside staff room to remain in sight of teachers who would always have some task for me. This way, I got away with classes, didn’t fall short of attendance and also became everyone’s favorite.

But unfortunately, we left school after another year. And I had to start all over again in the new school. By now, I was an expert :)

4 comments:

rajoojamwal said...

Nice one Paloo---& very innovative.

Deepaish pall said...

Wicked girl!! hehe Nice post!!

Abhijit said...

Ha ha..Teachers Pet u are..Bt seriously u used to bunk class and roam arnd d staff room?? Lolzz..!!

ashish@greatwhitenorth said...

I wonder what example this will set for the new kids on the block! :)... Excellent humor though....very repartee!!