Briskly entering the class, he dumps his books on the desk, looks around, stares at the board for a moment, and then finally after a few perplexed moments, he opens his book to the required page and picks up a piece of chalk. Everyone stares at the board as he scribbles a few random technical words, his head clearly imploding with knowledge that he longs to share with us, but knows that it is of no use, as we would remain the same old confused souls that we are. He begins to speak as we fight our strong desire to doze off, when suddenly he attacks us with a question just to receive grave silence in return. Adhering to his artistic skills, he draws a diagram which causes an eruption of laughter amongst the students. Taking a few steps back from the board, he looks at the drawing and carries on with the explanation as he curbs in one of his rare laughs. Oblivious to the world around him, his overactive mind keeps thinking various thoughts that he prefers to keep to himself. The moment a topic of his interest starts, his mind switches back into the real world and his beady black eyes twinkle with excitement, just as a little kid’s eyes do when they see an attractive toy. Raising questions that one wouldn’t have ever thought of, he leaves the class to find the answer for themselves, and if they fail to do so, he reveals the answer in an obvious tone as if explaining that one and one make two, with a content smile on his face, satisfied that at least he could get us to rack our brains for a little while.

Sitting down with her small group of students in class, she explains all the concepts related to a particular chapter using one diagram. She smiles to herself when we say we understand, as she knows what our condition will be when we start the exercises. She stands by the board, ready to explain everything all over again. Her intent eyes searching for certain students to target for tricky questions, she muddles up our mind as she incessantly increases the complications in the problems. One glance at everyone’s baffled faces and she knows exactly what doubt they have. Her sweet voice goes on to explain the endless list of laws, and every time a student solves a complex question, her eyes twinkle with delight and pride. Her eyebrows rise as she sets yet another challenge for the class. Traditional Indian attires along with her well-sculpted features never fail to make her look beautiful. Her unique radiance and extremely melodious voice mesmerise all. Her occasional strict appearances and confident poise are enough to make anyone do what she demands. Her sensible explanations well-supported by logical reasons always manage to convince even the most reluctant and rigid students. Every time she adjusts her glasses, her nose twitches and eyes press closed, like a small child adapting to new glasses. Her sensitive nature always makes her reduce the workload as she leaves class looking at the students’ sunken faces.

Casually strolling past our class, he glances at the timetable on the board, and upon realising that it’s his class, he changes direction to walk right in. Forgetting his textbook 80% of the times, he borrows one from us and proceeds to start off the mundane routine of solving exercises. Writing the question number on one corner of the board, he turns around to find one person drooling on his desk, one yawning and one happily resting his head on his hand, lost in his dream world. Visibly annoyed, he shouts out a few language-confused sentences which sound so hilarious that everyone comes back to class. Unaware of the effect his words have on the class, he continues to teach as everyone holds their stomach, rolling around laughing hysterically. The slightest buzz of his phone in the breast pocket of his shirt causes him to divert from the class instantly. And in that time when he checks his phone, the class gets time to figure out what he was trying to teach. Emphasising on certain essential numerical facts, he repeats the same thing again and again in a singsong manner, hoping to get the tune and lyrics stuck in our mind. He talks nonstop as he wipes chalk dust off his glasses which give him a grim look, but the moment he opens his mouth to speak, the effect of the glasses dies away. Walking around the class, observing each and every student’s methods, he points out common mistakes that people tend to make, confusing us furthermore and making us forget what was right. Testing each and every one of us in various ways, he makes sure that our confusion increases steadily. He fills the board with a bizarre combination of letters and numbers, leaving us all mystified. He seems to love that effect though, as he laughs his superior laugh out loud. “Think about it” he says as he leaves the class with the student’s textbook tightly clutched in his hand, heading in the wrong direction again, and then turning around upon realising where he actually had to go.