Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Mr sir.

It was just another ordinary day at the school for me except that this time, I went armed with a piece of paper and a pen...
Ok, so maybe I borrowed them from the girls. It is just that it sounded better that way.

Anyway, the class started off as usual, then one of the fourth grade girls, asks me till which class have I studied until. Here is the dialog

Girl: Sir till which class have you studied ?

Me: Ummm... I have done my mechanical engineering

Girl: ohhhh sir you are a mechanic ah ?

there is a sort of brouhaha, they can't believe what they've just heard.

Me:(I really don't know what to say but I want to defuse the situation, get back some dignity) err... no I design stuff.

Me: I... umm... I program, no I work on the computer

She brushes off any further attempts of mine to explain.

Girl: ok, but which class sir?

Me: hmmm, sixteenth class.

So after that I ask another girl to start solving a problem on the board so that I can see what mistakes she is committing. She struggles with a sum for a while. The ensuing dialog

Me: What is this ? why are you struggling with the sum ?

Girl: Struggling ?

Me: it means fighting, why are you fighting with it ?

Girl: How can I fight with it sir ? it is not a living thing.

Me: (I want to say that we adults have a thing for making mountains out of molehills and so on...)you don't need a living thing to fight with, see you were fighting with the sum because the sum is not letting go of the answer and you want the answer...

saying this, I turn my attention elsewhere for second, when I turn back, the girl is hitting the blackboard where the sum is. I can't believe this, I ask her what she is doing, she replies in the obvious.

To end the day, I told them that I would give a 100 out of 100 in the finals to any girl who can calculate the value of Pi. i.e 22/7 until the remainder becomes zero. I think they must still be calculating, no ?

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Listening to 'La Danse Du Bonheur' - shakti

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