It was the usual boring chemistry class.I and my gang of girlfriends were sitting and pretending to be listening in the middle benches, the safest benches to sit in.You are neither considered a spoilt rebel of the last benches, at whom all questions are posed by the teacher ,nor a geek of the front benches, who is expected to answer all those questions the spoilt rebel fails to answer.Just then our cultural department head who was also the head of the English department entered into the class with an announcement.Finally, some break in the mundane lecture of the chemistry ma'am.
It was an announcement of a debate contest conducted by the city police department, with an aim to spread awareness about the police and how as citizens one could help them catch 'evil doers'.It sounded interesting, and I did have a fondness towards debating so I thought I will participate.But then I got bored even thinking of the amount of effort and preparation I would have to put in!I didn't give much notice to the rest of the details as I had no intentions of participating.But fate had something else planned for me....or rather, the cultural department head!
I and my girlfriends took this opportunity to grab a small chit-chat.We were debating whether we would eat gobi manchuri or dahi puri during the lunch while the teacher was still trying to convince the students to participate for the debate.Not a single student raised their hands.She started sounding desperate as she went on with with her attempt to convince the potential debators.All the while I remained undisturbed by the teacher's robotic voice accompanied with an equally robotic set of expressions.She must have just then noticed me trying to hide behind one of the girls, and she screamt "I can see you hiding behind soumya there, come on....stand up"
"No ma'am.I wasn't hiding at all" I said standing up as slowly as I possibly could.
"You are good at debating and all isn't it?" she said in her last desperate attempt to bait a student into participating in the debate.
The chemistry teacher who was silent all this while suddenly exclaimed "oh yes!she is more interested in debating than listening in class!".I bet she comes to class everyday with the aim to make our lives miserable!She continued "surely write her name down."
The cultural head wasted no time in jotting down my name despite of my continued protests.This was a breach of my constitutional right to freedom.This was pure cultural torture against a minor!But who is there to listen to teenagers and their problems?The cultural head and the chemistry teacher pursued on with their hunt for orators while the shouts of protests only grew louder.We all stood there like deers caught in the car's headlight and the cultural head jotted down about 6 of her victims' names.
The damage was all done!My name was there in the hit-list and I had to prepare a 5 minute long argument on a topic I didn't know much about, for a debate which was the next day!!!!!
Continued to ---- Facing The Mike - Part II
I and my girlfriends took this opportunity to grab a small chit-chat.We were debating whether we would eat gobi manchuri or dahi puri during the lunch while the teacher was still trying to convince the students to participate for the debate.Not a single student raised their hands.She started sounding desperate as she went on with with her attempt to convince the potential debators.All the while I remained undisturbed by the teacher's robotic voice accompanied with an equally robotic set of expressions.She must have just then noticed me trying to hide behind one of the girls, and she screamt "I can see you hiding behind soumya there, come on....stand up"
"No ma'am.I wasn't hiding at all" I said standing up as slowly as I possibly could.
"You are good at debating and all isn't it?" she said in her last desperate attempt to bait a student into participating in the debate.
The chemistry teacher who was silent all this while suddenly exclaimed "oh yes!she is more interested in debating than listening in class!".I bet she comes to class everyday with the aim to make our lives miserable!She continued "surely write her name down."
The cultural head wasted no time in jotting down my name despite of my continued protests.This was a breach of my constitutional right to freedom.This was pure cultural torture against a minor!But who is there to listen to teenagers and their problems?The cultural head and the chemistry teacher pursued on with their hunt for orators while the shouts of protests only grew louder.We all stood there like deers caught in the car's headlight and the cultural head jotted down about 6 of her victims' names.
The damage was all done!My name was there in the hit-list and I had to prepare a 5 minute long argument on a topic I didn't know much about, for a debate which was the next day!!!!!
Continued to ---- Facing The Mike - Part II
