The Mary Kom of Crescent..

When your teacher is a good 6 feet, and she can readily assume a boxer’s stance.the only thing you should think of is “how to avoid being her punching bag !!”Now is the season of sports biopics, first Milkha now Mary Kom, then in a few days maybe Leander, but wait Leander is himself an (Actor!!) so he could star in his own movie about himself… but then it would so boring… how will Leander be able to brag about how much efforts he took to look like himself…. after all, more than the movie,, the transformation is the more talked about event..(apologies since this is a post about an English teacher.. the word ‘more’ seems slightly out of place, but I don’t seem to get it how)anyways,I recently saw the poster of the upcoming movie – Mary Kom,

Now just as I stared at the poster, and if like me a true blood crescentian would look at it for just 10 seconds,, the image would transform, the gloves would go, and bare knuckles would come up, and the face would morph itself into that of

Waheeda Miss (English)

She is a tall teacher, broad, has a very unassuming smile, teaches English, not the heavy stuff but typical Indian English, everything is fine, until, you get her to be ANGRY.
I got an idea of her boxing prowess when my friend, whom we had nicknamed the Reindeer, complained of pain in his shoulder after a boxing session.. this coming from a person who had (accidentally) cut his hand during lifting a scooter and had got 10 stitches on his arm,, saying that it pains a lot, was really something, especially when he was saying it two days after the boxing session.
A typical boxing session went like this

    Waheeda Miss saw a student talking in class while she is teaching something (always an important topic)

    She puts an emergency break on her speech, and whoooom… there is complete silence.

    The silence is dreadful, everyone now is staring at her face, and she is staring at her target, the culprit who dared to cross the line,

    This lasts for about 20 seconds, long enough for her target to feel her eyes burning, and the heat making him sweat profusely, you can feel his heart banging rows away from you.. by this time you are relieved its not you… she calls the brute to come in front.

    As he comes to the front, and stands beside her, she asks very very very very very softly “What were you doing”

    He hesitates, “Maam, he…I .. did… He… it…book… board…Maam…

    Thump, Thump Thump, in three seconds three perfect punches land on his shoulder,,,he instinctively holds his shoulder… the next two land on his hand on top of his shoulder… Her bare knuckles hit his bare knuckles..and a characteristic un-describable sound comes out,

     Somehow in this moment of adrelaine, he has a moment of clarity and he screams “SORRY “

    She says “Go back and sit “

Besides being angry, she was one of the most fair and emphatic teachers around. If someone was struggling in English, she used to recommend books to read and give tips on improving.. she recommended Julius Ceaser, and then she had a deep look at me and then recommended a publication of it,, which had the original Shakespearean English on one side and normal English description on the other side of the page.
She always carried a light smile on her face, not very wide, but a slight smile, she was a former hockey player and had all the attributes of an athlete, her stride was long, and she moved very fast,, once I had to walk with her carrying some books, it was like a gentle walk for her, while I was actually jogging just to keep up with her.
She did not like lies, and hence if she was the exam supervisor, it was advisable to fail in the that paper than to try and cheat, copy on the exam..if you were caught, just imagine, talking was 5 punches, copying would be what 50 punches !!, so pretty much no one tried it..