“Ma'am, these boys did not let us play in the volleyball court. Please scold them ma'am.”
“No ma'am, we played because we caught the court. These girls come late like queens…”
“Like queens, eh? Who was in the court as soon as the bell rang?!!”
“For your kindest information, the bell rings at 1:00 not 1:15!!!”.
And so it went on. Sudha shook her head in disgust. She was the class teacher of 6 “D” and of late, a war seemed to have started between the boys and girls of her class. Half of her social studies period was devoted to peace making and sorting out fights.
“Children. CHILDREN!! All of you go to your places RIGHT NOW. Enough is enough. You have all lost your games period. Now turn to page 57.” She sighed and turned but not before observing the glare each side gave the other.
It was not till 9 at night that Sudha could sit down to a cup of chai and check her e-mails. Her class was really worrying her and she did not know how to unite them. She had got a new mail - “A touching story” was the title of the forward. It always brought tears to her eyes - how a teacher made her students write nice things about each other, and how even years later, that scrap of paper is one of the most prized possessions of the students. And then it hit her. She would use the forward for her plan!!
“Now children, today we'll be doing something different - something for Valentine's day!!” But there was none of the giggling or sly looks as in her previous batches. “With the red kg-cardboard I have here, we will be making “heart-postboxes” which you will hang on the backs of your chairs and everyone can drop their cards/gifts into that. Now watch closely.” Carefully, Sudha cut out 2 hearts she had previously traced. Then she threaded a large needle with some wool and began sewing the 2 hearts leaving the top open. She then tied a long ribbon - and her heart-postbox was ready!! Everyone began to look excited in spite of themselves and soon the air was crackling with the cutting of hearts. By the end of the period there were rows and rows of beautiful hearts hanging on all the chairs!!
V-day drew bright and clear and as Sudha hurried to class, she nervously prayed that her plan would work. If it had worked so well in the forward, it could not - should not fail her!
She was accosted with questions as soon as she entered the class. “Ma'am can we distribute our gifts?” “Not just yet, Sneha, all of you put away the stuff you've brought.” Everyone started putting their things away, the popular ones who were expecting lots of gifts grumbling audibly under their breath. “Now, I have sheets of paper here, and each sheet bears as student's name. As each paper comes to you, write down 1 nice thing about that person. Yes, Vaibhav?”
“We can write this for the people we want ma'am? We need not write it for everyone?” Lots of people around him nodded fervently. Apparently everyone had the same doubt. “Everyone will write for everyone else”, said Sudha firmly, and began handing out the sheets.
For the next 20 minutes only the scratchy sound of pencils could be heard, as people thought, and wrote, with equal ferocity. As Sudha collected the sheets, she glanced at some of the comments and her heart sank.
“Looks a bit like a rabbit, but has great eyes”.
“Mad-scientist in the making - crazy, but brainy”
The clever students had made sure they had added a sting with each bouquet! With trembling hands, she dropped the sheets into the hearts-postboxes, which seemed to be sneering at her. If they hadn't liked each other now, they would probably shoot each other after reading their sheets. Frowns were slowly forming on faces and one girl seemed to be blinking away tears. Suddenly there was a loud snort from the back bench. Everyone turned around in alarm only to see that it was Santhosh whose face was as red as a tomato's - and before their very eyes he burst into uncontrollable laughter!!! Reddy snatched the sheet from him, and read out - “His nose is like a rhino's but has a great laugh!!” As if to prove this, Santhosh rolled back and forth laughing away to glory and as everyone stared at him, the infection seemed to spread. Before long, people were roaring with laughter! The tension was finally broken!! Suddenly one of the boys whipped out a bottle of spray, and started spraying everyone! All the girls shrieked and quickly got out of the way. Sudha blinked - they were not running to her to complain, her plan had succeeded!!!
She took out the small chocolate cake she had baked and put it on the table. “This is what Valentine's day is really all about,” thought Sudha happily to herself, and she was smiling so hard, she did not notice the gang creeping up behind her, ready to spray!!!!
