CHAPTER 12: EACH OTHER’S SHIKSHAK BABU
Bondita’s parting sentence about working on his lessons, had rankled Anirudh’s mind all day. He really wasn’t cut out to teach. He could lecture and give explanations well. But, when it came to theory and making the students understand the fundamental, he faced difficulties.
He really wasn’t good at planning. It was always Saurav, who helped him with planning everything. Even his study routine was planned with his help.
But now, he had to be headstrong. With a renewed vigour and determination, Anirudh entered the classroom.
“Ok, students, I have something to say to you all. Listen, I know, I haven’t been the best teacher. But now, that’s going to change”. Everyone was looking at him with rapt attention and he didn’t know why, but that unnerved him a bit.
A girl raised her hand. “Sir, you are very good at giving explanations and helping us with important notes”, she said.
“Uhh… Thanks. But, to be honest, I forgot that it’s actually MY duty to make you all more interested and engaged in your studies. And now, I’ll do that”, he said firmly.
It was almost time for the class to be dismissed. Anirudh had tried his level best, to make the lesson a bit more elaborate and interesting.
And now, he braced himself to do what he absolutely didn’t want to. He took a deep breath, hating what he was about to do.
“And now, I’m going to give you homework…”, he said.
The students looked pale and downright miserable. And, Anirudh felt like a real teacher.
———————
“Bondita! It’s all your fault!”, David groaned, as he, Bondita and Mimi sat in the campus common room, surrounded by books and note copies, doing their homework. “Did you just HAVE to ask him to work on his lessons? See what happened!”.
And not for the first time, she wished she hadn’t opened her mouth and told Shikshak Babu to work on his lessons. She mentally smacked herself for doing that. He had started giving them piles of homework with a frightening regularity.
She wasn’t the only one who missed the days, when he would just give a rambling lecture about whatever came into his head. Many students were ready to revolt.
Pulling out a thick book that they had borrowed from the library, Bondita sighed tiredly and continued writing the almost five page long essay. Perhaps she hadn’t been able to make Shikshak Babu properly understand, what she wanted to say.
“Seriously, Rakshak Babu has become Raakshas Babu these days”, she muttered, huffing.
———————–
Anirudh discovered, that if there was something he hated more than planning his next day’s lesson, it was checking and marking homework copies.
He felt a wave of resentment over the fact, that he had to assign homework in the first place. He hadn’t been doing that initially, because he didn’t think that assigning homework will help. He wanted to do his best in making the lesson interesting for the students and for himself.
‘It’s so boring to read the same thing over and over again’… he thought glumly.
‘Assign random grades. They won’t know a thing!’, said a voice in his head.
‘No! You called it upon yourself. It’s your own fault that you assigned so much homework. At least check and grade it properly!’, said another voice.
‘But it’s the best of both worlds. Some will be motivated with high grades. And some will start working hard’, the previous voice argued vehemently.
‘Are you going to play with the future of those students, just because of your laziness, Barrister Babu?’, the second voice asked mockingly. He didn’t know why, but here, the thought of his Sakhi flashed in his mind.
He sighed ruefully, and sat down to check the huge pile of homework. He was about to start, when he heard a sharp rap on his cabin door. “Come in!”
Three junior students, Amrita Dasgupta, Avik Sen and Aditya Pal, sidled in.
“Hi, students!”, Anirudh greeted them, perhaps a bit too cheerfully, for they were taken aback for a second.
“Hello, sir”, they greeted gloomily. For a few moments, an awkward silence prevailed. Suddenly, as if unable to take it anymore, Avik asked, “Sir, how come you have suddenly started giving us so much of homework on a daily basis?”.
“Because Bondita Das asked me to work on my lessons”, he muttered inaudibly.
“Err… Sorry?”, Amrita asked. The three of them were looking intently at him.
“I thought it was time”, Anirudh said. “I had given you people a break for the first month”.
Their eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Well, working hard isn’t a bad thing, is it?”, Anirudh firmly asked. Just because he was friendly, did it mean that his students would start questioning him?
“No no. Of course it isn’t. Everybody should work hard”, Avik said, nodding sagely.
“Thank you for the explanation, sir. We will be going now. Sorry for the disturbance”, Aditya said.
And without another word, the three turned away and left, closing the door behind them. Anirudh watched them, bemused. ‘Teens are getting weirder these days’, he thought, shaking his head.
———————-
‘Oh Dugga Maa! I miss my Maa’s food so much’, Bondita thought, as she sat at the lunch table, hungrily munching on her food.
She was almost halfway through the meal, when she felt a touch on her shoulder. The kind of touch that sent shivers down her spine. That spine-chilling touch.
She looked back to find Debjit Dutta looming over her, a hellishly creepy smile on his face. He slid into the seat next to her.
Scowling at him, Bondita asked, “Why are you here?”.
“For having lunch of course! Don’t I feel hungry?”
Bondita didn’t say anything. She just looked away, into the other direction.
But it seemed that Junior Dutta was obsessed with trying to intimidate Bondita. For when she was walking out of her classroom, with David and Mimi, he once again, sought her out. To be precise, blocked their way.
“Do you really have nothing else to do? Or are you just ignoring your responsibilities, only to be in my company. I know I’m smart, but that really doesn’t mean you’ve got to abandon your duties and responsibilities, Junior Dutta”, Bondita said sarcastically, stressing on Junior.
His eyes were narrowed down to slits.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t like what I said?”, Bondita asked, like they were having a friendly conversation.
He gave her a look of pure disgust. But then, it changed into a smug and derogatory smirk.
“You know what, you will be happy to know that my Baba has been granted a bail”, he finally said.
For a moment, she was taken aback. No doubt Dutta was rich. But was was he really THAT influential?
But then, composing herself, she retorted, “I don’t care whatever happens with you or that disgusting man, you call your Baba. You can go to hell”.
“Look who’s talking! You should at least have the guts to apologise”, he said giving her another one of his legendary dirty looks.
“Apologise for what? Usually, people apologize when they do something wrong”, Mimi stated.
“And hasn’t she done wrong? Has she not tried to destroy my Baba’s image? Did she, for once, even think about what my mother would go through? What I would go through?”, he shot back.
“Ever asked that to your Baba? If you haven’t, you should. Because HE was the one who should have thought about you and your mother before misbehaving with me”, Bondita said, her chin up in defiance.
He trudged forward towards Bondita. He was very close to her, now. Dangerously close.
“Stop harassing her!”, David exclaimed, coming to her defense.
By now, a few other students had gathered at the spot. It wouldn’t have been a surprise, if a teacher soon showed up, there. Knowing this fact well, Debjit gave Bondita a final dirty look, and pushed David with a force that made him stagger, and stalked off.
Bondita had always tried to stay unfazed with Junior Dutta’s behaviour and bullying. But today, her resolve broke a little. For the first time, she HAD felt intimidated by him. And she couldn’t fathom why.
————————
Classes were just over. Everyone was filing out of the classroom. Anirudh had just stepped out of his classroom. Unfortunately enough, his notebook slipped from his hand and fell down with a thud.
But fortunately enough, while bending down to pick it up, he overheard a conversation, that made him stop in his tracks.
“She’s just so pretty!”, a boy said to his friend, a dreamy expression upon his face. He looked at him, and remembered his name to be Srijit Gupta.
“But I think she doesn’t even know your name. Let alone your name, I think she doesn’t even know that you exist!”, his friend said. He was named Sagar Maity, he remembered.
“Yeah, well… But I just can’t help it! She’s amazing. She’s…”
“Yeah, I know”, Sagar said, annoyed as though he had already heard it several times before. “She is fiery; she is beautiful; she is smart”, he said in a sappy voice, imitating Srijit.
Anirudh frowned. ‘Are they in the hostel to study, or to discuss these type of things? They are just kids! And look at the things they are discussing!’, he thought disapprovingly.
“But it’s true! Bondita IS amazing!”, Srijit said.
Anirudh’s eyebrows almost reached his hairline. ‘Bondita is a lovely girl. But is it proper to talk about her, without her knowledge? Let alone Bondita, is it even right to discuss about anyone in any way behind them?’, Anirudh thought, his mind unsettled.
He would have even forgotten that incident, had he not seen Bondita talk to Srijit Gupta the next day. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he definitely noticed the longing look in the boy’s eyes.
‘Why is she even talking to someone like him?’, he thought irritably.
He would have gone to intervene, but he stopped himself. Wasn’t it Bondita’s own choice, with whom she wanted to have a conversation? Why should he interfere? He should guide her. But he shouldn’t be making decisions for her. He shouldn’t try to control her.
He hadn’t even realised that he had been standing there for a long time now, staring at the same direction. He was startled out of his trance, when someone called him.
He turned to find Amrita, Aditya and Avik standing there, looking at him with unreadable expressions. “What were you thinking, sir?”, Amrita asked.
“Only tell if you want to”, Avik said.
“Yeah, no pressure”, Aditya added.
‘God! Are these three everywhere?!’, Anirudh thought, exasperatedly. They had been running into him a lot , these days.
He forced a smile. “Nothing. I was just thinking what assignment to give you in the next class”, he replied.
As soon as they heard the word ‘assignments’, their eyes widened and they looked at each other. “Ok sir, good evening. We’ll be going now”, they chorused and went away, as fast as possible.
He shook his head, chuckling.
————————-
Junior Dutta had blocked her way. Again. And now, Bondita really considered slapping that blithering buffoon. But, she would be the one who would get into trouble for doing that, she reminded herself begrudgingly. She had already got into trouble and been admonished loads of times. She didn’t want to get into any more trouble.
She really wasn’t in the mood to get into a verbal spat with anyone right now. She was contemplating about running away from the spot. But, her stubborn and resistant nature won’t allow her to.
She wished fervently for a distraction. And it came. In the form of a yell. “Bondita!”.
She looked back to find Raakshas Babu…err…no, okay, Rakshak Babu, standing at a distance. He had intervened at the perfect time and she was eternally grateful for this.
As soon as he saw him, Junior Dutta discreetly escaped from the spot.
She couldn’t help but smile brightly as she sprinted towards Anirudh. “Good afternoon Shikshak Babu!”, she greeted jovially.
“Good afternoon, Bondita”, he greeted back. “Was he bothering you?”, he asked nodding towards the direction, where Junior Dutta had just now walked off.
The affirmative answer was on the tip of her tongue. She was about to agree and tell him everything about Dutta, when she stopped herself. No. This was probably not the right time.
But Bondita gave little thought to the fact that a right time for anything, never comes. Your will and right reasons make the time right.
“No. Not exactly bothering. Just bragging about himself and irritating me. Anyways, thank you for coming at the perfect time. He was really getting onto my nerves”, she said.
“That’s fine then. And well, I guessed that something was wrong, judging by the uncomfortable look on your face. And you don’t call me Rakshak Babu for nothing”, Anirudh replied, smiling.
“Yes”, she agreed. “But nowadays you’ve become Raakshas Babu”, she muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something Bondita?”, Anirudh asked, raising his eyebrows.
“What? Uh… No… No… I said nothing. I didn’t say anything. No”, she stuttered out, shaking her head in a no. Anirudh nodded, satisfied.
“Sir, please forgive me. But… when I said you should work on your lessons, I didn’t mean that you should start giving heaps of homework”, she burst out.
“Yeah. But, how else could I be a better teacher?” he asked.
“You ARE a good teacher. When I said you should improvise your teaching, I didn’t mean, become a cruel, tyrant teacher! And how can you say, you are not a good teacher? Ever wondered why I call YOU Shikshak Babu, but not any other teachers?”, she asked.
Now that she mentioned it, he thought about it. Yes, he had noticed that he was the only teacher whom she called that. But he had never given much thought to the reason. He always put it down to the factor, that he was a very friendly teacher.
“Why?”, he asked.
“Because, you are, what many others aren’t. For me, at least. You are my inspiration. My motivation. You made me believe that I can do better, only if I tried hard. You are someone who didn’t see me as a chatterbox. Rather, you saw what I really am. A curious girl, who asks questions and argues”, she said.
“You are a curious girl, who questions the wrong things and argues for the right ones”, Anirudh replied, highly impacted by her thoughts. She was so young, yet so mature and thoughtful.
“I guided you then. You can guide me now. You made me see that I should really work on my teaching skills. Now, show me how I should do that”, he said.
“First of all, reduce that load of assignments, please. It’s taking a toll on our little heads”, she said, puffing out her cheeks.
Anirudh suppressed a chuckle. “Ok. Well, what else do I have to do?”, he asked.
Bondita’s face brightened once again. “And you should try being interactive in classes! Include everyone in your teaching process. Don’t teach like you are giving out information. Teach like you are sharing knowledge. Explain in a way, that would keep up everyone’s interest! In a way, that would keep students engaged. In a practical way, that would not only make them understand the knowledge, but also apply it in their lives. In a way, that would make them look forward to, not just your classes, but studies in general. Try to be more and more practical”, she said.
Anirudh gaped at her. How was she so thoughtful?! “Bondita, you are a Godsend! Thank you so very much!”, he said.
“Shikshak Babu, you don’t need to thank me. Because, I have learned it from you. It’s you who used to teach in that way, initially. After a few days, you became less interactive and engaging”, she said, he face dropping. “And now you have started giving piles of homework!”.
Anirudh smiled guiltily and held his earlobes, in a gesture of apology. “I’m so very sorry. But I assure you, I’ll definitely do my best. And once again, thank you Bondita. Today, you became MY Shikshak Babu”.
A wide grin broke out across both of their faces.
…
Door par tera sayaa hai mujhpe
Bharosa kyun jaane tujhpe,
Main dhul hun
Aasmaan yeh tera…
Ho jaise hum do kinaare,
Main hun iss mitti se
Vilayati babu hai tu,
Haan yu mil hi jaayege
Jaise saanjh-savera,
Paraya hokar lagta apnaa saa…
Rishta tera mera
Rishta tera mera…
…