{"id":24845,"date":"2012-08-11T15:50:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T15:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=24845"},"modified":"2012-08-11T15:50:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T15:50:14","slug":"mrs-ds-red-bangle-is-a-reminder-that-i-must-believe-in-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/mrs-ds-red-bangle-is-a-reminder-that-i-must-believe-in-myself\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mrs D\u2019s red bangle is a reminder that I must believe in myself\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A series on true experiences<\/em>
\nNON-CONFORMITY<\/strong><\/span>
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustrations: Samia Singh<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nYOUR CASUAL\u00a0<\/strong>attitude towards life will land you in a mediocre college. You will remain a wasted genius forever.\u201d In the past two years, I had heard this a zillion times from Mrs D, my history teacher and head of department of social sciences. I have often shrugged her comments aside, genuinely thinking of myself to be a misfit in my class.
\nI first met Mrs D when I was in Class X. Her looks (rather locks) had a stark resemblance to my grandmother\u2019s. And though her small feet and oriental face (particularly the blood-red lips) had earned her the nickname \u2018Manchu Princess\u2019 among students, her raised and shapely eyebrows made me believe that she would have been a flawless beauty in her young age. Not surprisingly then, we discovered that Mrs D had a love marriage. I had been right all along. Mrs D was indeed beautiful. Beautiful enough to steal away an army officer.
\nIn school, Mrs D had always been stern with her looks but jolly with her words. Her glare, when an incomplete notebook landed on her desk, could pierce a hole right through one\u2019s head. Her biting anger had many a student burst into tears. Even then what she said was comic to every ear: \u201cIncomplete work? Sit at home; grind masalas, mash potatoes and hatch eggs!\u201d And you\u2019d soon hear low but intense giggles from far corners of the classroom.
\nIn January this year, we had our final pre-Boards. I got another 50 something in history, keeping in line with my entire year\u2019s scores. Mrs D returned all the answer sheets dipped in red, writing elaborate notes so that everybody knew where exactly they had gone wrong. Mine, however, came back as it was \u2014 sheets of paper with big blue letters. I had fed Mrs D the most exciting legends (of course, not a part of syllabus!)
\n\u201cMaybe she couldn\u2019t care less,\u201d I thought.
\nAs soon as the answer sheets had been distributed, I was summoned to her chamber. I was all set to grind some more\u00a0masalas<\/em>, mash some more potatoes and hatch some more eggs, in her office. As it turned out, she was not in the mood for her ritual. I entered and grabbed a chair to sit right next to her.
\n\u201cI think you take the concept of \u2018wasted\u2019 more seriously than \u2018genius\u2019, don\u2019t you?\u201d she remarked. I remained silent. \u201cYou must learn to walk by the lines, young lady, or else before you know, you might get sidetracked.\u201d I had, by now, decided to avoid her gaze. \u201cYou have been a nasty kid,\u201d a hint of smile was now playing along the edges of her lips, \u201cbut I would like to remember you as the first one who took up humanities. One who preferred to sit on the first bench in the row along the wall so that she could hold some support and doze off!\u201d I burst into laughter, secretly marvelling at how she remembered the vivid details of my presence in the classroom. I was flattered, to say the least. Mrs D slowly removed a red bangle from her hand and slid it down my right wrist. \u201cI believe in you and so must you,\u201d she said. My lips fluttered in an attempt to say something, but paused before words could come out. So I chose to sit and cry instead.
\nFour months later, I met Mrs D at the class farewell. She came up to me and complimented me on the red saree that I had chosen to wear. I immediately lifted my right wrist, and said, \u201cCouldn\u2019t find anything better to match my bangle.\u201d
\nThat was the last I saw of her. Months later, I was awaiting my Class XII Board results with much trepidation. Looking at the red bangle during those days, Mrs D\u2019s words echoed in my mind, \u201cI believe in you, so must you.\u201d On the 28 May, the results came out. I had secured 90 percent in history.
\nAishwarya Gupta is 17. She is a student based in Delhi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A series on true experiences NON-CONFORMITY YOUR CASUAL\u00a0attitude towards life will land you in a mediocre college. You will remain a wasted genius forever.\u201d In the past two years, I had heard this a zillion times from Mrs D, my history teacher and head of department of social sciences. I have often shrugged her comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":24850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[7766,999,7573,5795,4184,6330,7767,7768,7769,7409],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}