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Five children join a new class. They have been together in many classes before, with their relationships ranging from cordial to strained. Some partnerships have been highly fruitful, some ridiculous. They enter this class, with the hope of getting their places right.
PS: You will get to know who the children are, when you read their names! You will know who the teacher is, when you get the context
5 Children: “Teacher, teacher.. We are all new to this class. Please tell us where we must sit.. We are Lee, Bhu, Bop, San and Vish.”
Teacher: “Come in, children. We have different subjects for the final exam. So you will sit in different places for different classes. Bhu, will you sit with Lee?”
Bhu: “No teacher… I don’t want to sit with him… He stole my eraser and sharpener when we sat together in the previous class.”
Bop: “Yes teacher… I too don’t want to sit with him… Only yesterday I got a new eraser… And he keeps pushing me out of the bench.”
Teacher: “Hmmm… Lee… Nobody wants to sit near you, so you have to decide… do you want to sit in this class or go somewhere else?”
Lee: “I am going nowhere… I have my own eraser and sharpener.”
Teacher: “Okay then, Vish will sit near you…Vish, you can leave if you do not accept… We will have Som to take your place.”
Vish: “No no!! I accept, teacher!! I will sit with anybody, I just want to be allowed to sit!!”
Lee: “This is not fair, teacher..!! How can you do this? He doesn’ even have his school shoes..!! I am the top scorer, the best student in the previous class, a bronze medallist.”
Teacher: “Wait wait..!! In the Social Studies class, San will sit near Lee… Fair enough, Lee?”
Lee: “Double-fault okay”
Bhu: “But teacher!! I was sitting near her until a month ago!”
Teacher: “Bhu, don’t you want Bop near you in Maths class..? If you want that, you have to accept this.”
Lee’s Dad (from outside the class): “San, you have to sign an agreement that you will sit near Lee, share your geometry set, not eat Lee’s lunch, and show faces at Bhu everytime he looks your way.”
San: “This is highly humiliating… You cannot use me as a ‘bait’.. This is not how you treat the highest ranked girl in the class for the last 10 years” (Readers, there has been only 1 girl in the class for 10 years) “I respect Lee and the teacher’s decision, but if you ask me, my interest lies in the class and not the person sitting near me.”
Teacher: “Okay San, sit near Bhu till the 1st term examination.. we will see how you do, though that wont change where you will sit after that.”
Vish & Bop: “Er… Our places in the Social Studies class??”
Teacher: “Outside the classroom..”
(a few days later, the 1st term ‘All-England Club’ examination results were out )
Results:
1. Bhu-San (Social Studies) – Failed miserably. Scored 0/100
2. Bhu-Bop (Maths) – No comments. Scored -50/100
Here’s what people had to say after that:
Bop: “I don’t know what was happening.. Bhu was answering all the questions.. I was just sharpening his pencils for him!”
San: “We did not do our best… The questions were tough and many were out of syllabus… The fact that we had left our books outside the exam hall too did not help our cause.”
Bhu: “We were toppers in the previous exam, but were not the obvious choice (to sit together in the class).. Now we have flunked miserably, maybe they will ask us to sit together for the final exams.”
Teacher: “Your strategy won’t work Bhu!”
Musical Chairs!
Lee and Lee’s Dad can ‘Bhu’ (boo) them with all their might, but if Lee could not pass the same Maths exam even with Step at his side, what is he gonna do with Vish in the final exam??
The teacher AITA has provided tough competition to the BCCI with her decision making, but the 1st term examinations have proven that at least one decision was right.
San now sits with Lee for the Social Studies exam. Will they clear the final exam and become gold medalists? We will be more than happy with even a silver or a bronze.
This childishness is the state of Indian tennis today and your frustration, the state of all Indians. It is pathetic, because tennis is the nicest game – it always begins with ‘Love-All’!
