If there were no Teachers …

… this is from 1981..
… my SSC prelims were over (these days many skip the prelims !!!)
… there was 3/4 weeks gap before the Board exam was to begin..so it was study at home.
… one day my English teacher (Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya) , Mrs. Thosar called me to meet at her home. She stayed at Dadar TT , Mumbai.
… I was a bit nervous to go to her home, wondering the reason for the call. I had scored 97 in the English prelims paper.
… I reached her home, she gave some biscuits, asked about my studies.. I had scored 95+in most papers , except Hindi.
… She took out my English prelim paper..it was written in Green by me ( my normal blue pen did not work that day or some thing like that)
… Firstly she was upset that I used Green ink, I explained her but she was not satisfied by the excuses. ( I agreed with her).
…then she said , look Ganesh, I have given you 97 marks , you have written correct answers but I called you home today to tell you that the words and sentences used by you, though all are correct grammatically, could have been simpler. The language should be used beautifully and it must be kept simple. You may know many ways of expressing it but you must use the most simple and easy way. Don’t use very difficult words ( She would have failed Shashi Tharoor, now I realise !!!!). Never try to show that you know the language very well. From your this paper I got a sense of your being overconfident, it disturbed me so I thought I just call you home and convey to you. She read out my essay and explained how I could have written it more simply and more flowing language.

She was a tough Teacher.

She brought me down that day , she had taken the pains to call me home to explain.

I did score in the 90s in English in that SSC board exam.

Her lesson remains ….I am still working on it

Gratitude to her on this Teachers day!

It is  after 39 years , my that discussion at her home came back to me suddenly today to pen it down as my first blog on os.me !

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼