It had been 15 minutes since she took this seat in the last row and still couldn’t find a way to be interested in the professor’s knowledge. Her eyes squinted sideways and craned to the right to look at her fingers playing with a long strand of hair that found its way out of her loose ponytail.
Her other hand was tapping in sync with her foot to an imaginary tune. She then started giving the strand a curl with her ball point pen – with an attitude that the pen ought to be grateful to her because it’s being put to some use.
With a jolt, her concentration broke thanks to a light laughter around her. Apparently, the professor had a funny way of teaching. She gave a sarcastic smile at her own thought and didn’t even fake curiosity.
While she lowered her eyes sideways to go back to curling her hair, her gaze stopped at the back of a boy. His had a smart military cut, but his body language didn’t have anything smart or upright about it. He slouched on one side, fist on cheek, writing something on the paper in front of him. A sense of satisfaction came through her because the strokes his hand made implied that he was scribbling and not taking notes. "Cool" said her expression.
She was most impressed that he was doing that from the second row. On principle, she didn’t have regard for people who sat under the nose of the professor, namely till about the second row from the back. And just while she was musing over the thought that she found the back of this guy more interesting than the lecture, the guy raised his hand.
Total disappointment took over her face…life couldn’t be that unfair…how could he have any kind of conversation with a person who teaches!? "Excuse me ma’am, I’ve to go", he said. Gripping firmly on to his mobile handset, he got up and walked out of the class. She was ready to leap with joy, if only she hadn’t realized that now she had no back to look at.
She went back to admiring herself. She had actually made poetry out of a person’s back. Yep! Everywhere you look, there’s a story staring back.
very good… loved the ending. why do i feel there is a little bit of you into this.. don’t know for sure.. just a guess…
For me, this very well sets the tone for the blog – story ideas may originate from anywhere, everywhere. Bring more on! 🙂
@Rohan Dighe:
Thanks. There is always a little bit of the writer in the writing, they say. so it might be coming through.
@Poonam:
That is the point. Which is why it is the first story here. Will try to bring more on of course!
Exactly, was just conveying it was clear to your this reader. 🙂
It got worse every day. Surrounded by idiots who wouldn’t know the important things in life if God himself explained it in a facebook status update in 140 characters. The need to feed the EMI monster every month makes cowards of us all, so escape was not an option – but was it too much to ask that amongst the sea of idiots that she was drowning in, there should be one person who was worthy of the attention, floating by like a welcome lifeboat?
She needed a tiny fraction of her attention to drone on about the topic for the day, while the rest of her mind frantically paced the inside of her skull, in quiet desperation. What was actually happening in the classroom, was easily dealt with by the low-paid junior employees of her brain, to be soon forgotten, while the bitterness she would remember forever.
Like a splash of water interrupting a lazy afternoon siesta, the “Excuse me ma’am, I’ve to go” jolted her out of the stupor.
She watched him leave, longing to follow him out, closing the classroom door behind her, and asking him, “Could I teach just you? I can do much better.”
@Navin:
read it thrice. have a question – what bitterness? What can she teach?
@meetu:
‘she’ in my comment is the teacher.
Now does it make more sense?
@navin aah! makes more sense certainly. The other side of the backstory?
So, she’s bitter that her students are not worthy of her ‘knowledge’ but why does she think this guy was worth the attention or are you saying the teacher too was intrigued by him?
@meetu, Long-winded explanation: over years of teaching uninterested idiots, she has completely lost interest in her students and her teaching, and just goes through the motions – dumping uninteresting knowledge on uninterested students. Basically because up till now, none of the students have been worth the effort. By walking out on her, this guy (unlike the others in the class) has the courage to show that whatever she’s “teaching” is not worth his time. Which in turn suddenly awakens her to the fact that this student, at least, might actually be worth teaching.
@Navin Kabra:
another story, another day.
if you can write about this i guess there is a story in everything that we see, everywhere and in anything. Imagination has no boundaries!!! Great going!!!
Sama, I can write about this. The questionis whether it is interesting to read, only then is there point in writing about anything and everything. 😀