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"Phew" Nithya sighed as she trudged around the rainy streets to her tamil class. It had been 3 weeks since she had begun teaching a group of the most unruly students ever. They did everything but learn. She thought of the number of times she had taught them something as basic as "Onga peru enna?" meaning "What is your name?", but all they did was make fun of her, and pronounced the words all wrong.
"It is as if they have something against me" she muttered. She thought today might be different, maybe they might show some interest, after all learning a language was something so beautiful. But no such luck. It all started with Edna falling down in class, comically like how she did every single day.
"Hey everyone!" Edna yelled and then pretended to roll on the ground, skid and fell down with a thump.
And of course everyone erupted into loud laughter. She considered herself the class comedian, thought Nithya, shaking her head.
Then she saw Hina and Yuvi bang their desk with an almighty sound and all of a sudden, a ringing noise was heard from the corner of the classroom. Proteeti sitting at the far end, looked back at her with an air of comical disbelief as if silently chastising the perpetrator.
Nithya was beside herself with the rising commotion in the classroom but she vowed that she would not be intimidated by them. She nervously smoothened her hair and started to speak but just then, Mally stood up.
"Ma'am, I don't feel well." she said.
A helpless Nithya suggested her to leave the class quietly but she could swear that she saw a sly wink on the mischievous girl's face as she left. Sighing, she turned her thoughts to her class.
"Okay everyone please repeat after me- 'Iniku enna naal?' What does this mean?Naal means day and iniku means today so the sentence becomes.. anyone?" she waited for someone to answer.
"Today what day?" Java smirked.
The class giggled.
"No dear, it means 'What is the day today?' I hope you all are getting a hold of the language."
"No Ma'am, we are finding Tamil very weird and difficult. Maybe it's because we aren't taught all that well?" Viz accused Nithya.
Nithya's face turned purple by the insinuation uttered by the insolent girl in front of her. She could not take it anymore. The class turned dead quiet.
"That's it! I Quit! I cannot tolerate this behaviour anymore. You guys have to learn something called discipline first. Class dismissed indefinitely" she said and stormed out.
The doorbell at Nithya's house rang incessantly. Irritated by how the day had been so far, she opened the door intending to scold the person for being so impatient. But she was left speechless upon seeing her entire class of students standing in front of her.
"Iniya Pirandha Naal Vazhthukkal, Nitya Ma'am! Happy birthday!" they wished her in unison.
"How? What? Tamil?" She stuttered in shock.
"Ma'am, how did you like our surprise?" Yuvi asked expectantly.
"This was just a prank we played Ma'am! We love you and we really enjoy your classes" Mally explained whilst laughing.
"R..r..really?"
"Of course Ma'am. We have learnt so much from you. Enga ellorum saarbaga, mikka nandri." Proteeti finished proudly, thanking her on behalf of everyone.
"Yes! We are all very thankful to you Ma'am for being so patient with us." Java added.
"Thank you everyone for such a lovely surprise! I look forward to the classes from tomorrow" Nithya beamed at them extremely satisfied.
Viz smiled but groaned within. "Here we go again" she muttered. Everyone laughed and spent the remaining afternoon celebrating with their favourite Tamil teacher!
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