The students of the Vidya Niketan School began to plan their Teachers’ day cards on the first of September. Soon, it was September 3 and Sonali still hadn’t started on her cards.
“Teachers’ day is only two days away,” Mamma reminded Sonali.
“I know!” Sonali looked up from her notebook. “I don’t have time, and it’s all because of Yamuna ma’am. She’s given us homework even though we begged her not to.”
“Isn’t that your social studies teacher?”
“Mamma,” Sonali said earnestly, “she is not just a social studies teacher. She is the strictest social studies teacher in the world!”
“Why?” Mamma was startled.
“She taught us to mark the capitals of the states,” Sonali explained. “And now she wants us to do the same thing for homework too. What a waste of time!”
Mamma, peering over Sonali’s shoulder, said, “Sonu, you’ve made so many mistakes!”
Sonali glared at her. “You sound just like Yamuna ma’am! And it’s all because of Yamuna ma’am that I won’t have the time to make my cards!”
But, Sonali did find the time that night. “I wrote a poem for each teacher!” she said proudly.
“Poems, huh?” Mamma asked, impressed. “Read them out to me this evening!”
Fury
But that evening, Sonali marched home from school in a terrible temper and yelled, “Yamuna ma’am has given us homework. Again!”
In angry silence, Sonali cleared the table and settled down to work. Mamma left her alone with the homework. “Almost done!” Sonali sang out a little later. “And then I can finally get down to making the cards for my teachers!
“Will you have time to make five cards?” Mamma wondered.
“Why five?” Sonali demanded. “Yamuna ma’am isn’t getting a card. It’s all because of her that I have to make my cards at the last minute.”
Mamma said nothing but walked over to look at Sonali’s work. Sonali was writing something on a map of India that showed the capitals of all the states. The map was clean and beautiful, the names of the cities written in crisp, neat handwriting. “Oh, Sonu!’ Mamma gasped. ‘That’s so beautiful.”
“”Really?” Sonali grinned, pleased.
“So much better than the map you made yesterday,” Mamma said.
“It’s all because of Yamuna ma’am. She kept making us mark map after map till we were perfect.”
“Mmm,” Mamma nodded. Sonali’s hand stilled in the middle of writing her name on the map. Long minutes passed as she thought. Finally she said, “Yamuna ma’am is a good teacher, isn’t she?”
“She is an excellent teacher,” Mamma corrected.
“She doesn’t care that we hate her or are angry with her,” Sonali nodded. “She just makes us work till we are perfect.”
Mamma nodded. Then Sonali sat up and said briskly, “You go to bed, Mamma. I am going to stay up for a little while.”
“To make a card for Yamuna ma’am?” Mamma guessed.
“To make the nicest card,” Sonali said, “for the nicest teacher.”
Illustration: Sonal Goyal
