Girl's College

                     'There comes the devil', Vani Dave whispered into Priya's ears. The Devil was their princi Mrs. Doodha, who was not actually one but who was extremely strict to the extent she knew who visited the college canteen and how often and sometimes the girls would think she even knew what they ate.  She was always properly attired with her 'Saree pallu' pinned at the right place with matching sandals and when she marched in the college corridors everyone knew it was 'her' by the sound her footwear made.  

                                 But she was a hit and popular by all means as she was the 'perfect' lecturer when it came to teach Zoology. I would just sit mesmerized when she would enter the class without any book, go to the blackboard and draw the specimen which she had to teach, with minute details and apt labelling. Oh ! the labelling lines were straight, drawn without the scales. And then she would start describing the animal from top to bottom and each and every part of the member of Animal kingdom would strike alive in my mind. Once I tried to trace the notes she gave by going through 4 to 5 books but found some part of what she taught was missing in each of the books and from then on I believed her notes like a holy book. 

                      From a co-ed school to an 'All girl's college' was a little awkward initially  plus the fact that there would be no 'Mars inhabitants'. It also meant complete freedom from prying, scaling, measuring eyes and you could sit in the class in whatever fashion you wanted to, without bothering to correct the 'dupatta' or pull down the short tops or the other dozens of things one did because of the presence of the opposite sex like deciding how to sit, where to look, how to keep the hands....... My my ! classrooms are one helluva good example if one needed a session on body language. Animal instinct I guess. Nothing different from the preening behaviour of the birds or the other vertebrates. So to cut it short, one was  free from the thought of impressing or attracting the other species. It was a liberating thought which meant I could be myself without those silly botherations. So there I was on the first bench squeezed between girls whom I didn't know at all. My name on the college admission list was 2nd after Monica, the cute fair girl with big specs. Enter the princi and amidst the pin drop silence that followed, pat landed a small chalk piece in front of me. 'You, yes, what's your biological name?' I had been briefed up about her before this class and I mumbled, 'Naina' then suddenly corrected and said 'Homo sapiens'. Ah ! what a relief and I was almost jubilant about giving the apt answer though a bit late. Smile....a big smile on her face and I thought I would occupy her memory for the next two years that I was in this college. But I would never answer in her class whenever she asked questions even after a splendid explanation. She would expect a lot from me and wanted me to answer but somehow I would doubt my answers whether they would match her expectations of a perfect answer. One of the drawbacks of education system where in pursuit of perfection, one never learns to fail, to make mistakes, to try, out of plain fear. The outside world classroom needs just that. Anyways Monica was the apple of her eye because she would always answer even though her English wasn't good. And I would think, Doctor's daughter so all rightly wired up to mouth the correct words.  

                  The Zoology lab-First Dissection practical and we were all given trays to have our frogs to cut upon. We bundled in two groups hovering over one teacher Mrs. Sudha who showed how to take out the poor amphibian's brain. Most of us were mouthing 'yes mam, right mam, ok mam' including me wondering at the back of our minds what the hell she was explaining and understood nothing of what she said. 'So out there you go and start dissecting'. Oops ! how enticing the thought of going back home looked, mom's harsh words were better than this. 'Girls before you start this why not appear for a practical test' boomed the Princi's voice. And we all suddenly turned pally, looking haplessly at each other, and getting tons of 'classmate sympathy'. How lovely this feeling was, sort of united us into one lot, never mind the bitching after the class was over. There they were 16 specimens (dead animals like fish, worms, insects, mammals, reptiles) stuffed in glasswares having formalin that kept their lifeless bodies looking fresh. We had to draw, label and identify them. What a gruesome task and very painful at that ! Chopping vegetables back home when mom shouted looked definitely adorable. Anyways we handed over our papers. 'Who is roll no 1? Roared the Lion. Where have you drawn the mouth of this worm? In the middle ? Near the stomach? How would you look if you had mouth above your stomach and anus right below the stomach? You guys think you can place the body parts anywhere you liked ? And what if some of you will go to Medical college? Look for the mouth near the stomach?' We felt like shaking ourselves to endless laughter thinking about the two most important openings in the body above/below stomach, but were tight lipped and I had this sinking feeling whether I had placed the anus correctly. There she held my paper...'Hmm ! one of the toppers, let me see what has she done with this animal's anatomy, (and my heart started galloping) Well... Good ! Naina keep it up !' God ! all of a sudden I felt like Einstein, the most intelligent being in BMM college, 20 pairs of eyes looking at me with what I didn't bother. 'Drawing is one of the basics in zoology....on she went'. 

                          Then started the dissection. Everyone finished except me. What I took out turned out to be a muscle piece after struggling for 1 and a half hour and which I thought to be the brain. The asst. prof said 'Which school you are from ?' Didn't they teach you stuff?' Humiliated I begged her to show me once again how to dissect the brain and she did. I sat till 6 pm when everybody had gone and showed the pale white soft frog brain to Mrs. Doodha who was shocked to see a girl staying so late in the college. 'Very good ! but off you run girl, I don't want your parents to panic. Why don't you answer in class but?' I told her I was scared of her and she burst out laughing. 

                         Next day's class started with the Physics teacher's petticoat showing off under the saree from the back and bang she caught Reena whispering into Sonu's ears I wonder what she wears...'