By Anushka Dasgupta
"On a summer afternoon Miss announced,
""Full attention, no fidgeting, no gawking,
Open your geography book, page 23…
Nimi, why are you and Sumo talking?""
The clouds suddenly shrouded the sky.
Nimi whimpered, 'I can smell the earth today,'
Miss snapped- 'When I throw you out of the class-
you can keep smelling the earth, okay?'
They erupted into giggles, their youthful hair ruffled.
But as the day grew darker and dreamy,
Miss switched on the lights, and bubbled
those sunflowery faces, delighted and gleamy.
A droplet creates a tiny pond on Kishu's little arm,
He whispers shrilly, I swear its a raindrop!
Crossing her hands, furrowing her eyebrows-
Miss starts finding the culprit like a cop.
The clouds beat their drums, exciting the audience,
Chimki, taken aback, drops her pencil in wonder.
Miss, on a round of inspection, taps her shoulder,
'Whats so surprising about a thunder?'
Before Shibu could fully marvel,
at the myena on the window pane near his seat,
Miss shoots the chalk at him, and bellows-
""What did I just say? Shibu, can you repeat?""
The lightning sent the children screaming-
Mini panicked her petal palms to cover her eyes;
'Behave like six year olds, for God's sake-' Miss chides
'Are you a baby in her mother's arms that cries?'
The children awed, squealed and yelped,
as the raindrops lashed at them with full vigor,
But Miss just shut the windows and said,
""Have you never seen the rain before?""
And still when Miss gets on the bus, grudgingly paddling-
the fizzling drizzle touches by- for her to adore,
She lets out a wry grin and scolds herself,
""Why do I smile, Have I never seen the rain before?"""