School days – A teacher who knocked off the teeth of a student

Rev Br Shannon came to our school with a bad reputation – it seems he had thrown the duster at a boy when he was in the Darjeeling unit of our school. The wooden duster hit him on the jaw and knocked out a few teeth, hence his transfer to Kolkata. I still do not know whether it was true or not but the bad reputation he had carried with him kept us in awe because he came to our class as the Teacher.
Anyway, on the first Friday, he asked us to write an essay in class. I do not remember the name of the essay but all the 33 students in the class tried their best to create a masterpiece that would woo him over.
The school was an English medium school and that had been the medium of instruction right from our KG days – therefore, all of us took care to ensure correct spellings, grammar, syntax etcetera because none of us wanted to get our teeth knocked in by a flying duster.
Well, at the end of the scheduled two hours, he collected all the 33 exercise books and carried them with him to his room.

There seemed to be the faint hint of a grin below his serious demeanor and we realized his wry sense of humor when class reassembled on Monday morning and he entered carrying with him our 33 essay books under his arm. (to be continued…)
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