I love triggers. No, I am not talking about gun triggers, I am talking about trigger events. Did it ever happen to you? Suddenly, an incident triggers a memory from the past, which was dormant for a long, long time. I'd call that a trigger event. Today was such a day.
We were having a family dinner, and suddenly my father and sister started arguing about the meaning of the words supper and dinner. According to dad, supper is "night meal" and dinner is "lunch". This is, of course, not true. However, my father was stern in his belief, and he even chanted the lines from a poem, which goes like this:
After dinner, rest a while
After supper, run a mile
Hmm....thought provoking, right? But as far as I remember, it was "lunch" and "dinner", instead of dinner and supper. Dad asked us to check the dictionary. Probably sis checked and figured out something. I moved on to my room, closed the doors, and separated myself from the rest of the family, not bothering about the incident at all.
Anyways, this dispute brought back to me the famous "Egg Apple" incident. No, it's not a historicaly famous incident. But it's a very important event in my life. That was not the first time I had disputes with my teachers.
Ideal Coaching centre; a name trusted by the parents of the wayward boys of Khilgaon, whom were in most cases, also students of Khilgaon Govt. High School. One fine morning, I was admitted in that institute, for further bolstering my study proceedings. Oh I so hated studying!
Me, coming from KSA, and being an avid watcher of Sesame Street, Popeye, Tom and Jerry and loads of other English cartoons, had an edge over the Khilgaon boys in English. But I never thought that edge would surpass the knowledge of the teachers, too! In one exam, we were asked to write the English word for "Begun", a very popular vegetable of this part of the world. Without hesitation, I wrote "Egg Plant".
When the exam was over, and marking was done, we were given the scripts for checking the scores and for placing any instant grievances. I was surprised, and really confused at seeing my transtlation marked in red, and scored at a big zero. I forgot the name of the teacher. It was a long, long time ago. This happened when I was in class 5. That'd probably be in 1990.
When I confronted him, he replied that the English for begun is Brinjal, not Eggplant. There is nothing called eggplant. I knew that begun is sometimes called Brinjal, but I never liked that word. I still don't like it. I don't like the word Okra as well. Ladie's finger sounds way better.
I came back home, and informed my parents about the incident. Had I been a bit younger, I'd probably cry, too. As I was the first kid, and necessarily a boy kid, my parents had a lot of affection for me (naturally). So they went to the coaching centre, and got hold of the culprit (in this story, a poor coaching centre teacher).
He produced an age old dictionary, and showed my dad that the word is primarily Brinjal, but sometimes that fruit, I mean that veggie can also be called "Egg Apple". I was like :-|
Yeah, that dictionary did have a picture of an egg plant, but the word describing the vegetable was not egg plant, but rather it was egg apple. I don't blame the teacher. His source of knowledge mislead him. Things like this can happen. The same thing happened when one of my friend, after living most of his life in Australia, came back to "burst out in laughter" to discover that the word Ass was being used to refer to a humble, hard working, four footed animal, instead of referring to the man's rear end.
I got half of my lost points back, as it was still an "Egg", be it a plant or an apple, I was half correct, according to the teacher. As my father was endorsing Eggplant, and some other teachers were silently agreeing, the culprit teacher did not dare to stick to his point for too long.
Back home, my parents encouraged me by saying that I was right, and even getting half the point back was a moral victory for me.
Since then, It is not ensured that my elders, teachers and superiors might be right all the time. Believing everything they tell us is simply an act of folly. You just need to wait till you have your confident consciousness built within.
It's happening again! The writer's ghost. I swear, the ghost forced me to write the last two lines up there :-)
Ahhhh......pleasant memories of the past. I miss the coaching centre. I made a number of friends there.
We were having a family dinner, and suddenly my father and sister started arguing about the meaning of the words supper and dinner. According to dad, supper is "night meal" and dinner is "lunch". This is, of course, not true. However, my father was stern in his belief, and he even chanted the lines from a poem, which goes like this:
After dinner, rest a while
After supper, run a mile
Hmm....thought provoking, right? But as far as I remember, it was "lunch" and "dinner", instead of dinner and supper. Dad asked us to check the dictionary. Probably sis checked and figured out something. I moved on to my room, closed the doors, and separated myself from the rest of the family, not bothering about the incident at all.
Anyways, this dispute brought back to me the famous "Egg Apple" incident. No, it's not a historicaly famous incident. But it's a very important event in my life. That was not the first time I had disputes with my teachers.
Ideal Coaching centre; a name trusted by the parents of the wayward boys of Khilgaon, whom were in most cases, also students of Khilgaon Govt. High School. One fine morning, I was admitted in that institute, for further bolstering my study proceedings. Oh I so hated studying!
Me, coming from KSA, and being an avid watcher of Sesame Street, Popeye, Tom and Jerry and loads of other English cartoons, had an edge over the Khilgaon boys in English. But I never thought that edge would surpass the knowledge of the teachers, too! In one exam, we were asked to write the English word for "Begun", a very popular vegetable of this part of the world. Without hesitation, I wrote "Egg Plant".
When the exam was over, and marking was done, we were given the scripts for checking the scores and for placing any instant grievances. I was surprised, and really confused at seeing my transtlation marked in red, and scored at a big zero. I forgot the name of the teacher. It was a long, long time ago. This happened when I was in class 5. That'd probably be in 1990.
When I confronted him, he replied that the English for begun is Brinjal, not Eggplant. There is nothing called eggplant. I knew that begun is sometimes called Brinjal, but I never liked that word. I still don't like it. I don't like the word Okra as well. Ladie's finger sounds way better.
I came back home, and informed my parents about the incident. Had I been a bit younger, I'd probably cry, too. As I was the first kid, and necessarily a boy kid, my parents had a lot of affection for me (naturally). So they went to the coaching centre, and got hold of the culprit (in this story, a poor coaching centre teacher).
He produced an age old dictionary, and showed my dad that the word is primarily Brinjal, but sometimes that fruit, I mean that veggie can also be called "Egg Apple". I was like :-|
Yeah, that dictionary did have a picture of an egg plant, but the word describing the vegetable was not egg plant, but rather it was egg apple. I don't blame the teacher. His source of knowledge mislead him. Things like this can happen. The same thing happened when one of my friend, after living most of his life in Australia, came back to "burst out in laughter" to discover that the word Ass was being used to refer to a humble, hard working, four footed animal, instead of referring to the man's rear end.
I got half of my lost points back, as it was still an "Egg", be it a plant or an apple, I was half correct, according to the teacher. As my father was endorsing Eggplant, and some other teachers were silently agreeing, the culprit teacher did not dare to stick to his point for too long.
Back home, my parents encouraged me by saying that I was right, and even getting half the point back was a moral victory for me.
Since then, It is not ensured that my elders, teachers and superiors might be right all the time. Believing everything they tell us is simply an act of folly. You just need to wait till you have your confident consciousness built within.
It's happening again! The writer's ghost. I swear, the ghost forced me to write the last two lines up there :-)
Ahhhh......pleasant memories of the past. I miss the coaching centre. I made a number of friends there.
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