3MOML

change her pen. Then she had to reopen and fasten her hairclip. In fifteen minutes, she needed a cushion behind her back. After that her mother sent in tea and biscuits and she had to sip it every thirty seconds. Still, we plowed along.

Forty minutes into the class, she pulled her chair back.

'My head is throbbing now. I have never done so much maths continuously in my life. Can we take a break?'

'Vidya, we only have twenty minutes more,' I said.

She stood up straight and blinked her eyes. 'Can we agree to a five-minute break during class? One shouldn't study maths that long. It has to be bad for you.'

She kept her pen aside and opened her hair. A strand fell on my arm. I pulled my hand away.

'How is your preparation for other subjects? You don't hate science, do you?' I said. I wanted to keep the break productive.

I like science. But the way they teach it, it sucks,' Vidya said.

'Like what?'

'Like the medical entrance guides, they have thousands of multiple choice questions. You figure them out and then you are good enough to be a doctor.

That's not how I look at science.'

'Well, we have no choice. There are very few good colleges and competition is tough.'

I know. But the people who set these exam papers, I wonder if they ever are curious about chemistry anymore. Do they just cram up reactions? Or do they ever get fascinated by it? Do they ever see a marble statue and wonder, it all appears static, but inside this statue there are protons buzzing and electrons madly spinning.'

I looked into her bright eyes. I wished they would be as lit up when I taught her probability.

'That's quite amazing, isn't it?' I said.

'Or let's talk of biology. Think about this,' she said and touched my arm. 'What is this?'

'What?' I said, taken aback by her contact.

'This is your skin. Do you know there are communities of bacteria living here?

There are millions of individual life forms -eating, reproducing and dying right on us. Yet, we never wonder. Why? We only care about cramming up an epidermal layer diagram, because that comes in the exam every single year.'

I didn't know what to say to this girl. Maybe I should have stuck to teaching seven-year-olds.

'There are some good reference books outside your textbooks for science,' I told her.

'Are there?'

'Yes, you get them in the Law Garden book market. They go into concepts. I can get them for you if you want. Ask your parents if they will pay for them.' *Of course, they will pay. If it is for studies, they spend like crazy. But can I come along with you?'

'No, you don't have to. I'll get the bill.'

'What?'