My Favorite School Teacher

The year was 1989 (or around that time). I was studying in Madura Public School in Madurai. Initially it was in KK Nagar and later it shifted to a beautiful campus at the foothills of Alagarkovil. I was in the fifth standard and the name of our class teacher was Devasena. She was an excellent teacher and more importantly a very very nice person. But soon she got married and she had to leave her job at the school. She was replaced by a teacher (whose name I don't remember) but all I remember was that she a terror. We all hated her and we wished for the return of our old teacher. And we decided to take action.

I, along with some of my close friends hijacked an inland letter from home (considering the fact that we did not have much pocket money then) and we wrote a very nice letter to her explaining our current situation with the "pain" we were going through and requesting (almost pleading) her to come back. I say "very nice letter" very confidently because she replied!!! And the reply came to my house and was addressed to me (much to the jealousy of my friends). She explained the inevitable - she cannot come back because she had other commitments after marriage - and advised us on how to handle the teacher. I still have the inland letter with me somewhere in my archives. Later, she also came to our school and met our class personally. Well, she was a gem of a person.

I have studied in 7 schools but this is one school which I fondly remember the most. And of all the school teachers, Devesena madam is the only teacher I remember by name. That makes her my favorite school teacher of all time :-)