If i start narrating the entire 2 year high school life day by day, it will be boring. So for this episode i'll just explain about an incident involving our Chemistry Sir and one of our friend.
Flashback(2002-2004):
Every staff in our school was a different personality and interesting(at least now when we think about them) in their own way, good or bad. One of the unique character was our Chemistry staff Mahesh. Our 12th syllabus was started within 3 months of our 11th standard and since the first day of his class itself, he made a lasting impression i.e he is a terror to be reckoned with. Our school had one unwritten rule which is "you have to write in paper, only what is in book". Every staff had to follow this. So most of the staffs, when they are teaching, would read the lines in book and then explain and if they come across any definition, they will repeat them multiple times and make us repeat multiple times, so we'll memorize them there itself.
But Mahesh was very different from others. He won't waste time in reading every line in the book or the definitions etc. He would actually explain the concept of an entire chapter in just 15 minutes and let us study for the rest of the hour. "Mugging up is your headache, i'm not taking any part in that", he used to say. And when i said he would 'let us' study for the rest of the hour, it's not as easy as it sounds. He used a method called 'Stand-study-sit', which is explained below.
Stand-study-sit:
Once he is done with explaining the concepts, he would say, "Chapter over now. Read the definition. Stand-Study-Sit." We should all stand up immediately and start memorizing that definition. Once we're done memorizing, we can sit down. Again, not as easy as it sounds. As I've mentioned before, we were all students who scored 85% in 10th. We were all toppers in our respective schools before this, so initially we all had that enthusiasm, to get good names with Teachers, to finish the home work early, to complete Math sum in interval etc. In that enthusiasm and to get good name with Mahesh or to impress him, some used to memorize fast and sit down, only to be asked by Mahesh to recite the definition immediately.
While reciting, you can't stammer, you can't think or hesitate even for a second. If you do, he'll immediately tell you to stand and read again. Some tried asking for 2nd chance, to start from the beginning again only to be insulted like "Yeah, yeah you can have your 2nd chance tomorrow". And you should listen him say that, in a totally condescending, ball-busting tone. Our enthusiasm, Our eagerness to impress a teacher, Our desire to showcase ourselves as a smart student in front of our class mates, everything was shattered in that one condescending reply and we ended up instead embarrassed in front of our friends. Because everyone would know our friends are going to tease us after the class for sitting down first.
So after few days, no one in 'stand-study-sit' session, would dare to sit down even if he/she memorized the definitions completely, to avoid any insult or embarrassment. Only if someone who is very very sure, he mugged up word-by-word then they will sit down and others will get some confident to sit down. Sometimes, Mahesh himself would ask us to sit down after few minutes or the class time will be over. While we do the 'stand-study-sit' routine, he won't just sit and do time pass. He is anything but lazy. He used to correct our previous-day home test papers while walking around in class room, and commenting on each student's mistakes in that paper if any, commenting on their hand writings which are also one insult after the other. Some times he'll just simply chit chat about some chemicals or some incidents etc and say "Don't think i'm passing time talking about all these, this is our last chapter in the book. I just completed half of them".
It was 3 months, since we joined that high school, so the hostel food, our irregular sleeping hours, every thing started getting to us. One by one, slowly we started sleeping in class rooms during lessons. Some staffs scolded us , or beat gently to wake us up. Some even said, "if you feel sleepy, go and wash your face, or just stand up for few minutes, you don't even need to ask us permissions". One of my friend mistakenly, started following that in Mahesh's class. He suddenly stood up in the middle of the class and Mahesh asked, "why are you standing up, do you have any doubts?". My friend replied, "I'm sleepy, so please let me stand up for few mins until i'm sober". Mahesh totally lost it. He replied angrily, "how dare you get sleep in my class? if your concentration is in class, how the hell would you get sleep?".
So we realized, nothing satisfies this guy, we can't impress him, we can't get any sympathy or encouragement..nothing. We just had to be careful not to give him any chance to insult or embarrass us.
Curious Student:
We had one interesting friend in our class. I remember the first day i met him and when i started taking to him, he sounded very intelligent with a curious mind to learn. I was in awe of him initially. Though I ended up teasing and mocking him later for the most of the 2 years.
All the mocking and teasing started when he started asking weird questions to our teachers. He once asked our Physics teacher, "Sir, if the earth is revolving all the time, and if a flight flies from India to USA, does it really flies or it just goes up and wait for earth to revolve enough so the USA comes to that place and then it lands directly under?". It was mind boggling in a hilarious way to see how someone thinks like this. Even our Physics teacher was amused and simply waved off his question. Once he asked our Zoology Sir, "Sir, is it true that when we eat food with our hands an enzyme secretes in our hand which gets mixed with food and is very healthy?".
Benzyl Peroxide:
Now to the incident, which i would like to call "Benzyl Peroxide" incident.
It was the early chapters in Organic Chemistry and just the previous day, Mahesh had taught the basic formula "Ch3Cl + NaOH = Ch3OH + NaCl" i.e Methyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives Methyl Alcohol(Ch3OH).
Next day, with his usual teaching mixed with chit chatting, he told us a story (again just to embarrass some one i guess) about a fool who says, "look there are 5 donkeys", pointing to 4 horses and says, "they are walking in 3 legs", simultaneously explaining visually by showing 2 fingers. It was just about a fool who don't even know numbers and can't differentiate horses from donkeys.
Then he randomly pointed to a student at the last bench and asked, "What is Benzyl chloride + Sodium hydroxide?". I thought the answer is easy. It's Benzyl alcohol. He just taught us yesterday with Methyl chloride, on how we should replace Cl with OH from NaOH to get Methyl alcohol. Today it's just that another alcohol with same formula. But surprisingly, that student from last bench didn't answer. He just stood. Maybe he knew, but was afraid to say to avoid any embarrassment if he got it wrong. Then Mahesh called the guy who sat next to him and he also stood simply without answering anything. Maybe that guy was thinking, 'if the previous guy can't answer a simple question maybe the answer is tricky'. Mahesh kept calling next, and whole 2 last bench was standing. Now i'm starting to doubt myself. 'Maybe it's not Benzyl alcohol. May be the bonding work differently for Benzene.' Now the 2nd last bench also stood up without answering. Now it came to first bench in boys section ( Girls sat before us, refer 1st episode). I'm on the right side 1st bench, 2nd place. I'm eagerly watching everyone in the first bench from other side. 1st person stands and nothing, 2nd person stands and nothing, 3rd person stands.
Now this was that curious student I told you all about above. Maybe he also thought the answer was Benzyl alcohol, but as no one answered, started thinking out of the box. He doesn't simply stand, he stood and took his note book immediately and stared writing the formulas to work it out. Breaking the carbon/hydrogen/oxygen bonds and rearranging them etc. But Mahesh as usual, doesn't give a damn about all that. If the answer doesn't come immediately, he calls 'Next'. Next stood up and same. Now it came to my bench. My friend who sat in the first place, i was sure will answer it. But to my surprise, even he stood just like that. Now i have made up mind to say 'Benzyl alcohol', no matter what. But Mahesh doesn't say 'Next'. He stopped.
He looked at the whole class and said, "What's wrong with all of you? it's such a simple question". Then he looked at my friend who is standing next to me and asked, "Methyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Methyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Ethyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Ethyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Subbaiah chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Subbaiah alcohol Sir", came the reply with a weak smile. Meanwhile that curious student is still vehemently working out the formula in his notebook to find the answer. Then Mahesh asked,"Ok. Now answer this. Benzyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Benzyl alcohol Sir".
Mahesh was finally relieved and said, "I don't know why you all were struggling to answer a simple question. Sit down everyone". And right now, at this exact moment where he told us to sit down and everyone standing were sitting down, our Curious friend finished working out the formula and quite dramatically stood up and pointed to Mahesh and yelled, "Sir!!!! Benzyl peroxide!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The whole room erupted in laughter and Mahesh simply expanded his hand and showed 5 fingers and slowly kept folding one finger each to remind us all about the story he told at the staring of the class.
P.S: If that curious friend reads this and tells me he doesn't remember this incident, I'm gonna kill him then the next time I see him. Because this is the most talked about story between our high school friends whenever we meet and its burned in my brain.
Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1
Flashback(2002-2004):
Every staff in our school was a different personality and interesting(at least now when we think about them) in their own way, good or bad. One of the unique character was our Chemistry staff Mahesh. Our 12th syllabus was started within 3 months of our 11th standard and since the first day of his class itself, he made a lasting impression i.e he is a terror to be reckoned with. Our school had one unwritten rule which is "you have to write in paper, only what is in book". Every staff had to follow this. So most of the staffs, when they are teaching, would read the lines in book and then explain and if they come across any definition, they will repeat them multiple times and make us repeat multiple times, so we'll memorize them there itself.
But Mahesh was very different from others. He won't waste time in reading every line in the book or the definitions etc. He would actually explain the concept of an entire chapter in just 15 minutes and let us study for the rest of the hour. "Mugging up is your headache, i'm not taking any part in that", he used to say. And when i said he would 'let us' study for the rest of the hour, it's not as easy as it sounds. He used a method called 'Stand-study-sit', which is explained below.
Stand-study-sit:
Once he is done with explaining the concepts, he would say, "Chapter over now. Read the
While reciting, you can't stammer, you can't think or hesitate even for a second. If you do, he'll immediately tell you to stand and read again. Some tried asking for 2nd chance, to start from the beginning again only to be insulted like "Yeah, yeah you can have your 2nd chance tomorrow". And you should listen him say that, in a totally condescending, ball-busting tone. Our enthusiasm, Our eagerness to impress a teacher, Our desire to showcase ourselves as a smart student in front of our class mates, everything was shattered in that one condescending reply and we ended up instead embarrassed in front of our friends. Because everyone would know our friends are going to tease us after the class for sitting down first.
So after few days, no one in 'stand-study-sit' session, would dare to sit down even if he/she memorized the definitions completely, to avoid any insult or embarrassment. Only if someone who is very very sure, he mugged up word-by-word then they will sit down and others will get some confident to sit down. Sometimes, Mahesh himself would ask us to sit down after few minutes or the class time will be over. While we do the 'stand-study-sit' routine, he won't just sit and do time pass. He is anything but lazy. He used to correct our previous-day home test papers while walking around in class room, and commenting on each student's mistakes in that paper if any, commenting on their hand writings which are also one insult after the other. Some times he'll just simply chit chat about some chemicals or some incidents etc and say "Don't think i'm passing time talking about all these, this is our last chapter in the book. I just completed half of them".
It was 3 months, since we joined that high school, so the hostel food, our irregular sleeping hours, every thing started getting to us. One by one, slowly we started sleeping in class rooms during lessons. Some staffs scolded us , or beat gently to wake us up. Some even said, "if you feel sleepy, go and wash your face, or just stand up for few minutes, you don't even need to ask us permissions". One of my friend mistakenly, started following that in Mahesh's class. He suddenly stood up in the middle of the class and Mahesh asked, "why are you standing up, do you have any doubts?". My friend replied, "I'm sleepy, so please let me stand up for few mins until i'm sober". Mahesh totally lost it. He replied angrily, "how dare you get sleep in my class? if your concentration is in class, how the hell would you get sleep?".
So we realized, nothing satisfies this guy, we can't impress him, we can't get any sympathy or encouragement..nothing. We just had to be careful not to give him any chance to insult or embarrass us.
Curious Student:
We had one interesting friend in our class. I remember the first day i met him and when i started taking to him, he sounded very intelligent with a curious mind to learn. I was in awe of him initially. Though I ended up teasing and mocking him later for the most of the 2 years.
All the mocking and teasing started when he started asking weird questions to our teachers. He once asked our Physics teacher, "Sir, if the earth is revolving all the time, and if a flight flies from India to USA, does it really flies or it just goes up and wait for earth to revolve enough so the USA comes to that place and then it lands directly under?". It was mind boggling in a hilarious way to see how someone thinks like this. Even our Physics teacher was amused and simply waved off his question. Once he asked our Zoology Sir, "Sir, is it true that when we eat food with our hands an enzyme secretes in our hand which gets mixed with food and is very healthy?".
Benzyl Peroxide:
Now to the incident, which i would like to call "Benzyl Peroxide" incident.
It was the early chapters in Organic Chemistry and just the previous day, Mahesh had taught the basic formula "Ch3Cl + NaOH = Ch3OH + NaCl" i.e Methyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives Methyl Alcohol(Ch3OH).
Next day, with his usual teaching mixed with chit chatting, he told us a story (again just to embarrass some one i guess) about a fool who says, "look there are 5 donkeys", pointing to 4 horses and says, "they are walking in 3 legs", simultaneously explaining visually by showing 2 fingers. It was just about a fool who don't even know numbers and can't differentiate horses from donkeys.
Then he randomly pointed to a student at the last bench and asked, "What is Benzyl chloride + Sodium hydroxide?". I thought the answer is easy. It's Benzyl alcohol. He just taught us yesterday with Methyl chloride, on how we should replace Cl with OH from NaOH to get Methyl alcohol. Today it's just that another alcohol with same formula. But surprisingly, that student from last bench didn't answer. He just stood. Maybe he knew, but was afraid to say to avoid any embarrassment if he got it wrong. Then Mahesh called the guy who sat next to him and he also stood simply without answering anything. Maybe that guy was thinking, 'if the previous guy can't answer a simple question maybe the answer is tricky'. Mahesh kept calling next, and whole 2 last bench was standing. Now i'm starting to doubt myself. 'Maybe it's not Benzyl alcohol. May be the bonding work differently for Benzene.' Now the 2nd last bench also stood up without answering. Now it came to first bench in boys section ( Girls sat before us, refer 1st episode). I'm on the right side 1st bench, 2nd place. I'm eagerly watching everyone in the first bench from other side. 1st person stands and nothing, 2nd person stands and nothing, 3rd person stands.
Now this was that curious student I told you all about above. Maybe he also thought the answer was Benzyl alcohol, but as no one answered, started thinking out of the box. He doesn't simply stand, he stood and took his note book immediately and stared writing the formulas to work it out. Breaking the carbon/hydrogen/oxygen bonds and rearranging them etc. But Mahesh as usual, doesn't give a damn about all that. If the answer doesn't come immediately, he calls 'Next'. Next stood up and same. Now it came to my bench. My friend who sat in the first place, i was sure will answer it. But to my surprise, even he stood just like that. Now i have made up mind to say 'Benzyl alcohol', no matter what. But Mahesh doesn't say 'Next'. He stopped.
He looked at the whole class and said, "What's wrong with all of you? it's such a simple question". Then he looked at my friend who is standing next to me and asked, "Methyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Methyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Ethyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Ethyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Subbaiah chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Subbaiah alcohol Sir", came the reply with a weak smile. Meanwhile that curious student is still vehemently working out the formula in his notebook to find the answer. Then Mahesh asked,"Ok. Now answer this. Benzyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Benzyl alcohol Sir".
Mahesh was finally relieved and said, "I don't know why you all were struggling to answer a simple question. Sit down everyone". And right now, at this exact moment where he told us to sit down and everyone standing were sitting down, our Curious friend finished working out the formula and quite dramatically stood up and pointed to Mahesh and yelled, "Sir!!!! Benzyl peroxide!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The whole room erupted in laughter and Mahesh simply expanded his hand and showed 5 fingers and slowly kept folding one finger each to remind us all about the story he told at the staring of the class.
P.S: If that curious friend reads this and tells me he doesn't remember this incident, I'm gonna kill him then the next time I see him. Because this is the most talked about story between our high school friends whenever we meet and its burned in my brain.
Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1
Awesome Awesome !!!
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