The apt word
When I was in standard eight, the teacher who taught us English Language met with some kind of accident and went on leave. After a week of euphoria which a no-writing-made-up-letters-to-made-up-people-thanking-them-for-made-up-gifts ensues, in walked a substitute teacher whose appearance lived up to the subject he was embarking to teach.
Mr. Percival Joseph towered over all of us with his six feet broad frame, chalk-white skin, light brown hair, a moustache that drooped neatly towards his square jaw. He even had those leather patches on his blazer’s elbows. In other words, he was perfect for a bunch of awed teenagers who had never ever studied under a white man(even the History lessons with their evils of colonization couldn't dissuade us from loving the man!). We loved his accent, we loved his handwriting... how he would curve his capital 'I's and not quite complete his small case 'P's... how he would refuse to translate Shakespeare and read it as if he was auditioning for a play...how he would insist we put 'Uncle' in front of the first name of that made-up person and not after it...et al.
The only lesson his one starry-eyed pupil didn't agree to, was - "Always remember... humans never sweat! Horses sweat, humans perspire." She does not agree still. For perspiration is just too mild a word for what the month of May does to you, isn't it?
To my utter disappointment, Mr. Joseph said bye-bye before experiencing his first Indian summer. For I was hoping that had he stayed, he would have invented a word for ' a condition in which a human is continuously sweating like a horse.'
Mr. Percival Joseph towered over all of us with his six feet broad frame, chalk-white skin, light brown hair, a moustache that drooped neatly towards his square jaw. He even had those leather patches on his blazer’s elbows. In other words, he was perfect for a bunch of awed teenagers who had never ever studied under a white man(even the History lessons with their evils of colonization couldn't dissuade us from loving the man!). We loved his accent, we loved his handwriting... how he would curve his capital 'I's and not quite complete his small case 'P's... how he would refuse to translate Shakespeare and read it as if he was auditioning for a play...how he would insist we put 'Uncle' in front of the first name of that made-up person and not after it...et al.
The only lesson his one starry-eyed pupil didn't agree to, was - "Always remember... humans never sweat! Horses sweat, humans perspire." She does not agree still. For perspiration is just too mild a word for what the month of May does to you, isn't it?
To my utter disappointment, Mr. Joseph said bye-bye before experiencing his first Indian summer. For I was hoping that had he stayed, he would have invented a word for ' a condition in which a human is continuously sweating like a horse.'
Labels: Over the weather
