DJ Chat: Getting it right!

Stand up on the bench! Kneel down by the bin! Show me your knuckles! Commands followed by a resounding crack that still reverberates in my ears. No prizes for guessing that I was one of the 'most outstanding students' of my class. (Yeah, I mean, the one who was always standing outside the classroom).

Images from the battle of Panipat (resembling a war of sorts in our classroom) and the corners of our school quadrangle still haunt me with uncanny regularity.

What? When? Where? Questions and more questions keep popping in my head till I'm rudely woken up by the loud blast of the test tube wherein my chemical calculation with H‚SO„ has gone wrong& again!

I desperately wanted to break free from these recurring nightmares, which feature scary teachers in all their glory.

And then it happened: a divine intervention, a timely invitation. An offer to be the quizmaster for an "all teachers contest" at a prominent Sharjah-based school.

Did you ever want to ask your Math teacher about the important logarithm that she always quizzed you about? How about all those memorised historical dates that you were asked to recall during your school years?

Now here I was, with roles reversed and calling the shots. The inter-class teachers' quiz kicked off. And to my pleasant surprise, the knowledge and humour hidden behind those hard and controlled personalities humbled me. Watching the Arts teacher excelling in her Chemistry skills, the Language teacher showing off her mental ath calculations and the French teacher surprising us with her Biology facts, taught me to respect them more.

The role of quizmaster was a truly enriching experience but, more importantly, it helped rid me of my old recurring nightmares.

For instance, in my last dream I was deducting points from the teachers tally for giving me a wrong answer when the alarm went off...

So I decided to go back to sleep for a few winks to rekindle that sweet dream.

DJ Harsha from 89.1 Radio4FM