Nostalgia: Code word tuti-on

Tuti-on: Pronounce it right

This was way back in 2001. I was in my VIth standard and one of the toppers in my class.

I was good at Science, Social and English. I could manage Hindi but Sanskrit gave me nightmares. I got a B in Sanskrit in Vth (which was P3 - Pathetically Poor Performance going by my standards back then).

I did not want the entire class to know that the topper was attending tuition classes.

So, I always referred to it as tuti-on. That made me feel better.

Ka, Kha, Ga, ... then what?

Matadeen sir stressed the importance of having our fundamentals strong. From the very beginning, we were told to improve our handwriting and revise our shabd/dhatu roops.

However, to his horror, he discovered that we did not know the Devanagari script. We knew a few alphabets in order - the rest was all mayhem.

We were made to go through our very basics. It increased our confidence level tremendously.

'Does she live down there?'

From the day, sir discovered that our English teacher Anita Abraham was living below Siddhesh (we had our classes in his house), he became reluctant to come to the same place to teach.

After some deliberation, it was decided that the venue for the tuitions would shift base to my house. The onus was now on me.

Paan + Chai: Sandhi Banao

Matadeen sir (almost always) had a paan/supari in his mouth. As a result, he had this strange high pitched voice that is typical of Paan eaters.

The three of us would stare with disgust when he would start drinking the tea and say 'Sandhi Banao: ___ + ___'. Most disgusting.

Rest assured, he was a top-notch Sanskrit teacher. Though, I always wondered why

• He never taught in the school (He would come in - give some high-funda lecture and fly off)
• He never recommended those Rs 3 Kunjis in class (the ones he procured from Banaras)

His were the only tuition class I ever attended. I never had any problems in Sanskrit from then on (or was it so? Matadeen sir taught me in Guwahati. In Bangalore, the syllabus of VIIth was repeated for our class VIIIth course. I have always wondered whether I was just lucky).

I did not pursue Sanskrit after VIIIth even though it was supposed to be a 'scoring subject'. I took Hindi instead.