Yesterday I went to make my voter-ID card. There were not many people and the woman working there asked me to wait for some time so that she could sort out all the mess. Then she asked me if I could help. I didn’t have anything lined up so I joined her to sort out all the heap of applications.
In that process she asked me whether I had any class to attend that I am missing to help her. I felt contempt. Do I look like some 10th grade student who has tuition classes to attend? After all, I was there to make my voter-ID card so I have to be 18+. Isn’t that common sense?
I told her that I am a teacher myself. And then her reaction was even more disgraceful. She looked me from the corner of her eye as if laughing at me. Then she asked me what classes I take and I am sure she was expecting me to say ‘nursery’. I told her that I take till VIII class and then I turned away to avoid seeing her reaction. Even then she didn’t give up; she asked me what subjects I take, half expecting me to say ‘art’ or ‘music’. When I said I take maths she finally gave up.

Alright, I agree that with a short top and a low-waist-jeans she couldn’t relate me with a ‘teacher’ but do I look so unfit for this profession. Not only this time, but this is the reaction I have been getting since the day I decided to join this profession. Even my family is no better. My granny was most happy when she got to know that wearing saree is compulsory in the school I have joined because she thinks that at least that would make me look a bit healthier and older. My brother keeps lecturing me that if I remain like this and “don’t carry a persona of a teacher”; nobody is going to take me seriously even if I am good.
Well, I love the way I look and I am not going out of my way to look plump and older just to suit the general perception about my profession.

My First Job

My exams finished on 21st May. I believed that it was going to be the beginning of my long struggle for a good job. I went for my first interview to Bharti Public School on 26th. It was raining heavily on that day and I had worn a saree. I was almost on the verge of crying when I couldn’t find an auto for quite long. By the time I found one I was half wet and the 5 ½ metres of cloth I had draped on myself was weighing double its weight and proving to be extremely impossible for me to handle. But the strangest thing was that on May 26th, when usually the temperatures in Delhi are like above 40 degrees, I was shivering with cold!
In spite of all this anarchy and mess, I reached the school 15 mins before time. I was given a written test to solve. It was followed by an interview taken by The Director and The Principal of that school. They asked me pretty good questions but the answers I gave sounded foolish to me and now I think I have better answers to each one of them. But then isn’t that the point of taking an interview. At the end of it, to my extreme surprise, they showed me signs that they were pretty satisfied with me and they called me again on the next day for another interview with the subject teachers. That interview also went well.
And on 27th May 2008 I got my first job with a decent salary in a pretty good school, that too on my very first interview! What more could I ask for.