"Mam my brother got his poonool!!" (Brahmins' traditional thread), I am confused, but I nod and smile at her

"Mam  can I go to the toilet?", I say yes.

Another one comes, "Mam can I drink water?".

"Yes"

"Mam! maaaaaam!! Asisssh is calling me donkeyy", I am blank on what to say when another one comes jostling past his desks and asks "Can I drink water mam?".

I tell them all, "If you want to drink water, you may drink".

Two seconds later.. "Mam may I drink water".

The first day of my teaching career taught me that a teacher's superpower is Patience. To be patient when a kid complains about his pencil being magically displaced across the classroom into another kid's bag and how the former one had to swim towards it and somehow making the whole class erupt with jealousy and anger at his new found excuse to move about the class. This was the main perk of being a primary school teacher- entertaining responsibility.

On 11th September 2017, I was lucky enough to get a job as a spoken English teacher of primary school children. I teach the cutest age group in the planet-five to seven years. The company which recruited me for this job had the most hyped uniform, for a teacher working in South India- Suits and Blazer. Yes HA HA HA!! Children who are used to seeing their teachers in colorfully shining silk sarees with a bindi in their forehead couldn't exactly comprehend what I was.

"Can you show us magic?" , the little girl with a red bow smiled and asked me.

What else will a bunch of five-year-olds infer from my dressing? A lady dressed in black pants, a red shirt with a black overcoat, only the long rabbit hat was missing! I did look like a magician, and I was glad they knew about the magicians' universal dress code. I had to wear what I was asked to. My students love it, my opinion doesn't matter, because I just wanted them to speak suit coated English in school!