First day: 2nd Innings @ 9th Grade.

Our school would reopen after summer vacation in June first week. The school would start at 12.00 noon. and this time I was less enthused about the whole affair. Having failed to clear the exams I was to sit through the whole year once again in 9th grade with some new junior age class. I could see my old batch mates getting into new class 10th grade or popularly called 10th Standard-SSC. That is the time I realised the importance of loosing a year.

I remember after making enquiries I came to the designated class and I took last but one bench on the right hand side. The girls used to sit on the left and boys at the right. Taking cue from me both Ganesh and Mahesh accompanied me. The class began with a prayer a sanskrit hymn devoted to Goddess Saraswati ( the goddess of knowledge) Yaa Kundendu..Tushara......
and followed by a kind of oath, " India is my country...."

We came to know that it was Mrs Gupte who was our teacher. What she did made a permanent mark in my life. From her I learnt the art of non-discrimination. She was our English teacher and our class teacher, a kind of mentor teacher. She noticed that we were sitting in the last benches little bit nervous of the things to come. She took decisions. She politely asked us to sit on the first bench. A sought of promotion from last bench to first bench in my 2nd innings at 9th grade! It was considered that, dull students should sit in the front so that they can be mentored as closely as possible in a classroom kind of situation.

I occupied the first bench which was bit isolated with Mahesh. It was bit discomforting as Mahesh was left handed and I was right handed. Ganesh took one bench behind us. Mrs Gupte did talk few comforting words only which a mother could have given. She told take this opportunity to strengthen the weak points so that we become strong in those areas. And I remember I found myself difficult to introduce myself to the class. My head was bent and my voice very feeble and hardly anyone could have heard me what I was speaking or mumbling ,may be the shame had overcome me.Moreover my name was difficult to pronounce "Phaniraj Chandra"

Some teachers would call me," Paaniraaj" loosely translated " Water king" and some took the liberty to call me," Praaniraaj" ( Animal king- Praani is Animal in Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi, Kannada and many more languages) And there were some teachers who would pronounce my name as Phunnyraj, (heard as Funny Raj) I would get upset but at the same time little I could do and rather never protested. And Still I do not protest when someone intentionally or unintentionally wrongly pronounces my name.

I remember that comforting words and Mrs Gupte treated all her wards equally and made us all believe we could do it! And I had new wonderful batchmates I knew Sachin Sardesai and also Mukta as she used to stay near our house and Sanjay Shenoy was known for his academics so was Gouri. I knew Parag Seth and Ajay Shah and that gave me a sense of belonging. I acknowlege that never anybody from my classmates to our teacher made us feel that we were the ones who were spending 2 nd year to learn the same thing all over again.

This made me not so alien in that group and Mrs Gupte was kind of mentor I was just looking for. She built in us enough confidence to face the class for the second innings and of course the world.