The foundation - II

Compettion went well the other day. I don’t know who won the competition. Was it me, all those aachchi’s stories reminding to be “fair” all the time, giving each girl her fair turn (boys suck, they don’t know any answer btw), and getting bad name from each girl when the turn goes away from each girl? Was it Anandi, no, no, she doesn’t give a damn about being “fair”.. Was it every one of us, screaming and jumping for every question asked and answered. “Asking” part is always more enjoyable than the “answering” part. I always think deciding on what to ask needs more brain than to answer those questions. I enjoy “asking” part. I enjoy “why this question”, more than “this is the answer”. I would say, the biggest winner is our teacher. The other day she taught us how to learn this new language, English. Simple, she started from a, aa, e, ee, u, uu… same as Tamil. Simple. Today we have spelling test. Ambiga teacher will tell a word. We all will write it. And then it will be assessed.

Klerk…. Teacher says the word loud... we all start figuring out the spelling. I write, clerck? Klerk? Clark? I believe it has to be klark. See, k is for k, l for l, a for a, r for r, k for k. so, it has to be Klark. You can see that table showing each English equivalent of Tamil letters on the board. She has left it on for our reference. She always tells that we should never mug up. Also, she always writes some reference material on the board whenever there is a test. We have to work out the answer, she tells. See, k for k, l for l, a....

Yaay, klark is correct, even though the actual English word is “clerk”. Because, it is not the "correct" spelling that is correct, it is your explanation that gets you "correct". Girls who have written "clerk", but couldn't explain why and how it is "clerk", got "wrong", but I got "correct". Honestly, I don't know the actual word. I just wrote from the reference. My maama is a clerk in a bank, I do know the word, but don't know its spelling. You see, it is k for k, l for l, a for a... Yaaay, I got all correct and I am her favourite girl. Don't believe her when she complaints to my chithi that I cry if she gives me a 99½ out of 100, and ask her (ambiga teacher) to explain how did she come up with that minus½. She is the one told me that it is the explanation that counts. She is secretly pleased about me questioning her like that. I know. I know. (Grinning ear to ear.)