hazel irises

A very memorable piece from my school life.

Day 1 of class 2, is when I met this teacher, Rashmi Miss, who taught us Science and Bollywood songs. She was so beautiful that I used to think she was a distant relative of Karishma Kapoor. Deep set eyes with hazel brown irises that were full of life, sharp facial features and perfectly straight hair. She wore Vipul sarees, mostly. And there was this one saree in seaweed green and grey combination, chiffon I think. Every time she wore that saree, she paired it with a BIG silver oxidised cuff bracelet (I didn't know this fancy term back then and yet I admired it) on her right hand, styled her hair in a high ponytail. This image is etched in my memory. Oh, she had bangs too. Back in the day, we called it,'front cut'. On the days she ran late to work, her hair was in a simple braid or a messy bun.

 The class celebrated her,school management and other teachers,not so much(:-P).
Her handwriting was so beautiful that her style of writing stays with me even to this day. 
When she was not teaching us Science, she played Antakshari with us. And she made sure our Antakshari sessions ended with this song- हम होंगे कामियाब एक दिन, ओह मन में  विश्वास  पूरा है  विश्वास...It was so much fun when she was around.
I had the best six months of my life as a second-grade kid. I whooped with joy every time she called out my name or needed some help with class related stuff. She thought I was very responsible.

She was very expressive and most of her real-life stories had a punch of drama in them.
 She had a saasu maa kahani to share with her colleagues everytime her in-laws came over for a couple of days' stay.  My takeaway was she was not used to the idea of cooking for a group of people, basically.

Her house was further away from where I lived. So there were many occasions when she walked home with me after school.Along with me was my play home friend who also went to the same school. We were like cousins. So when the second-grade kid in me didn't know the Kannada word for 'cousin'  I used the words, "badige thamma" which translates to badige meaning rent and thamma meaning brother. Rented brother LOL...

And when I introduced him to her as my badige thamma, she cracked up. And, amused at my naivety maybe?
 I just can't forget this conversation.
*first facepalm moment of my life*

One day closer to the ending of our term, there were rumours that she was going to quit her job. I was shattered and didn't want it to be true. There was still so much to learn from her. Days later, she confirmed the news. Can you imagine the disappointment?? I wept buckets, just couldn't hold back. I could sense she was going to miss all of us too, but her decision was already made. I didn't know slambooks existed. And was pretty sure she didn't have a landline connection.

I got into a new school, new locality a year later. But kept going back to the old place with a hope that I could meet her. I later learned that she took some of my friends from my old school to a picnic. Obviously, I missed it.

I have no idea where she is now at this point in her life. Tried looking for her on every social media there is. Luck has never been in my favour.

As I recall this, I realize how much I miss her dearly and wish someday I chance upon her. Pretty sure she would find it hard to place me because 17 years since, I'm beyond recognition.

It was such a pleasure knowing her. The Marvelous Mrs.Rashmi!!!