Love Her or Hate Her- You can't forget Her

What else can I say about someone who while introducing herself to her batch of students says: "I am a witch, and I know that...." and "Anyone you catch crying in the institute , would be my student and there no name you can call me by , which I am not aware of...and now lets start the class". That's Geeta Sahani Ma'am for you. She was my English Professor at CIE, the best institute for B.Ed and anyone in the teaching fraternity would vouch for it.

One of the unforgettable teachers of my life, she was simply a person you couldn't ignore nor can forget. I still remember missing her first lecture coz me and my friends following the DU tradition, were late by 5 minutes (this inspite of warnings that she is very strict about time) and paid for our mistake. All that mentioned in the first few lines are just appetisers to all we heard standing on the doorstep of her lecture room that day. She started the class only after we left. We, (4-5 students )cribbed a lot but that was an example for the whole year we spent there. We were always on time (Whew! that was tough). Her classes were never boring, her command over the language , techniques and holding our attention was just awesome, so no matter how much we hated her sarcastic comments, we loved those lectures.

You could just fall in love with the comments she wrote on our assignments - " Wah! Madamji khush kar diya..." or " Isse accha tha nai likhti" which decided our moods for the week. Infact we had bets that who would receive the worst comment for the lecture. And, the truth is her good comments made us smile for the rest of the week. (I still have copies of those assignments). We would always get crazy assignments and were seen sitting on the stone tables outside the canteen , with cups of tea, cold drinks & pakoras- discussing and doing our work. "Oh! They are Geeta Ma'am's students " is something we heard often from the passing crowd. The lady made us work hard and i mean real hard.

All this aside , Geeta Sahani Ma'am's students (from all batches she taught) became confident and competent English Teachers and teach it not as subject, but as language. (The fact she always insists on). The confidence instilled through all those lectures make us all go in our interviews with a little arrogance that " I am from the best lot" and fear none. (Except fellow students from CIE).

I do not know where she is now, but I can say is that I can never forget her , or her comments and compliments.