Exile

18. TEMPORARY PROFESSOR ?!!

Her little sister is so going to enjoy it.

She could actually imagine Agastya as the professor. He would probably let his students do whatever they want, just out of the goodness of his heart. He might even allow for a slumber party in his classroom. She rolled her eyes at the imagination and decided to concentrate on her own work.

She is lagging a lot behind than what she had planned. She had to sit for a few extra hours to finish her tasks. Her last project ended a week ago. She did as much as she could with the knowledge she had over Application building. It was a task to get done with all the features and their functionality but You tube and few paid courses helped her. The only task that is pending is to get that app installed in all the phones of her family. Since it is no officially launched app, she had to do the installing part manually, which she can do, once it worked successfully on her phone. Once it is done, it's time for her to find a new thing to get herself busy. She could actually dabble with some new technologies.

Harika was chatting with her friends and the classroom was buzzing with the usual energy of students. Harika was surprised to find a decent number of students in the class and it gave her some kind of sadistic satisfaction to find that she is not the only one. She was still talking when the room fell silent. Every eye turned to the man walking through the door. Harika was shocked to say the least.

"Is that... the walking solution for all the problems, who works at your father?" one of Harika's friends whispered, disbelief evident in her voice.

Harika nodded, completely ignoring her friend's choice of words to describe Agastya. She is now in a state of shock and confusion. She sat down and sobered up as soon as Agastya started talking.

Agastya greeted the students with a warm Good Morning and he took a couple of seconds to take a look of the already known faces. As expected, more than half are sulking. Some are curious and some looked suspiciously sincere. He will need to have a lot of patience to deal with them and he aced the art of being patient in the last 8 months. He never taught anyone other than his brothers, who gave him nothing but trouble, but he knows how to teach a bunch of uninterested students.

He didn't waste any time in introductions as they already knew each other. He just informed them about the temporary arrangement before he dived into the concept of Calculus.

Harika cursed her fate, again, when she heard about this "temporary" arrangement.

Alright!! She got it. Time is not in her favour. Not. At. All.

If it was in her favour, she wouldn't be sitting here, in an extra class, which is a punishment.

A punishment for which she had to go volunteer and take the permission.

The permission which she got by dodging the very same man, who is now teaching infront of her.

Great!!

Her life just doesn't suck, it sucks royally!!

And she had UPMA in the breakfast! She wanted to hope for a nice lunch but she didn't dare to. She won't be surprised when she goes home only to find Bittergaurd or Brinjal in the menu.

Harika was so lost into her world that she just couldn't concentrate on Calculus. She kept looking at the Black Board but she heard nothing. She zoned out, as usual!!

Agastya could clearly see Harika not concentrating. It has been 15 minutes he started the concept, but the girl sat straight, with a face, he is so familiar with. If he was not used to it, she would have had him fooled that she is doing nothing but listening to him. He took a break after 15 minutes. Calculus is a very simple concept, which needs a couple of formulas and basic understanding of approaching the problem. Engineering Calculus is a bit deeper, but he started from 12th grade basics, just to be sure.

He put down the chalk piece after 15 minutes, where he explained the basic definition of Calculus and looked at his dear students.

"Alright Kids. Any doubts so far?" He asked, with the same tone. He heard a bunch of Dry Nos coming his way and another bunch of head shakes. Lazy and sleepy. He could find just those faces all over the class. He made himself comfortable in his chair and dusted his hands.

"Chalo ek game khelte hai. Whoever wins can walk out of the class. If more than 10 walk out, I will end today's class right here." He announced and he knew he had their complete attention now.

Harika sat straight. She heard something that actually excited her. Walking out of class.. Ending the class.. Nothing can be more exciting.

"Any student who comes here and explains everything that I taught in the past 15 minutes, wins!!" He leaned back and waited for 5 minutes, patiently. He had all the time of this world.

Harika resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had zero to none chances of winning. She didn't listen to a single word or definition he spoke. But she waited for someone or the other to go and do that. Ten is a very less number. There would be 10 students in the class who listens, won't they?! When no one got up after a couple of minutes, she got irritated. Morons!! What were they all doing in the class?! She hated them more for letting such opportunity slip!!

Agastya spoke when he got no response even after 5 minutes " No One? " He was actually expecting one or two to come but was not surprised when no one showed up. He got up and casually leaned against the desk "Did I forget to mention what happens to the ones who doesn't win this?!" He deliberately avoided using the word Lost, because he wanted to motivate them, he didn't want to humiliate them. The kids just crossed their teens, he can't go on bruise their ego or confidence.

"I am sorry. I must have forgotten. Those who don't pass this test, will sit here until they win." He gave his million dollar formal smile. The baffled look on their faces was a treat to watch.

A murmur of disbelief rippled through the classroom. They found it absurd and they are frustrated to say the least. They exchanged exasperated glances and Agastya did nothing to command silence. He just gave an another announcement "Class Timings are flexible, dear students. I am sure you all must have read instructions given in the time table. So, it simply means that the class is not over until I say its over. And I have nothing else to do." It only took 10 seconds before a student asked him if he can repeat the basics. He gladly explained the whole thing again but this time, he had their attention. He went through the basics in detail and asked a couple of questions here and there, to which students responded, not so lazily and he couldn't be more glad about it. He hated Laziness with passion and he realised 8 months did nothing to soften that passion.

Harika listened to class with concentration this time. If the deal is still on, she wanted to walk out as soon as possible. For the first time in her life, she understood what Calculus is and why are they learning it in the first place. It was not that bad or the man teaching the concept, made it look so simple.

She couldn't help but notice some classic differences.

Agastya Anand had been helping her in academics for almost 8 months now. The man who helped her and the man who is standing infront of her are not same. The patience is just the same but his tone was definitely not same. She can feel it in her bones.

The rest of the class went smooth and Agastya stopped with the basics when he understood that everyone are with him. He dismissed the class without making them explain anything because he knew they will this time. They are too desperate to walk out to not listen to him the second time. And he made sure that he is right asking some questions in between.