As Meera is standing on the platform waiting for her local to arrive, a multitude of thoughts are running in her head. She is unable to concentrate on any, which irritates her; moreover, the swarm of people around just make her feel small and insignificant. She just wants to get hold of her thoughts and concentrate on what she will be doing in her classroom today. She is feeling exhausted and looks ill mildly because of her attitude towards her personal health and majorly because of her late-night explorations, on the internet, to effectively teach. She is ready with her plan for today at the cost of her energy.

Meera has been teaching for a year now. Taking the local, changing for the metro and then walking for a kilometer, all to reach school, has been imbibed in her everyday routine now. The routine thrives today too as Meera’s local arrives and she quickly climbs into it renting a square meter of place for twenty minutes of travel. She closes her eyes and stubbornly tries to concentrate on her plan for today. “So there is assembly, then I have to debrief the kids about the plan for today which includes lessons on Science and English with a discussion on Orwell’s 1984 scooped in between the lessons, a P.T period, and finally closing”, she smiles as she finishes recalling. Before she forgets she adds another thought to her already long chain, ‘I have to research about the background of Bilal and how can he be helped’. Bilal is a student in Meera’s class who has been facing a lot of behavioral problems lately. Suddenly, waking up from her reverie, she realized that she had to get down next. Someone else will rent the same space that she had occupied till now; no one owns anything in this city.

Meera reached school ten minutes late. ‘This has to stop now’ she says under her breath after realizing that this is the third time she was late this week. ‘Meera Ma’am, kindly be on time' said the headmistress placatingly; she was embarrassed by this confrontation and made her way, rather oddly, to the classroom after swiftly replying with a “Yes Ma’am”. The students greeted her and as a ritual, she had a big smile on her face and greeted them back. Ah!, another beautiful day begins she exclaims forgetting her tiredness for a while.

Meera reached school ten minutes late. ‘This has to stop now’ she says under her breath after realizing that this is the third time she was late this week. ‘Meera Ma’am, kindly be on time' said the headmistress placatingly; she was embarrassed by this confrontation and made her way, rather oddly, to the classroom after swiftly replying with a “Yes Ma’am”. The students greeted her and as a ritual, she had a big smile on her face and greeted them back. Ah!, another beautiful day begins she exclaims forgetting her tiredness for a while.

“Bilal!, will you get back to your seat?” Meera asked politely controlling her anger for the nth time since the day began. She had only fifteen minutes left to complete the Science objective. The behavior of the classroom is on a tangent today, she realized. The tiredness came back all of a sudden and with it came a shift in her teaching. She became less patient and more controlling. There were more warning issued than rewards given. Aamir, Raj, and Farhan were unwilling to give in to Meera’s instructions today while everyone else was just acting up to the whole situation. Meera felt alone for a while and sadness gripped her. She stopped writing and just sat down. Priya, one of the high performing kids of her class saw the discomfort that her teacher was feeling. She stood up and, like a leader of the pack, spoke with all her might; “Ma’am is not feeling well, so please listen to her”. Meera smiled, for an instant, and then got up and started writing again without speaking a word. The behaviour was better then on; most of the students were on task and the feeling of tiredness did not overwhelm her now. She completed her lesson and the students dispersed for their P.T. She was feeling proud of Priya to display such compassion and then felt proud of the entire class for replicating the same.

Meera left the class and went to the school’s office to research everything that was available for Bilal. Apparently, Bilal’ mother died when he was three years old and he was living with his father and an elder brother. Thoughts of child abuse were meandering in her head along with other hypotheticals such as peer-group influence and community’s involvement. She made a note of visiting Bilal’s house after school after she got done. Her conscience felt guilty for not researching earlier and thus failing as a teacher.

Her students returned; she reminded them of the ‘closing’ that happens every day before they leave. She had prepared questions last night, during her research, and wrote them on the board. She instructed the students to answer the questions individually on a sheet which she will collect. The closing time had always been very crucial for Meera as she made her students reflect on the day that went by which gave her ideas for the next day. The students left leaving Meera alone with her thoughts and ideas. She read a few sheets and felt happy after reading the responses. Some of her students had an uncanny ability to point out improvements in everything, she thought. She packed for the day and made her way out of school to catch the local back home.