By the time I was in 5th gradeI had become pretty much a bully with brains in my batch, so I started to hangout with people like me who were majority of boys and a few girls. I was friendly with almost everyone except some girls who were obsessed with beauty and fashion. Those were like elite girls from French class.
From 5th grade we started to have 6 subjects to study. Three languages, Maths, Science and Social science which included history, civics and geography in one paper. So it was more like we were learning 8 subjects but giving six exams. So, the first language was English because I was in a English medium school, Hindi was my second language and 3rd language was an optional language. Our school used to offer three subjects during those days, they were Sanskrit, French and Marathi.
Sanskrit is like origin of majority of Indian languages, an ancient language. Majority students opted for Sanskrit. French was just there, and those who were considered elite mostly took French as a matter of standard. And Marathi was the local language, so almost everyone knew except me. Only a handful of students who had origins in other states or who were too good in Marathi took that subject.
I was friends with everyone from Sanskrit classes, and a few from Marathi class. The French class used to look down at us although we were good in studies and almost all other extracurricular activities. Their teacher although was Indian like us, she used to glorify French people as if they were her relatives. And this used to pisse us off.
One day our class teacher went on a leave for a week but, our strength was took big for the class to be left unattended. So the class teachers from other language class divided our class into two and merged us with French and Marathi class. Unfortunately I was in French class.
The first day all of the other subjects classes were going smoothly,- our all other subject teachers were same except the 3rd Language - and when the French lecture started we were even polite enough to greet their teacher calling out "Bonjour Madame" in French just like other French students. But God knows what pissed that teacher off that, whole lecture she waisted her time in speaking bad about Hindi and Indians.We kept our good behavior till the Thursday. But that teacher just kept sprouting nonsense and we lost our minds. I and my other classmates decided to teach this teacher a lesson.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
On the last day of our Class teacher's leave we stood up to greet the French teacher but instead of the usual " Bonjour Madame" we greeted her with "Suprabhat Sikshika" ("Good morning teacher" in Sanskrit ). All the French students and their teacher was shocked and they were looking our way with annoying looks, but we already had a plan B in our minds.
Since it was their first year learning French they would recite French ABCs in a sing - song way after greetings. However Sanskrit alphabets were almost same as Hindi alphabets that we all had learnt in nursery, so we never did that. Instead we used to start our lessons with a Sanskrit hymn dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of learning.
We started to chanting our hymns and this annoyed their teacher to bones. She started to shout and said " You people! Don't you have any manners? All Indians are like that!" I stood up and said " Ma'am for past one week you are constantly cursing Indians and Indian languages, do you live in France? I know we are not as advanced as them and don't speak their language but even we have our manners. We may not do a curtsy or a bow for showing respect, but we sure show respect by touching elders' feet or joining our hands. Even you are an Indian ma'am, if India had not given you opportunities you must have never visited France and bragged about it. Just see countries like Pakistan. Please respect your nationality and others' as well. "
Whole class went silent. The teacher came to me with her head bowed, I thought she was maybe too angry to speak being insulted by a student, she raised her hand and I was ready for a slap, instead I meet her warm embrace. She left my embrace, joined her hands bowed her head and said " I'm sorry that...I looked down on you students just because you took Sanskrit. I don't hate Indians I just thought there was nothing to learn in a language like Sanskrit and that you guys were getting good scores because I thought it is just like Hindi. But today when I heard you guys chant the hymns I understood Sanskrit is much harder than I thought. It's so hard that the exam can't be taken like other subjects. I now understand it."
Our class topper was present in the class, he stood up and spoke " It's alright ma'am we are not angry but we just couldn't hear insults to our language and country so we stood up. " All of us exchanged happy glances of agreement and spoke together " we forgive you ma'am."
After that even when the French teacher used to come in our class for some free lectures we would greet her in French and she would respond in French. But French students and Sanskrit student could never stop their rivalry, atleast in our batch.