I was poor at science subjects. I still am. Be it physics, chemistry or biology. I was very poor. I never understood any of those theorems and formulae. Even some of the very basic things are still a problem for me. Only physics was slightly better because I found it a bit interesting and practical. Overall, science subjects were very alien to me. As far as I was concerned, “if it moves it’s biology, if it stinks it’s chemistry and if it doesn’t work, it’s physics”.

My disconnect with science subjects never was a major hindrance for me academically speaking. I was still scoring decent 70s and 80s which did not threaten me too much. As you figured out, I wasn’t a dumb student. I was a ‘tiger’ in Mathematics. I was one of the brightest kids but with an evident weakness in science subjects. Why did I not get along with science subjects then?

When I joined high school (public school), I happened to get a lousy science teacher. But then that was the time the school got serious with the curriculum, exams, competition and all that. Primary school was just time pass. High school gave me goosebumps. And this science teacher was a waste of space and time. That early in high school, my parents didn’t think I need to be put in private classes. There are some teachers who teach in school like they’ve not been paid their salaries for years and when it comes to their private classes they treat you like you’re their adopted sons.

This man in the frame wasn’t even that. He simply sucked. I think he would have sucked even at watching movies, walking the dog, reading newspapers, combing his hair, buying his clothes – he’d have sucked at everything. I don’t know how the rest of the students managed. I generally had to understand in order to appreciate anything. I can still pass your exams but I wouldn’t appreciate the concepts. The only positive I saw was that he is not going to be my science teacher next year too. Our school would keep rotating teachers every year.

I moved to the seventh standard. Bingo. You’re right. Same man. Same agony. I was screaming ‘I’m wasting my time with you’. You must know what he actually does in the class. He is a very calm and quiet man. He is a very nice man all right, it’s just that he was just incompetent or indifferent. He would walk in quietly. He would take his chair. He would call one of the students near him and ask him to read aloud say, chapter 4. The boy generally happens to be the typical teachers’ pet who is always the public enemy. So he reads it aloud while we all listen to him reading the paragraphs of text. Practically no value add at all. While the boy reads, the teacher would not explain anything. He’d be vigilantly watching us like we were the pakistani soldiers across the line of control.

There was one time when he crossed his limits and gave a memorable explanation. I remember that even after 15 years. One day this public enemy was reading a chapter from biology. As always, he was reading at million words per minute. Suddenly the teacher interrupted. “Stop. Single cell is one cell. Now continue.” We were flabbergasted. This was fucking outrageous. What was he thinking? Jumping in as if we did not know what “single cell” meant and as if that was only thing we did not understand in that diarrhoea of biological words. He was breaking his own records. Luckily, we were moving on to the eighth standard. I knew that no teacher has taught the same class for three years in a row.

Did I say he was breaking his own records? Third freaking year in succession! I thought somebody hired him just to screw my education. I was very good in all other subjects. Only science was going from bad to worse. In fact, I had lost hopes. I lost all my interest in understanding the concepts. I was just trying to avoid it as much as possible. I started ignoring science. The neglect even turned into hatred and aversion. I had also tried to understand stuff myself with the textbooks and invariably ended up playing cricket.

The guys from the other sections of my class had very good science teachers all along. So those guys were pretty good in science. They were there to remind me how much I sucked at concepts of science. In the ninth and tenth standards, our section got some decent teachers but by that the damage was done. With a terribly poor foundation, the decent teachers could only paper the cracks. The pity is that, for some reason, I always thought I could have done well in Science and related subjects, if I had got the right education. I think I had the aptitude for that.

In the tenth exams, I got a respectable 81% as the overall percentage with 71% in science. In our school terms, it was a very good score. I had to then decide which group I was going to take in higher secondary – science with biology (yuck), science with computer science (grrr), commerce with economics (yawn) and commerce with computer science (wow).

There was this interview with the principal where my group will be determined. Apparently, there was a mad rush for science groups. There was a class system in groups too. The general perception was, if you scored low or if you’re dumb or both, you’d be assigned commerce group. Add to that, in higher secondary, the science group classes were moved to the brand new building in the school campus. So, commerce groups in the rotten old place. Science groups in the brand new building. They referred themselves as the ‘first group’ and that they are in the ‘new building’. Annoying.

D-day. My father accompanied me to the interview with the principal. We were waiting outside. The speed in which the queue moved said there is no discussion happening inside. You’re being stamped ’science’ or ‘commerce’ based on your marks, potential and conduct. I had told my father that I’m opting for commerce with computer science. He had said ‘you decide’.

Our turn. We went in. After meet and greet, the prinicpal looked at the mark sheet and asked my father ‘with biology or computer science’. Knowing that my fate was in my hands, I swiftly reacted, “commerce with computer science”. He looked a bit pizzled. “You’ve got very good marks, you can get into the science groups easily”. I said, “No sir, I want commerce with computer science only”, with a strong tone of determination and insistence. He didn’t try to persuade further. He obliged. I was granted what I wanted. In the snap of a finger, I was free from protons, neutrons, electrons, potassium chlorides, inorganic compounds, molecular models, plasma membranes and the other gangsters.

I’m a qualified chartered accountant today. Thanks goes to that single-celled teacher who managed to keep me out of the evils of science subjects. It’s always comes in a package, doesn’t it? Every good might have a bad and every bad does have a good too!