INHYGIENIC OR UN-? Being English Teacher is more of Pain than Fun

It was not so long ago that I thought being an English Teacher was great fun.

Until recently I never felt that being an English Teacher could be tedious and taxing. Just before the Lunch Break, Mr. Sangay Palden, my colleague, came over and asked me to talk to the students in the MPH regarding their sense of cleanliness or lack of it. Naturally, I was there sharp at 12.25. Mr. Sangay accompanied me there. We went around and finally entered inside the Sick Room, meant for the sick students. Surprisingly, the room looked messy and was reeking of neglect and carelessness!

Once the students were seated, I thought it best not to waste any more time and spoke to them about our great disappointment. I informed them that we were not happy with the way they had started taking things for granted, with the papers lying everywhere and the balls of rice thrown around. I also spoke about something I had noticed in the morning during the meal-supervision.  I was surprised to find one of the servers serving ezhe (a kind of Bhutanese pickle) to the students with his bare hands. “This is totally ………” and then I had to pause for the right word, not being sure if the opposite of hygienic was un- or in-hygienic! As I did not have much time at my disposal, I blurted out “unhygienic” finally.

Things could not have been the same after that any more, especially for a language teacher like me. I looked around then to see if anyone was trying to hide his giggling face under the table, expecting the dismal looks on the girls’ faces in the process. It became darker than usual inside the MPH!

I took my place behind the servers momentarily in order to hide my shame and ignominy.  And there was our Vice Principal  standing at the other end of the room! Woe betide woe! What sir must be thinking about me right now – me and my superlative English! The very next moment I could see a girl making her way across towards me: “Sir, the Vice Principal is looking for you …”. I was thunderstruck! Goodness gracious! Has he already detected my mistake? Is he annoyed with me for using that un-English teacher-like word? Does he want to talk to me about it now? There was a sadness in my demeanour and I felt older than my age as I made my way across.

Luckily, Sir had other pressing matters to discuss! He sounded genuinely saddened by the visible mess outside. His concern for cleanliness brought some relief to my overwrought soul. I was back among the students soon. In passing, I noticed Khem Lal and Abiskar helping themselves to some mouthful gorgings. The tell-tale smile on Khem Lal’s face nearly tore me apart and took me headlong to their table. He, for one, must have sensed my insecurity, knowing very well that there is no such word as ‘unhygienic’ in the dictionary! I stopped near them as if all I wanted to know was about the quality of the food!

“How’s the food?’

“It’s tasty, Sir.”

“I don’t know if you are serious, but CHSS students are lucky. I saw some students being served burnt food somewhere not so long ago …”

They nodded their heads and smiled. But the cynic in me had reached the boiling point and  was killing me. I found Mr. Sangay Palden back in the MPH then. When I was talking to the students, he was nowhere inside. Maybe he was outside. At least he was aware of my mistake! He must have felt let down.

“ Sir, I told them whatever you asked me to ….” I was expecting him to rebuke me for the misused word. Instead he calmly informed me that he had gone home for lunch. With that priceless intimation my anxiety of anyone finding out my mistake was fast receding.

After a quick lunch back home, I hurried back to school for the next class. Right after the class over, I raced to the Staff Room to dispel my doubt about the existence of the terrifically torturing word ‘unhygienic’.  There was an Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary lying somewhere nearby. I steamed through the section on words beginning with in- first. There was no such word as the in- entries stopped at inhuman. Thank god that there is no word containing the letter ‘y’ in English after the first three letters ‘Inh’.

Then I leafed through the pages with the prefix –Un. The experience was no less pleasant. It was at that precise moment, when I was feeling alive once again, that I heard my colleague, Ms. Palden requesting me to go through the essay penned by one of her students. Things began to brighten up once again until my eyes chanced to fall upon the word, Nuptial. When we tried to pronounce the word, there was as big a difference in our pronunciation as heaven and hell! Whoever thinks that being an English Teacher is easy and enviable, must have his head thoroughly examined. How can  a slight difference in Un- and In- make one's heart jump to one's mouth and seem like the end of the world? Well, almost, literally.

The end