Making Words and Dreams

 Today in a grade 8 English class

I was suddenly asked to take class

53 students all young and alive

Waiting brains and hopeful hearts 

We looked through the textbook 

I had no plan, the rhyme scheme was no fun.

Resorting to 2022 ways

I quietly wrote 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilcovolcanoconiosis'

On the blackboard as they giggled

About some lewd reference they might have made

Being cool with adolescents is scary

Being silent is worse

So I had to be confident

And hope is always a must.

An hour flew by, 

They made more than fifty words

With the long word. 

All very good and intelligent words

The last benchers- the smartest and coolest of all 

Kept mumbling so I requested them to be heard

KTM, ATM, reply, like, rose, vivo, realme 

A few of their suggestions.

They were corrected 'k aur y nahi hain'

So they fell back into the crowded corner

Then 'handyman' was heard repeatedly 

"Video game?" "YouTube channel?" 

"What is it?" I enquired

"Cigarette ma'am!" they kindly informed. 

One child had spread the word 

And the others had jumped into the clamor 

I asked them the spelling of cigarette 

They giggled and kept quiet.

(Now that I look for it on the internet, this doesn't exist...I'll ask them again)

When the words were done,

We spoke about their plans for August 15

Dance, song, poem a few said.

Soon, I asked them to write of their dreams

(In any language)

"District collector" a voice from the corner said

Great but not just something you want to be

Write anything you feel from your heart 

A few laughed again.

A red stained teeth boy hurried "ganja fookna hain"

Taken aback I said "tum log ganja fookoge toh hum angrez ke gulam phirse ban jaenge"

(I don't remember a better line I said afterwards immediately)

They all laughed. (Problematic but phew!)

A few girls said the dream topic was difficult 

The rest were quiet

Alternatively they could write on what they liked/loved 

To this they agreed.

At the end we sang "hum honge kamyab"

Together, really well!

(This whole thing kept me smiling and high till I drove back 8 kilometers to work! Yeah:))

Well, in an hour's class we could travel

From cigarettes and ganja

To hum honge kamyab

If a teacher chooses many classes like these

Lives might change 

Otherwise I wonder

what's the point of anything!