“Yes ma’m” I nodded.
“So, what does she do?” Ma’m started exploring the question further.
Puzzled why a maths class had turned into a biology class on a lovely winter morning, I started looking towards classmates for some intelligent clues and uttered
“Ma’m, she collects nectar from flowers to accumulate honey on which the bees feed and it is also meant for human consumption as well as commercial purposes”
“Nice” Ma’m approved of my answer and I gleefully glanced across the class-room.
“So, is that all or anything more you wish to add?” She started the Q&A again.
“hmmm….ma’m…hmmm” failing to understand her query, I started mumbling.
“Oh sorry, I meant what do you learn from a honey-bee?” Ma'm explained.
Bravo, here I was in a 10th standard student in a maths class and being quizzed on honey-bees in the very first class of the day. “Sorry ma’m, I don’t know” I meekly submitted.
She asked me to take the seat and continued with the “Volume & Surface Area of Spheres”, the lesson of the day. With 10 minutes still to go, she started the bee-quiz once again, but thankfully I wasn’t the murga this time :)
“Well, you students are bees and we teachers are flowers” she stated.
Frankly, I used to think the other-way around with some teachers using their bee-stings to derive sadistic pleasure through projects, home-works and tests.
But it wasn’t so funny in reality. She repeated that one line twice and dismissed the class. It took many months for me to understand the profound depth of her words and the real lesson behind it. It need not to be through books only, even a bee can guide us what do we want to be in life.
