My Size

Picture from Google Image.

People say size matters and this line literally exhibits me or, you may say, is exhibited by me. I am short, skinny, and tiny and I am a teacher with students who are all bigger than me. But, I do find some use for my size/height.  I crack height-jokes in my after noon classes to shake off sleep in my students.

 

I talk a lot about my wife in my class and my students ask, ‘‘isn’t she taller than you sir?’’

I say she is, and she makes me feel like Tom Cruise. When I slow dance I rest my head on her soft bosom and that I have to be on my toes when I kiss her. They laugh and I continue my lesson with students who are more awake.

There have been many instances where my size deceived people.  But my favorite is the one I share with most of my friends.

It was sometime in 2010, beginning of the year when the class ten results were out. The previous year I taught in class ten so I wanted to know how my students did their exam.

There is a grocery shop in the building next to the building where I live. The owner of the building and the man who runs the grocery is the father of one of my students.  The boy is an average student, not someone whom you as a teacher needn’t worry about when it came to results.

So, one evening I was in the shop buying some grocery, just to enquire, I asked the old man,

‘‘Uncle how is Namgay’s (my student) result?’’

The reply was, ‘’ the tsagay (idiot) didn’t qualify! Did you qualify?’’

I told the man I was his son's teacher but he didn’t seem to be convinced, so, I told him to ask his son if he didn’t believe me. It was quite embarrassing at that time but seems funny now.

My size/height is something I use a lot in my class, like I said before. At one time I was talking about the importance of making characters credible in stories. Like most times, I took my own example. I told them that if I were a character in their story, and if they wrote that, ‘with just one punch Nobu knocked out Sir Bhim’ (Mr. Bhim is huge and the biggest teacher in school), will I, as their character seem credible? ‘‘Noooo!’’ They laughed but then I told them my character could become credible if they made me ‘spider man’ or ‘super man’ and their story would be a ‘super hero story.’ They laughed more and I continued my lesson.

Once I was trying to explain the size of a grizzly bear to my students. I didn’t have a picture and most of my students hadn’t even heard the word before. So, I told them that if I were the local black bear then the grizzly bear would be as huge as Sir Bhim. ‘’Imagine that!’’ They laughed, I knew they were imagining me in some funny bearskin, but then they had some idea about the size of a grizzly bear and I continued my lesson.

So, being tiny is useful after all.