Appy Says

october fifth
1994
first standard
i was in 1 G
my ‘class teacher’ did not know how to spell tongue
she used ‘tounge’
and insisted it was right
though my mom said it wasn’t
the first day of first standard
we all had to take our notebooks to her
and she drew vertical lines on the first page
we had to write the letters of the alphabet
later
when we had to get it corrected
i noticed
that i had an extra column empty as compared to everyone else
i checked to see if i had missed any letters
i couldn’t figure out what was wrong
so i went up to her
stood in line
when i submitted my book
she smiled at me
said ‘very good’
but next time
leave a margin
and i think once in class i barked out loud
without really meaning to do it so loud
she heard it i think
and said
appaiah
no barking in class
though i;m not sure if it was the first standard
i think it was
random impulse