Crazy Sister Angela and her pet projects!

With much ado for the female empowerment, Sr brought in a sudden change by employing some men (May be she wanted to break the monotony of just seeing skirts and sarees around ??) This was the time when there were no men in the school campus: the only men being 'Perianna - the gardener' and 'Ramu anna - the driver'. Sr explained her action that the girls were becoming too soft with all women around and would need to have some male teachers also to cope along. She also added that she was experimenting to see how male staffs would fit in!!

Dadthi
Her first experiment was with a physics and chemistry lab assistant. He had a weird name. He was called "Dadthi". We girls found it delightfully funny to have the man around and that too with such a silly name. A Tamil word 'Dhathi' (meaning: dull headed) which was so very much similar to this guy's name in pronunciation, elicited much fun. The poor guy was mocked and teased. Girls used to break out into laughing spree from merely calling out his name, much to his irritation.
"Hello Dathi sir .. giggle giggle"
Sometimes even when the girl addressing him would not giggle there would be a sharp squeal from the backbenchers. All this mocking irritated the man to the core that one day he decided to retaliate. In the chemistry lab, he would give the girl who laughed the most the hardest of all salts to test. In the physics lab, even the slightest movement of hand or mouth was promptly reported to the faculty. Especially Mrs Janete, the physics teacher, took to heart and unleashed terror in the classroom.

He must have enjoyed each and every moment of the torture we experienced as a result of his spying. Soon all the giggles vanished and girls started taking him seriously. No one wanted to end up with a hard to find salt during the exams! But the laughing and teasing went on behind his back (Ofcourse!)

Pughazh
Another of Sr's experiments was the employment of a computer science faculty. She had appointed a freshie right out of an engineering college. Our school had just started off with std 11 and 12 and it had this new subject - computer science. Having forgotten the name of such a dynamo of a guy(!?), I had to call an old friend to recollect the same. "Pugazhendhi". And Sr rejoiced in shortening his name to Pughazh. She would scream down the corridor this name and he would come running from where ever he was with his hair bouncing like that of a puppy.

Well this guy knew how to impress the young and the old. He did have a good rapport with the female staff, making all their presentations and showing off his computer skills and capturing their computer illeterate minds. His strategy for the young was quiet different though. He was not able to conceal his excitement to teach a group of teenage girls and that showed in the way he dressed. He was always in the best of his clothes, wore rayban and drove a Yamaha - all with utmost style to have the poor doves weep and worship his foot steps. And hmmm.....he wore a musky perfume that emanated along the corridors threatening to make a female heart ache for the unknown. To say the least the senior girls went crazy. There was always a crowd behind him asking doubts and clarifications. Distractions were running high. Certain straight lipped, prissy old teachers who had been observing all this, one day blew the whistle. Someone had spotted this hunk with a group of girls who were his students in an ice cream parlor. When news reached the princi's ears, he was immediately fired. News came later on that firing only gave him more freedom to hang around in the Santham complex with a group of infatuated fans of his!

But Sister never stopped taking risks. She kept on experimenting with the male gender with the hire and fire policy. Some really stubborn cases stuck. Some had a very moronic look on their face, unable to comprehend the all-female atmosphere, that Sr herself unable to stand them, threw them out in a couple of days!

Charles
There was this Charles who joined sometime in the late nineties. Having attended Miss Sacchu's, Mrs. Jasons , Mrs.Jeeva's class, we found his class very unenthusiastic and boring. He simply read out, each and every line from the reader and laughed to himself at all the funny areas in the lesson, as we sat gloomily with a blank expressions on our faces. Soon after class, Sr came over for feedback and oh my, didnt she regret that? She was bombarded with the most negative feedback and with requests to change the subject teacher. A petition was put forward to bring back Mrs Jason to teach english again. Though Sr was reluctant, she granted us our wish much to our delight and to the irritation of Charles. He never did like our batch after that.
I later came to know that Charles improved on his lectures, but I cannot think of him ever replacing the mighty thrones of Miss. Sacchu or Mrs. Jason.

Vincent
Last but not the least, Sister had a favourite PA. My flaky memory refused yet again, to recollect his name.... Another call to the same friend reaped results. Vincent worked in the office and was a real nice guy who helped us all in any way he could. But even his nice character did not protect him from the evil female minds and their wicked mockery. He had a very peculiar way of walking. He seemed to be always in a hurry with his head jutting forward and taking quick strides across the grounds. His very lean figure moved with such quickness that it resembled a man on the run to catch a hen. If one imagined a hen clucking and running ahead of him the whole scene would hit them downright funny. He was thus christened "Koli" sometimes "Koli pudikravan". The name was coined by one of my seniors who had a really good head for making names for every teacher in the block.

Thus in the female fiefdom a few good men and a few odd men crossed by. But I always had this doubt - was it absolutely necessary for men to work in our convent? An all girls convent mainly catered to the needs of a girl to let her be as free as possible. Many a shy girl during the teens would later grow up into a more confident woman dealing with men and work as a result having her own time and space to grow initially. Such girls had to be nurtured and encouraged. I felt Sr was actually ignoring this very fact. By forcefully recruiting male faculty members she wanted to bring a change among girls. She explained that it was good for their future. But she failed to notice the tension and uneasiness among the girls around these men. The natural affinity in the relationship between a female teacher and a girl student could never be developed with these men. This topic may raise a lot of criticism and debate but I stand by my thoughts - A girl school need not have male teachers.

Well later we came to know Sr also had plans to make the school a co-ed. That really frightened the living day lights out of us. What was she thinking? (or was she thinking?) But am really glad that it didnt materialise till now. Hail the angels of HA.