Mr. Sankaram, a physics teacher, was known for his antics in his classroom to make the dull lessons in physics lively and interesting. Mixing different chemical drugs in the lab to become new substances in chemistry makes students excited. While studying botany or zoology, students can visit a garden or zoo. But physics limits students to listening to the boring lectures which are hard to understand. For example,  why an apple dropping from a tree travels downwards but not upwards. But Mr. Sankaram's classroom antics to cause students to listen to topics such as how sound travels in air or why light travels faster than sound made him stand out from the rest of the teachers. At that time, most students in our school attended the college to please their parents, and some parents were proud of their children for simply attending a college, no-matter whether they benefited or not. They didn't study hard. But a few students were diligent and they wanted to study pre-medical courses to gain admission into the medical school. The schooling of pre-medical courses was very expensive. The college was next to the medical school. The wall separating them was about four feet high. Few tried to jump over the wall to get free pre-medical courses. Doing this was at risk of injuries and the climbing was forbidden. The college where Mr. Sankaram taught was known for unruly and naughty students. The unruly students usually sat at the back of the classroom. When a student from the back of the classroom tried to disrupt the class, Mr. Sankaram would say, "Dare you go ahead to make noise? Can you jump over the four-foot wall to get into the medical school?" The student's face went red and he became silent. In the physics class . I sat in the first row to escape from the troublemakers at the back. One day during the class. Mr. Sankaram unexpectedly asked me, "Can you jump over the four-foot wall?" I shook my head and answered, "No, sir, I couldn't jump over a one-foot wall, let alone a four-foot wall." Mr. Sankaram wasn't satisfied with my reply but waved his hand for me to sit down. He looked at me in the eyes hard and said, "If you can. Believe in yourself!" There were stories about Mr. Sankaram's past history. As a student at same college years ago, he went into much depression for some time when he couldn't get into the medical school. In fact he could have been admitted by the school by his ability of studying. Because his family couldn't afford his pre-medical courses and he didn't dare to climb the wall, he often walked back and forth along the four-foot wall talking to himself  and sometimes cried over his failure. Whether this story was true or false it was passed on from year to year. So Mr. Sankaram had a nickname "four-foot." It was true that he left his dream to his students and he began challenging the students' ability to jump over the four-foot wall to get into the medical school. As a student I failed at my attempt to get admission into the medical school. In fact not all students wanted to be a doctor. And years later I ended up as a chemistry teacher at the same college. I thank Mr. Sankaram for his encouragement to me, and I am determined to follow his example to make my class interesting. Mr. Sankaram passed away years ago. He will always be remembered for his wonderful teaching techniques such as dancing movements and his encouraging words. Which subject was boring in the author's opinion?
Botany Physics Chemistry zoology