Tanushree Sharma Sandhu talks about a funny experience at school. A fan of Bollywood movies, Tanushree actually believed one song had the answer to her geography lessons!Stupidity too has answers that can at times open ways to knowledge! Sounds silly? Well I had an experience of this sort. The incident took place when I was studying in the ninth grade.  We were attending a Hindi language class and only five minutes were left before the lunch break. My mind struggled to concentrate on an empty stomach. As our teacher put it, “You people are physically here but mentally lost in your own world.”

That was when she asked if we knew how many seasons there were according to the Hindu calendar. We were more interested in hearing the bell ring for lunchtime rather than cracking this one. Merely three students out of 35 had shown any desire to answer it. Unfortunately, I was the one chosen by our teacher.

I was sure of the answer, because I’d heard the names of the seasons in a bollywood song. The song, from a film called Sindoor, was released in 1987. I started crooning the answer, just like in the movie. It went something like this, „Patjhad, Sawaan Basant, Bahar (meaning autumn, monsoon and spring). “ I was delighted to see all heads turning towards me. “Oh! That means I answered it correctly,” I guessed.

This song explained the commonly known four seasons and concluded with fifth season as that of ‘Love’….the class split into laughter and my teacher tried to hide her laughter. “You can’t think beyond Bollywood. Start referring to your text books also. Your parents are spending so much money on your education, at least regard that. What do you think are we here for, a picnic? God only knows what your future holds!”

The bell rang for the lunch break; the class was over but not my teacher’s anger. Then, unanimously, we said, “But please at least tell us the correct answer please… we get to hear other things from everyone.”

Not so happily she replied, “The correct answer is six. A solar year is divided into six seasons of two months each: Vasanta in March-April (spring), Grishma in May-June (summer), Varsha in July-August (the rains), Sharad in September-October (autumn), Hemanta in November-December (winter) and Shishira in January-February (the cool season).”

That was quite a revelation for all of us.

Tanushree Sharma Sandhu