Candid Confession

Remembering names is a task for professors.

- Ritu Kamra Kumar

The Parents - Teacher Meet is usually not held in colleges, but many a time, some parents turn up to enquire about their children's progress in academics. With more than three decades of teaching behind me, I listen to their queries and try hard to remember the demeanour of that student. To their query as to how she or he is performing in my subject, I almost fumble for the right words because after much effort, I fail to know whose parent he or she is as the students are hesitant to accompany their parents, and I can't remember all students' names. I appreciate Oscar Wilde's observation, "Memory ... is the diary that we all carry about with us." But my memory becomes a net of holes, and my mind fails to piece together who the student in question is, despite the parents telling me his or her section and class.