ProfileDays Under the Crescent SunPune1990s

NaziaRubyMiss The Wild West of Crescent

One late return from lunch, five grammar corrections, and the fastest teacher in the West

She taught History, Civics, Social Science, sometimes Economics, once English and possibly Science. Mostly she taught us to be back from lunch on time, and to say “May I”.

By Vinaay Patil4 min read
In every corridor · Crescent High School
Ink-and-watercolour portrait of Nazia Ruby Miss in the 1990s: short dark wavy hair, a round face set in a fierce frown, a white cotton sari with pink borders, striding into the examination hall with a bundle of exam papers under her arm while students freeze at their desks.

For correcting your grammar before you finish the sentence

REWARDBack in class by 1:55

Fact file

Known as
The Wild West of Crescent
Subjects
History, Civics, Social Science, sometimes Economics, once English, possibly Science
Weapon of choice
The grammar correction
Range
The whole corridor
Signature line
“May I come in.”
Draw speed
1 millisecond
Attendance
On and off
Side effect
Lunch eaten in class
A sunlit school corridor at noon, drawn like a western showdown: Nazia Miss in a white-and-pink sari stands in a classroom doorway, one hand at a red pen tucked at her waist, glaring down the corridor at a schoolboy in a white shirt and yellow shorts holding a tiffin box. A ball of crumpled paper rolls between them like tumbleweed, and students peek out from every window.
OverviewHigh noon, Standard VI B. The corridor clears whenever she steps out.

The Quick Draw

the legend

Just imagine a teacher who could pull out her guns and shoot you in a split second, just like in one of those Clint Eastwood cowboy movies. Bang, bang, you are dead.

Nazia Ruby was by far the most dynamic lady teacher in my Crescent history. So fast, and so much in your face, she was intimidating.

Shootout at Lunchwala

the duel

I had a small shootout with her once, when I was somewhat late returning from lunch to her lecture.

Transcript of the shootout

Doorway · 2 pm
  1. Me“Can I come in, Miss?”
  2. Nazia Miss“May I come in.”Shot 1(An annoyed look.)
  3. Me“May I come in?”
  4. Nazia Miss“Why are you so late?”
  5. Me“I gone to meet...”
  6. Nazia Miss“I had gone to meet.”Shot 2
  7. Me“I had gone to meet Archana Ma’am, to submit form.”(A pause of one millisecond.)
  8. Nazia Miss“Which form?”
  9. Me“Scholarship exam form.”
  10. Nazia Miss“Why didn’t you submit the form earlier? Why are you so late?”
  11. Me“I had gone in lunch to meet her...”
  12. Nazia Miss“I had gone during lunch.”Shot 3
  13. Me“I had gone to meet her during lunch, she was not back, so I...”
  14. Nazia Miss“Had not come back.”Shot 4
  15. Me“...so I waited for her to come back, to submit the form.”(Just continuing.)
  16. Nazia Miss“This is why you should talk with your friends in English.”The final shot
Nazia Miss, in a white-and-pink sari, swings round from a blackboard reading ‘Past Tense: I went, He went, She went, They went’ and points a piece of chalk at the doorway like a pistol. Red-ink words, MAY, HAD GONE and DURING, streak through the air towards a startled schoolboy clutching a form, while the whole class turns to watch.
Fig. 1May. Had gone. During. Three shots, and I hadn’t even reached my bench.

The Aftermath

friends, allegedly

I looked around for my friends. None of them was looking at me. All of them were staring at the bench.

So I turned back and said, “Sure.”

A classroom of boys in white shirts bent hard over their books, sweating, not daring to look up; one hides behind a maths textbook, another clutches his head. Only one boy glances sideways. At the blackboard behind them, Nazia Miss stands with a steely look under a sign reading ‘Good students speak good English’.
Fig. 2My friends, giving me their full support. Every one of them, fascinated by the bench.

It worked. No, I did not begin chatting in English with my “friends”. But for the rest of the year, I was the first one back in class after lunch. On days when I thought I might be late, I had my lunch in the class itself.

Avoiding a Shootout at Lunchwala was more important than food.
Lunch policy, rest of the year
An empty, sunlit classroom at lunchtime: a boy sits alone at a front bench eating hurriedly from a steel tiffin, glancing at the wall clock, while through the barred windows his classmates play football in the school ground. On the blackboard: ‘May I come in.’
Fig. 3Lunch, relocated. The football can wait. The doorway cannot.

Subject: Everything

hyper-alert

She taught History, Civics, Social Science, sometimes Economics, and one time also English. I also remember her taking a Science class once.

OK, I really don’t remember exactly what she taught. But I do remember that every time she was in class, my heart used to pound heavily. You never knew from which direction a bullet might come. We were all on hyper-alert.

Then again, I think it was the high pitch of her voice that made everyone attentive.

The Voice in the Corridor

loud, yes, really loud

Nazia Ruby was the Jack Nicholson of our school: rumbling energy, all of it, all the time.

She was loud. Yes, really loud. When she taught in a classroom, the corridors were full of her voice. Speaking to her was the most difficult part: she would just correct you, your grammar, your choice of words.

A cutaway of the school’s upper floor: in VI B, Nazia Miss teaches Direct and Indirect Speech with one arm flung out, and red sound waves from her voice travel through the walls into VI A, VII A and VII B, where other teachers pause mid-lesson. In the corridor below, a peon clutches his ears.
Fig. 4Direct speech, delivered indirectly to four classrooms. The peon got the lesson too.

Yet she brought a much-needed dynamism to the school. She was a presence in the classroom. Students from the first bench to the last were in rapt attention. She could fire a question at you across the room, and her eyes alone were enough to kill you at a wrong answer.

The Sheriff of the Exam Hall

nightmare supervisor

And yes, she was the nightmare supervisor at exams. If you had planned on copying your way through a test, just the sight of her walking in with the bundle of exam papers was enough to put your heart on pause.

Nazia Miss strides down the aisle of the examination hall in a white-and-pink sari, a bundle of exam papers under her arm and sunlight behind her. Students freeze at their desks; one boy gulps, and another hastily tucks a chit into his sock.
Fig. 5The sheriff rides in. One chit goes into a sock; one heart goes on pause.

Now You See Her

on and off

She had an on-and-off relationship with Crescent High School. Sometimes she was in for six months, then she would suddenly disappear, then appear again at the start of the next year. I never understood it.

The one person I genuinely pitied was my friend who lived in the apartment next to hers. In all their wisdom, his parents had decided to send him to her place for extra tuition. It must really have been an experience.

A split scene. Left: an empty teacher’s desk with a ‘Back soon’ sign and calendar pages from 1993–94 peeling off the wall. Right: Nazia Miss walks back into Standard VII B, smiling, books in her arms, as the class gasps; in a bubble above, a boy sits nervously across from her at a dining table, ‘at the neighbour’s for tuition’.
Fig. 6Back soon. And then, suddenly, back. Spare a thought for the boy next door.

The Lasting Impression

all in all

All in all, I can say that there are a few teachers who do not teach you many subjects, or who are there only for a few months, yet they manage to leave an impression much more lasting than anything else.

— Vinaay Patil

Lessons Learnt

Copied from the doorway, 2 pm

Don’t saySay
Can I come inMay I come in
I goneI had gone
in lunchduring lunch
she was not backshe had not come back
late after lunchback by 1:55
Lunch: optional · Grammar: compulsory

Days Under the Crescent Sun

Stories from school days and a 1990s Pune childhood: plans that were too clever, teachers who were never questioned, and the people who made it all bearable.

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