MLA: Member of__

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The school was quiet except the regular high pitch accent from an English teacher, who had been in charge of the vacation class. The April sun blazed above the tile roofed building and the day was hot.

The time was close to midday and the traffic was milder too. Any kid of voice that interrupted the class was minimal, which was a very impressive factor for the teacher, who was actually fed up from the otherwise roar of the traffic and the chattering of the 1500 students of the school.

He preferred the vacation classes to regular ones. 

The teacher’s preference for the vacation class had one more reason, other than the noise factor—time. During the vacation class, he could experiment with his teaching, provide better opportunities for the students to express themselves, and there was more time to do activities in the classroom rather than the regular school days.

The class was under his total control. There was less interference by the Head Master or anyone else, much like the noise factor.

The teacher was also happy due to the fact that he could spend more time talking with the students, the little boys and girls in the seventh standard. They are a bunch of nice little brainiacs, he thought. With all the pressure from the Head Master to finish the course and the syllabus, student-teacher interaction was the last thing teachers were concerned about. This is the chance, he thought.

Next he was supposed to teach English words and their uses. In order to familiarize the students with words, the teacher thought of an interesting game. He gave clues about what a particular word meant and asked the students to locate the correct word.

“Please volunteer!” He said. “Can you give me a word that means ‘characterized by, based on or done by fraud’?”

He looked around. No one moved. Not even a single head turned either left or right. Dead silence.

The teacher knew what to do next. He kept his face pleasant and smiled at the students. “Please volunteer!” He said again, milder this time. The scene lightened.

“OK. I will repeat the question once again. It’s Ok if you make a mistake. I am not going to punish you for anything. Come on guys.” The he paused for a moment, giving enough time to find some order in the newly sprouted spike of activity, once the teacher turned down the knob of seriousness of his face to minimum. “Find the word that is characterized by, based on, or done by fraud?” He repeated.

The English teacher paused again. When he did not see anyone standing up with an answer or any hand being raised, the teacher repeated the question, yet again. “Give me a word that is characterized by, based on, or done by fraud?”

Then a student stood up and said with a confidence; “Sir…Sir…MLA!”

 

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This story is fictional. There is no relationship with anyone living or dead or any organization, governmental or private. Any resemblance is strictly coincidental.