Book Box: The teacher I didn’t want to be

The author never wanted to become a teacher. She had been moved by stories of teachers transforming the lives of disadvantaged children, and she remembered educators who made history vivid and awakened a love of Indian economic and political history. Yet teaching seemed neither glamorous nor well paid, so she first became a banker and later marketed bone china tableware.

That changed after her daughters were born and the family moved from being DINKS, or Double Income No Kids, to SINKS, Single Income Numerous Kids. With money tighter, she began teaching her daughters mathematics through songs and practical exercises, including adapting cake recipes to serve more people. Then she wondered why the neighborhood children could not join them, for a fee.

Maths Cats followed, and then Reading Cats. The author spent long hours preparing lessons and ensuring that children enjoyed reading and arithmetic. As the classes expanded, she faced a choice between scaling up and closing them. She chose to stop rather than run a teaching franchise.

Years later, sessions in schools across India showed her how much she had missed the intensity of a live classroom. During Jaipur Literature Festival outreach events at schools in Delhi and Jaipur, she worked with children on stories about defining moments in their lives. She says those sessions renewed her belief in stories as tools for discussion, change and imagination, and in the classroom as a place of freedom, resistance and shared exhilaration.