Little butterfly takes wing

You will warm up to this tale told by Ganesh Pai, of the incredible chemistry between his daughter and her teacher, which led to the child's metamorphosis

- Ganesh Pai

It was March 2020. The pandemic had spread, and the lockdown had begun. The world was cooped up within the confines of four walls. My wife got a message from the school that lit up our faces despite all the gloom surrounding us: they would not conduct exams that year and promote all kids to the next academic year. My wife and I were more relieved than our nine-year-old daughter, Vaishnavi, the reason being we would not have to go through the ordeal of seeing her get poor marks in mathematics. Vaishnavi had a troubled equation with maths, and it was evident in the way she solved maths problems (especially word problems, which she hated). Nevertheless, the school wanted the kids to attempt the exams at home.

Maths and madness 

On a quiet morning, other than the occasional humming of cuckoos in the nearby trees in the kids' play area, there was pin-drop silence in our apartment complex. The stage was set for an epic face-off between Vaishnavi and her dreaded mathematics paper. My wife, Reshma, set the timer and handed over the question paper to Vaishnavi, after which she asked me to watch over our daughter and then rushed to the kitchen. So, it was Vaishnavi, mathematics, me, and an unusual silence in our bedroom that day.