Monday, March 22, 2010

Pulchritude


Mrs. Sheshadri marches into class. Pulchritude! she screams, Pulchritude!
The students sit straight. Their hands are folded on their laps. 
On the blank grey slates of each of their faces, Ms. Sheshadri has scrawled ‘Pulchritude’ in bold letters. 
Mrs Seshadri’s face sounds like the word pulchritude – terrifying; made by the barriers imposed on it - distorted, twisted, mostly crude. Stone Grey.
Pulchritude means ‘beautiful’! declares Mrs. Sheshadri. 
This was one of the words asked of her ex students at the SAT exams. 
“My students knew the meaning of that word! she eulogizes,
 Now all of them are successful in America!”
Ah America! Success! It can never be otherwise.
The students write America on their faces. They write it themselves. Some of them write SAT after that.
- extract from an essay about a visit to the school where I once studied.

5 comments:

Vineeta said...

:) you were serious when you said plumtree2 would be 'leaner & meaner'. I'm dying to read more 'pulchritude'. I heard this word after sooo long :) you are a gem.

Anonymous said...

Pulchitrude- I haven't heard the word since the gre test l-o-n-g ago. When ever I remember it , I am going to see Mrs. Seshadri's face :)

Archana Srinivas Pottery said...

Very nice!

I love these small extracts:-) Makes you long for more;-)

Arch

Chandan said...

Where can we read the whole essay P? BTW, I bet Mrs S was a mean teacher, was she?

Anonymous said...

Priya, the more I read your posts the more I seem to be falling in love with your posts....you are just so so so good at writing....I have an exam tomorrow and wanted to relax and not break my head over books on the last day....last night i got your link from my SIL and thought it would be relaxing to go through your posts...but i guess its not the case...your posts seem to be putting an ever lasting impression on my mind and is making me glued to your blog...i guess i should come back to your blog only after my exams are over else it will only be your blog ringing in my head through out my exam :-D....great work and great writing....

Sunayana