So what's your hiccup?

Hello everyone! I hope you guys had a great weekend. Well, today I am going to be discussing hiccups with you. Yes, you got that right, hiccups. And no, before any of you start having any wrong ideas, I am not alluding to the hiccups that take place if we accidentally ingest more water than usual, or for that matter, water, air and food etc; rather, I am alluding to the hiccups that are prevalent in our own system, such as for example, in our mental makeup or in some part of our personalities, such as a tendency to get quickly angry, or a tendency to become easily saddened or depressed etc. All of us have some flaws, whether we like to accept them or not.

For those of you guys and girls who think having flaws are bad, think again. Our flaws play an equally important role in making us who we are, that is, they are an integral part of our personalities.

And for a person whose only flaw was that she had a medical syndrome? Well, it turns out that society didn’t accept her, at least, in the beginning. In the beginning, she was laughed at, sneered at, mocked at, and the list does not just end here. She was made fun of, even by the students who she had so cheerfully and willingly come to teach. And it is at this very juncture that I would like to introduce Miss Naina Mathur to all of you. A young, aspiring, bright and a cheerful person who had re-joined her old school as a teacher and who, was given the responsibility of teaching section 9F, a section filled with such a band of children that the entire school considered them to be misfits and a bunch of good-for-nothing people who would be better placed outside the school than inside it (meaning that they wanted all 14 of the 9F students to be expelled or rusticated).

And my God, I can be 100% sure that had anyone other than Naina been there, well, he/she would have given up by now. In fact, the teacher before had gone on ‘permanent leave’, which is a polite way of saying that she had given up on the students and resigned from the school.  I am sure that, having discussed quite a few things about hiccups, all of you must be curious about Naina’s hiccup, right?  Her hiccup, was a rather special one: she had Tourette’s syndrome, a congenital defect because of which she could not speak properly, because a few neurons in her brain weren’t wired correctly, which led to her not being able to speak properly; which means, that when she did speak, her speech was interrupted in between by a series of sounds (or hiccups) which were caused due to the sparks gave out by her improperly connected neurons.

As it turns out, she didn’t have too much of a great first day when the errant students trooped in for their first ever class. The students mimicked her hiccups, made fun of her, behaved incorrigibly, and even rigged her chair to crack as soon as she sat down on it (which it did). She was quite shocked by their behavior, but still, maintained an even composure and left the class. The following days were hell for her, as she was subject to many of their irrepressible pranks, such as a haze of thick smoke from the classroom dustbin during the Chemistry class, exploding chalks and the like. However, there was one prank which they played, a prank which would have got them rusticated from the school, had Naina not defended them.

Now, you might say that any teacher in Naina’s position would have resigned on the spot, right? But no, Miss Mathur surprised us again, by not resigning but instead discovering a new innovative method to impart their lessons to them.

Despite the initial hiccups in her method of teaching (they did not work because the students kept on venting their ire against the other, socially and economically superior students, especially the students of class 9A), she managed to derive a formula for teaching, a formula so very unique that she transformed the very method of teaching, leading to some of the 9A students envying the freedom of the 9F students because of the methods with the help of which they learnt (which were quirky, and spontaneous).

Time went on, and soon enough, a few months before their final exams, they were banned from entering school owing to yet another prank which they had committed. However, they didn’t mind and instead prepared for their final exams at their respective homes. Well, their exams came, and then, as examinations are wont to do, they went.

When it was time for their results, all of them were pleased and happier than they ever had been, for all of them had made it, with one amongst them even becoming a topper. But then events took an unexpected turn, as the Principal suddenly informed Naina that her class was about to get expelled because of something (which they had not done, but were framed in). Her world crashed down that day because she began thinking that she was never going to make it anywhere.

And then, the series of events that took place the next day left her in stupefied shock and wonder, and she was left with happy tears running down her cheeks (and mine too, I must confess).

What this movie did teach us (and no, it was not a clichéd message of the impossible being converted into the possible) is that, though we might have been born with certain ‘defects’, the only true defect lies in us not converting those defects into our strengths.

I would like to recommend all of you to definitely book your Rani Mukherji date with Hichki, as soon as possible and at your nearest theatre, for it is a film which has its fair share of happy as well as emotionally tear-jerking and enriching scenes as well. Do go ahead and watch it, people, for if you want a trip down memory lane to your own school days and also taste a true and unique slice of life, then Hichki is for you.

Have a great time ahead everyone! Ciao until the next time! :D