It was raining off and on the whole of yesterday reminding me of one rainy day when I was studying at St. Paul’s HS in Rangoon. I was then in the 9 th standard (Matriculation Class of 1957–58). Our physics teacher was a European (not a brother) who often told us that he was ‘ a contradiction being a German Jew’. He also said he was a ‘free thinker’. I still remember that he almost always wore short pants not long pants saying they were ‘more airy’. Whenever he said ‘ more airy’ he gave us a wink then cast his eyes downward and we boys used to laugh. He was a very good natured person and was very friendly with his students.
My desk was near the door close to the switch for all the lights in the classroom and my duty was to switch on the lights when it gets dark on rainy days.
One dark rainy day l forgot to switch on the lights. It was a physics period. The physics teacher shouted at me in his booming voice: “ Let there be light!” I on my part quickly switched on the lights and at the same time shouting: “ And so there was light!”
It so happened that the Brother- Director (School Principal) was walking along the corridor past our class door at that very moment. Suddenly he stopped walking and came into our class and scolded me for “ quoting words from the Holy Bible for trivial purposes”. He also gave a hard look at the physics teacher.
The next day the physics teacher told us that he was also privately reprimanded.
