“The value of gravitational acceleration decreases as the distance from the centre of the earth increases and see if this is the distance….”

It was sixth period, right after the recess and Ms Momina was delivering the physics lecture in class nine using the whiteboard for explanation when the deputy-head stepped in the classroom, apologising for interruption. She looked somewhat furious.

“Well, identify the girls from these,” she addressed the two girls who accompanied her. They looked as if they were sixth or seventh graders.

The girls started looking carefully around and within seconds, one of them almost screamed, “Ma’am, this is the girl and there was one more along with her, you may ask her about her companion.”

They had been searching from class to class and now finally the search was over. The whole class remained stunned and close-lipped during this search operation but when the culprit was in the custody of the deputy-head, they became extremely curious about the brand new mischief their classmate had committed.

When Ms Momina enquired the details, she came to know that during recess, Nisha had poured a full bottle of soft drink on the heads of the girls who happened to pass from the ground floor, while Nisha was leaning from the first floor.

This detail made Ms Momina very sad, although Nisha didn’t admit to her fault and kept on saying that she didn’t do it intentionally and the bottle slipped from her hands. But anybody around could easily notice her naughty eyes still twinkling at the thought of the pleasure she had gotten from her mischief.

Nisha was taken to the principal’s office. The lecture was once again started from the point it was interrupted, but the students were unable to give their wholehearted attention to it and their divided attention made Ms Momina more uneasy.

From day one, Ms Momina had been facing much difficulty in dealing with Nisha. She believed “love conquers all” and she had been successful in dealing with lots of trouble-making students using her rule so far. Sometimes it left her colleagues surprised and at other times they felt jealous, especially those who believed that students can only be controlled through a strict and inflexible attitude.

Nisha has always been on the top of the list whenever they discussed negative and careless behaviour among their students in the staffroom or in meetings. Her parents have also been called many times to the school, but they seemed even more helpless than the teachers.

Ms Momina always smiled at Nisha’s tricks and never scolded her. One day, some two months after the soft drink incident, Nisha found the opportunity to talk to Ms Momina, she said, “Miss, why do you smile, why don’t you ever scold or punish me although I am very weak in physics.”

“You are not a loser, you are one of my dearest students who wants love and I am giving you love and attention,” Ms Momina replied sweetly.

Nisha was dumbstruck. From that day Ms Momina started to notice a clear difference in Nisha’s behaviour. It was a pleasant surprise when she topped the monthly physics test and started showing very responsible attitude during lectures and, even more surprisingly, she started raising good questions related to the topic under discussion.

Ms Momina was thankful to the Almighty who responded to her prayer, made her efforts fruitful and strengthened her belief in “love conquers all” more than ever.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 8th, 2016