Priya becomes a trigonometric ratio

“Why don’t you do something useful?” I asked Priya. Priya is a class eleven student of mine. I had been asked to look after their class for a while as their mathematics teacher was called to the office on an urgent task.

Priya looked at me and smiled indolently. Her maths notebook lay open before her even more lethargically. Sin Ө and Cos Ө floated on the page like butterflies looking for roses. All her classmates were busy doing one thing or another.

“Why don’t you solve a problem or two of trigonometry?” I asked.

Priya was not amused. She didn’t seem particularly fond of Sin Ө and Cos Ө.

“Why don’t you write a story?” I knew she liked stories.

“Write a story?” She blinked at me. Writing is not something that her generation likes to do. I learnt that as their English teacher. They will listen to stories. Some of them, at least. But write? Oh no, that’s so boring, dude.

“Hmm,” I said in her generation’s lingo.

“What about?” She demanded.

“Priya was in love with Sin Ө. Start with that.” I said.

She grinned at me before taking her rough book and a pen.

Priya was in love with Sin Ө. But Sin Ө did not reciprocate her romance. ‘You silly girl,’ Sin Ө said. ‘Do you fall in love merely because your witless old English teacher orders you to? Don’t you have brains to know that I’m perpetually committed to Cos Ө?’

Priya had more brains than her English teacher. English is the subject of semi-mental retards, she knew. They say things like I am a petal of flower offering itself at the feet of your love. As if love has feet! Priya knew very well that Sin Ө and Cos Ө squared so perfectly with each other that they merged into the best possible union like Yang and Yin did in the Taoist symbol. Sin² Ө + Cos² Ө = 1. One. Oneness. Perfect union.

‘I should not meddle with that union,’ Priya said to herself. Her romance ended.

Priya gave me her story. It made me laugh though I didn’t quite like her calling me a mental retard. But the story made me love Priya ever more. I am an expert in fooling myself into believing that anything said negatively about me by my students is not meant seriously.

“Priya’s romance is so fickle,” I said. “I wish it didn’t end so easily.” The maths teacher was not back yet and Priya had to be engaged still.

“Okay,” Priya said, “I’ll continue Priya’s romance.” She took the book back from me.

Priya felt sad that her romance was spurned so heartlessly by Sin Ө. So she went off on a tangent and became Tan Ө.

I didn’t laugh. I felt sad, in fact. I couldn’t bear the thought of my beloved student metamorphosing into a trigonometric ratio.

PS. The last time I wrote a short story was in September last. More or less of a man.

My most read short story: Halley’s Fishes