Moonlighting in the bygone days

I won’t forget in a hurry the two teachers of my alma mater where I had my primary and upper primary education — CK Master and OC Master — and their squabbles. CK was our class teacher and OC our newly appointed headmaster.

OC used to regale students with funny anecdotes during his classes. However, he was also a strict disciplinarian; it made his colleagues ill at ease with him and he got a bad name among them.

CK indulged in a vice — inhaling snuff. It looked like this was second nature to him. During classes, he often went behind the blackboard, which stood on a tall tripod, and inhaled snuff noisily and forcibly, as is the way of all snuffers. One day, while walking in the verandah bordering the classrooms, OC noticed this. When he was back in his room, he sent for CK. Wondering what made the headmaster summon him amid a class, CK hastened to meet him. OC warned him against inhaling snuff in the classroom. It would set a bad example for the students, he said. Though the warning was a downer for CK, he kept his head. But he was none the wiser. Though he reduced its frequency in the class, he could not altogether do away with snuffing.

This led to a tug-of-war between the two teachers. ‘I would teach him a lesson,’ OC swore under his breath.

CK did moonlighting. He doubled up as postmaster in a post office, hardly five minutes from the school, for an hour during school hours. Every day, around 11 in the morning, the post office received mail — letters and money orders brought by the mail van.

As was his custom, at 11 am, CK would go to the headmaster’s room. Standing in the doorway, he would show him the keys and gesture that he was leaving for the post office. That was his way of telling OC’s predecessor about his departure. The latter would wave his hand in reply. Looking at OC, he repeated this action. Being too busy, OC did not bother to ask him where he was going. On the third day, when CK showed him the keys, the headmaster asked him to wait. He got up from his seat and walked towards his defiant colleague menacingly: ‘Well, where are you going?’ When CK told him about his post office work, OC asked him if he had permission from higher-ups. CK replied that he was doing the work as a matter of convention and OC’s predecessor had not pressed for any permission.

‘I am not your predecessor. Lest the post office work should suffer, I would let you go on the condition that you will get the nod soon,’ OC said emphatically.

Whether time erased the bad blood between the two is an open question. And whether CK managed to get the permission is anybody’s guess.