Let me tell you about Miss Hilda Nelson who was the headmistress of the Mary Schaefe School for Girls, where I studied in England. Miss Nelson was always wearing a suit – matching jacket and skirt – accessorized by a string of pearls or sometimes a double strand. There was a brooch in his left forearm. The short, silver hair, a thin watch on his wrist, and gold-rimmed glasses on the sharpest nose I had ever seen gave him a stern look. The entire formal look was completed with shiny black stilettos. Miss Nelson is rarely seen without her lovely little dog Topaz.
The words “Miss Nelson wants to see you” will chill us with fear. Well, one day when I was in Form 1, I heard these words. what did i do? I wondered. I was such a calm, nice girl, I did well in my studies and never broke the rules. What could I possibly have done to be called by Miss Nelson?
I don’t know how I traveled from my class to his room, but I found myself standing in front of him. She smiled and said in her clear, hoarse voice, “I want you to read the passage for next Monday’s meeting.”
I was a girl with little confidence, a voice just above a whisper. The thought of studying in front of so many girls and teachers scared me. Tears flowed out.
Miss Nelson ignored the tears and asked me to read the passage aloud to her. I took it out myself. To this day, I do not know why he chose me, the only Indian girl in the school to attend the Monday morning assembly. There were many more people who would have loved to do it and who would have done it well.
Every lunch hour that week, she took me to the assembly hall and made me practice.
“Open your mouth, take a breath, stop, read slowly, no, that didn’t feel right, repeat it a little louder. Stand up straight, shoulders back, chin up. Don’t look down, look at the audience.”
Well Monday morning arrived, and the butterflies in my stomach were fluttering like they wanted to get out. We girls sat on the floor for the assembly. I sat between two friends who encouraged me by holding my hand. After the first song, we were asked to sit down to read and I slowly went to the lecture. Miss Nelson looked at me and nodded. I read as we practiced. My voice came out loud and clear. As I went back to my place, everyone was shocked and whispered, “Well done”.
At the end of the meeting as Miss Nelson passed me, she looked at me and gave a slight nod and a smile.
After that I did many readings in school and college. Now as a writer, I get called to speak to all kinds of groups. At every event, just before she spoke, Miss Nelson’s words still reverberate in my ear. If he hadn’t invited me to read that first piece, and prepared me as he did, would I have been a shy quiet woman?
After many years when we were in London, one day I took my husband Kumar to meet him. She was happy to see us and we had a very English tea with fruit cake that she made.
After we left, Kumar said to me, “You know, you look just like her!”