He was in the third standard. All thirty four of Mrs. Passi's students were dear to her but Vinod Chowdhry was one in a thousand. Very neat in appearance, he had that happy-to-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful. Vinod also talked incessantly. Mrs. Passi had to remind him again and again the talking without permission was not acceptable. What impresses her very much though, was his sincere response every time she had to correct him for misbehaving. "Thank you for correcting me, Ma'am" would be his standard answer. One morning, Mrs. Passi's patience was growing thin when Vinod talked once too often, and then she made a novice teacher's mistake. She looked at Vinod and said, "If you say one more word, I am going to tape your mouth shut". It wasn't ten seconds later when Abhay blurted out, "Vinod is talking again". she hadn't asked any of her students to help watch Vinod but since she had stated the punishment in front of the class, she had to act on it. Mrs. Passi walked to her desk, very deliberately opened the drawer and took out a roll of adhesive tape. Without saying a word, she proceeded to Vinod's desk, tore off two pieces of tape and made a big X with them over his mouth. She then returned to the front of the room. As she glanced at Vinod to see how he was doing, he winked at her. That did it! She started laughing. The entire class cheered as she walked back to Vinod's desk, remove the tape, and shrug her shoulders. His first words were, "Thank you for correcting me, Ma'am." At the end of the year, Mrs. Passi was asked to teach advanced maths and Vinod's class moved higher. Six years flew by and before she knew it, Vinod was in her class room again. He was more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen carefully to her instruction in the 'new maths', he did not talk as much in the ninth standard as he had in the third. One Friday, things just didn't feel right. The class had worked hard on a new concept all week.