FICTION

The English Filter Teacher, Mrs. Marilyn Monroe

An Anglo-Indian teacher with a missing language skill was the best fit for teaching language

An expat named Marilyn Monroe

Her name was Marilyn Monroe. Born Marilyn Paul, she had fallen for a handsome sportsman called Terry Monroe, and so she was now Marilyn Monroe.

In any other part of the world, it might have incited comment. In the Hindi-speaking town of Tatanagar, nobody had heard of the actress, and so the joke-cracking opportunity went unused.

From the UK, to India

Born to a mother who died at her birth, she had come from the UK to Tatanagar at age 22 on a one-way ticket after her father died. Her mother’s Anglo Indian relatives welcomed one of their own, there were so few of them left.

At church and in the humid stickiness of the parties, she felt at home.

The butt of racist bullying in the UK, she felt herself relax in Tatanagar. Everybody spoke her language, indeed she was looked up to because her diction was so good.

India suited Marilyn

The blend of Indian and English food that was cooked in the church and the homes of her aunts was filling and fulfilling.

Sandra Xavier, a teacher at the convent school where many Anglo-Indians worked as teachers, was her husband’s aunt. Sandra made Marilyn a carrot pie stuffed with the Indian recipe for carrot halwa and tossed in ghee. It had a taste Marilyn had never experienced before.

Sister Teresa scopes out Marilyn

Sister Teresa, the Principal of the convent school, was intrigued by Marilyn but didn’t say so. She could rope in Marilyn as a schoolteacher, with a snap of her calloused fingers, but didn’t want to seem too eager.

The whirlwind romance between Marilyn and Terry which had culminated in marriage, had eclipsed all other details about the Anglo-Indian girl from the UK.

There was a difference between Marilyn and the other Anglo-Indians.

No Vernacular for Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe spoke no Hindi. She could speak English, and French, and had slogged through some Greek, but of Hindi she knew not a single word.

She was uniquely gifted in that, if an Indian child at the school had to communicate with her, the child had no other go but to speak in English.

With all the other teachers slipping into the vernacular (Hindi) to make themselves understood, Sister Teresa had despaired of ever being able to make the children learn any English. Mrs. Marilyn Monroe would change all that, be Sister Teresa’s final test.

If you could make Mrs. Marilyn Monroe understand it, you would pass English. Else, year after year, you would repeat the class. Blood and iron, yes, but this was just vintage Sister Teresa.

The vegetables taste the same when named in English

What about any children Mrs. Marilyn Monroe would eventually have?

Everyone managed to learn Hindi, right down to the curse words! The convent school did have Hindi senior teachers, though none of them was from the Anglo-Indian community. The future Monroe Jr. would learn Hindi like everyone else learnt English. At school.

Didn’t Terry Monroe object? How could he? Sister was every Anglo-Indian’s religious head and often their paymaster. Even Hindus and Muslims were in awe of Sister Teresa, and Terry was Christian.

Not ever speak the local language, or lose your job. So how did Mrs. Marilyn Monroe buy vegetables? She pointed at them. The vegetable sellers were very happy with the way Sister had ironed out the kinks in their children’s English.

They weren’t going to contaminate their children’s English filter teacher by teaching her any Hindi. She was so easy to recognize in her skirt and blouse.

40 Years and Going Strong

Marilyn Monroe has been at work in school for forty years. To this day, she speaks no Hindi, and teaches Written Composition, Literature, Phonics and English Grammar from Students’ Companion and the grammar texts.

The children hated her at first, but when they learnt to speak her language – Mrs. Monroe was a sweetheart, they understood.

When they joined the workforce, their English made them stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Sister Teresa is a stubborn and wise old bird.

I have seen a Christian missionary school in each of the seven Indian cities I’ve lived in. They are common, as is the command of the nuns over the children and their parents.

The Anglo Indian reverse-imported teacher who speaks no Hindi at all? Now that is rare. Which is why it was worth bringing the story to you with a few twists.

The pie is real, it was delicious. We lost Mrs. Sandra Xavier to the Coronavirus on 18 August 2020. She taught my daughters, in 2008 and 2013. She taught them to say “Thank you God for everything” each night. If they didn’t say it “Sandra Miss would know and would get angry the next day”. They still say it.

Unlike Mrs. Marilyn Monroe, Mrs. Sandra Xavier spoke Hindi as well as she did English, even teaching it in the Junior sections. Sister Teresa is seeing a lot of life and death, more so this year.