On the whole, in our classroom laughter is a very calculated thing- a response to an academic joke, a note of sarcasm, genuine surprise on why the Palaeolithic deer looks like a fish! And usually the laughter flies over my head, due to my ignorance of the language. To be fair there is a bit of uncalculated laughter too that flies over my head.
One Saturday afternoon, during one of the ten minutes breaks in the daylong lecture, the class gathered around the little pond outside the museum. Sleet of ice had covered the pond. The last few autumn leaves lay still just beneath the surface. I don’t remember who started it.
One by one each of us broke the ice sheet and started breaking it on the glassy surface of the pond, the broken pieces of crystal spreading all over the surface. I did not know if you tap on an ice sheet, the water beneath resonates in such high notes. Neither did I know that some of those faces were capable of such laughter that was carried back to the classroom.
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