COMMENT I can’t remember her name, but something she did on the first day of class left an everlasting impression. Till today, I cannot fathom what prompted her to impart such a profound lesson on a roomful of boisterous eight-year-old kids.

She drew a black circle in the middle of a large white paper and asked us what we saw. In our eagerness to impress the new teacher, we immediately cried in unison: “Black dot.”

All except for one that is. The bespectacled goody two shoes Julian, who with a smug countenance, chimed: “I see a black circle, it is not a dot”.

As some of us whispered in the corner, hatching a plot to beat up Julian during recess. The teacher then posed the most unexpected question: “How come none of you noticed the white paper?”