💬 My teacher said my handwriting was the best in class

In class 7 in Hyderabad, my English teacher held up my notebook during a surprise check. She said, look at this, this is how a page should look. That was it. 5 seconds. I was a very average student. Back bench, 52 marks in maths, a lot of daydreaming. Nobody had held anything of mine up before, so I sat there with my ears burning. That night I took out a fresh notebook and practised the letter g about 40 times, maybe more. I wanted the loop to look exactly like the one she'd shown the whole class that day. My father found me at midnight with a table lamp and a bottle of blue ink. He asked if I had homework. I said no. He said then go to sleep, and left. It's 25 years later and I still write the same way. Same slant, same g. Last month the lady at the DMV in Houston looked at my form and said, wow, nice writing. I nearly told her the whole story. I just said thank you and took my token from the machine. I tried a fast messy scribble once to save time at work. It lasted 2 days, then I gave up. I can't even remember her name. Mrs. something, green cotton sari, very loud voice. She probably said the same thing to 3 other kids that week. My handwriting goes bad when I'm tired, and a colleague once said it looks like a doctor's. I still take my time over a birthday card though, because of her.

Five seconds in front of the class, and you still remember it. A teacher in class 6 once read out my essay about a bus journey and I walked home about two inches taller. I never became a writer, but I still keep a notebook. Do you still write by hand, or did the g loop practice fade out once keyboards took over?

A man at my first job told me I had a calm voice on the phone. I was 22. I did customer calls, so I took it as a work thing. Then my sister said the same. Now I catch myself using it when I'm panicking, which fools nobody at home. I can't remember his name, only that he was eating a samosa when he said it.