?I would first like to emphasize that the relationships I had with most if not all of the teachers who came across my educational path were sad ones. In fact, I developed a rebellious approach and maybe a big part of my personality during my time as a pupil due to several misfortunes I experienced. One of the major ones was when I was in standard 2 at Beau-Bassin Govt School, now called Vel Govinden Govt School. I was unfairly punished for something I had never done. The teacher, whose name was Miss Morin, took a real pleasure in reporting me to the head teacher when I had not done anything wrong. The latter made me kneel down on ?grains de filao? and hit me with a ?rotin bazar? almost the whole day. But at around 2 pm she came to know that I was innocent and she tried to sort of apologize to me. I told her that for me to forgive her, she would have to stop using her harsh and inhuman methods to punish students and get rid of her ?rotin bazar?. That was a trigger in my life as it was ever since that time that I started negotiating with people.

In terms of good teachers, the one who first comes to my mind is Miss Manicara. This was when I was in standard 4. She was sublimely beautiful. I was her admirer, and in fact, I was simply in love with her. When I had to move on and do my standard 5, I was extremely sad as she would not be my teacher anymore. Then in standard 3, I had a teacher by the name of Mr Lebon who taught me and made me love manual work. What was equally important was the fact that thanks to him, I understood that whatever our professional position in society, it is important to know how to use our hands. Actually, he showed me how to work with wood, how to plant and many other things.

In standard 6 I had a teacher named Mr Typhis. I had mixed feelings towards him, because I hated him and on the other hand I liked him a lot. I hated him because he used to give paid tuition to children during class hours (so during school time) but only to those who could afford it - I could not afford due to the fact that I was quite poor financially. Hence, he would make me turn my back and face the back of the classroom and would forbid me to say a single word to anyone. But I also adored Mr Typhis as he would tell us a part of the history of the world every day. Just to give example, I still remember how he told the story of the Americans dropping bombs on Japan in 1945. Therefore, he helped me to figure out that Americans had committed a war crime. Ever since that day I promised myself to never visit to the United States. Moreover Mr Typhis taught me how to distinguish between a humanitarian action and a war crime. In the mean time he helped me to have a political view on such topics. He made me realise that no war was justifiable.

Thereafter, when I went to do my secondary education, I was not interested in learning any more after all those misfortunes I had in my primary school. I could neither trust the institution I was going to, nor the teachers. Nevertheless, there were two teachers, I admired: Luc Fanchette and his father Jules Fanchette. Luc was fluent in Latin and Greek. He had a talent for going into details whenever he was speaking about something. He was very methodical. His father was different in the sense that he was a good philosopher. I learnt a lot from him regarding matters of every day life. Every day I had arrests; sometimes I even had to complete them on Saturday. But Jules would always come to talk to me and to the others who were in the same situation as I was. He would teach us Greek mythology, Roman civilization, the Middle Ages and many other topics. At the end, I realized how much I liked getting arrests as I developed a kind of friendship with him and I marveled at his knowledge.

The last teacher whom I would like to pay tribute to is Jules? brother, Noel Fanchette (also Claude Fanchette?s father). He was often sick, as he was very fragile. He was endowed with an exceptional culture. Until now, I have never met anyone so cultivated??