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The Next Day.
Pratapnagar Girls' High School.
Classroom of Class XI, Pure Science, Section 'A'.
Second Period. Chemistry Class.
There was a strange kind of excitement among the students today.
As soon as the bell rang, the classroom fell suddenly silent.
No one shuffled on the benches, no one spoke.
Everyone knew—this was the time Anurag Sir would enter.
The fan was spinning slowly in the heat, but no one could hear it—
because today again, it was "Anurag Sir's class."
As the clock struck 11:50, the girls straightened up a little more.
Some opened their notebooks, some fixed their hair.
Megha, sitting on the first bench, quickly glanced in a pocket mirror and sat upright again.
A few whispered—
— "School had started to feel boring.
But not anymore. After all, such a handsome teacher takes our class—
that's not a small thing!"
When the door opened and Sir walked in,
the class seemed to hold its breath and just watched.
White shirt, slate-colored trousers, no bag on his shoulder,
just a pen and duster in hand.
As always, he looked extraordinary in his simplicity.
As soon as Sir entered, his eyes went to Sneha.
Once again, the girl sat on the last bench, withdrawn into herself.
After roll call, Anurag Sir said,
"So, in the last class we covered subatomic particles.
Today, we'll talk about the Bohr Model."
A slight seriousness marked his face.
Diya, sitting near the wall, slowly uncapped her pen,
but her mind was far from writing.
Sir began drawing on the board—
orbits of electrons, the nucleus, energy levels…
And the girls sat quietly,
as if discovering themselves in those diagrams.
Sneha too watched him attentively.
When Sir turned to the board, she observed him deeply.
And when he turned back toward the class,
she quickly tried to hide herself.
Sir wrote on the board:
"Bohr Model of the Atom"
Then, in a calm voice, he began:
"Have you ever wondered why electrons orbit the nucleus,
and why they suddenly jump from one energy level to another?"
Tanvi whispered to her friend Anwesha,
"Sir himself is like a nucleus.
And we're all electrons orbiting him."
Sir continued gently,
"Bohr said that electrons orbit within fixed energy levels.
We call them K, L, M, N…
And each level holds a different amount of energy.
If an electron gains extra energy, it moves to an 'excited state'."
At that very moment,
none of the girls in class could stop themselves from reaching their own kind of "excited state."
Baishali sat with her head lowered,
but her eyes remained on Sir.
Megha bit her lip and kept drawing circles in her notebook—
not Bohr models, but as if her thoughts were spinning like electrons.
Sir drew a neat diagram on the board and said,
"See here, the K level can hold a maximum of two electrons.
Then L can hold 8, M can hold 18."
He pointed out each part with care.
"But electrons don't always want to move outward.
Some quietly return to the center.
This is called de-excitation.
That's when they emit light."
Aishika's heart skipped a beat.
It was as if Sir was talking about her.
She came to his class every day, searching for light,
then quietly returned to her place, telling no one.
Sir suddenly said,
"Even in life, we experience excitation—we get excited, crave something new...
and then, we return to our center again."
The students weren't sure—
Was Sir just talking about electrons?
Or was there some other, deeper excitement in the air?
Some even felt a strange physical thrill.
Ria smirked and said playfully,
"Sir, you're teaching us very well.
But I'd really like to know—what does Sir want when he's excited?"
From beside her, Baishali burst into laughter and whispered,
"I also wonder—what calms Sir when he's excited?"
Sir was busy teaching and didn't hear their fantasies about him.
Sir kept teaching,
"Electrons prefer silence.
They find peace orbiting quietly around their center."
The class murmured,
"Just like Sir."
Sir added,
"But... if someone touches them,
just a little bit of energy…
they jump to a higher level."
As he said this, his eyes drifted toward Sneha sitting at the back.
"How far do they go if touched?"
Diya whispered mischievously.
Rimi gave her a light slap on the head and said,
"Have you gone mad? What's going on inside that brain of yours?"
Diya grinned slyly and said,
"Come on, I'm just focusing on the lesson. Let me concentrate!"
"When that happens, we say the electron is 'excited'.
It's in an excited state.
A restlessness, an unease…
It's no longer itself."
Even as he spoke these lines,
Sir stared at Sneha without blinking.
There was a strange stillness in his eyes,
yet something stormy within.
He didn't look away even once.
Only his lips moved to form words,
but his mind seemed trapped elsewhere.
Inside, he too was like that restless electron.
Until Sneha listened to him with full attention,
he wouldn't take his eyes off her.
Sneha looked nervous, glanced around,
tried to hide her face behind her book.
A familiar discomfort, an unknown trembling played across her features.
But at last,
she looked directly at Sir.
And that seemed to be exactly what he wanted.
When Sneha finally met his gaze,
he looked at her for a moment,
then turned away.
His face turned back toward the board.
Sneha had been scared—
She thought Sir might never look away.
What would the other students say then!
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Sir drew a round circle on the board and said,
"Look here, this is the nucleus at the center of an atom. And around it are orbits where the electrons revolve. Each orbit is a separate 'energy level'. They stay perfectly arranged—each in its own place."
He paused with the chalk, and in a deeper tone continued,
"But if energy comes in from outside—say light, heat, or any kind of radiation—then the electron suddenly jumps from its original level to a higher one. This is called 'excitation'. It's an excited state."
He drew a continuous spiral from the lower level upward on the board.
"In this state, the electron is unstable. It's not its natural state. It remains in that higher level until it loses the extra energy. Eventually, it returns to its original position. And in doing so, it releases that energy—as light or radiation."
---
Aishika, the class topper, who loves making notes, wasn't writing anything today. She just sat still, listening to Sir's words—and gazing at his graceful face.
She kept wondering—why does it feel so peaceful when I look into Sir's eyes?
"He's talking about 'center', 'core', 'return'—but does he know that I wish to revolve around him every day, just like an electron?"
For Aishika, no topic had ever seemed more important than her studies.
But today, for some unknown reason, she was beginning to feel that Sir was the most important topic of her life.
Sir finally wrote the last line on the board—
"Atoms are stable when electrons are in ground state."
Then, slowly and gently, he said,
"Stability comes when everything is in its rightful place. Just like us… if we can find where we belong, we can emit light—the light of knowledge."
---
When the class ended, no one seemed eager to leave.
Sir placed the duster down and walked slowly toward the door. But just before opening it, he turned around and said,
"Chemistry is not just about formulas. It's a science of feelings—if you study with your heart, everything will begin to feel like life itself."
With that, he walked out.
Behind him, the girls began to chatter,
"Without Sir, life would probably be like a neutron—without charge."
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To be continued…
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