The first time a student called me ma'am

I teach science at a government school in Kolkata. When I started my transition, I was sure it would be the end of my job. I spent months preparing answers for every cruel question I could imagine from colleagues, parents and, most of all, children.

The principal called me into her office before the new term. I was ready to be asked to leave. Instead she said, "Your name on the attendance register — do you want it changed? The children should know what to call you."

On the first day, I walked into Class 7B with my hands shaking so badly that I dropped the chalk. A small boy in the front row picked it up, handed it back and said, "Here, ma'am."

Two words. He did not think about them at all. He just said them, the way children say true things.

I went to the staff bathroom afterwards and cried for five minutes. Then I went back and taught photosynthesis.

It has not all been easy. There are parents who asked for their children to be moved, and colleagues who still get it wrong on purpose. But every morning, forty children call me ma'am, and not one of them thinks it is remarkable. I am learning not to think so either.