Interview with Ms. Banga: the Sphinx, Zuko, and Iced Black Coffee

One sunny noon, I wandered into Ms. Banga’s classroom with nothing but curiosity, good vibes, and incredibly vital questions. We covered pressing topics, including a sneak peek into the wisdom she would choose to share with the world, mythical creatures that best capture her essence, and, of course, her favorite book. And with thoughtful responses, Ms. Banga didn’t disappoint.

Nishka: Hi Ms. Banga! First question: if you were to give a TED Talk, what would the topic be?

Ms. Banga: Oohh, I mean, I think the thing that I know how to do is teaching, so it would certainly be a TED Talk about teaching and encouraging participation in the classroom.

Nishka: Is there anything that annoys you about teaching that you’d talk about in your TED Talk?

Ms. Banga: Well, there’s not much that annoys me about teaching; I really like what I do, but I think that if I’m looking for a flaw in a system or an issue that I see kids often come into my classes with is that they’re just not used to talking a lot. Or at least certain students are used to talking a lot, and certain students are used to kind of slipping through the cracks and keeping quiet. So I think that I would really want to talk about how to create an environment that gets some engagement from everybody and not just from some particular students.

Nishka: I like that! Ok, next question. If you were a mythical creature, what do you think you would be? Not what you would want to be [Ms. Banga: OH!], but what do you think you would be? Then we can get to what you would want to be.

Ms. Banga: A mythical creature? Wow, ok. Now I have to think of all the ones I know. Scylla we just talked about, so she’s on my mind, but I hope I’m not a horrific sea monster that eats men. I mean the Sphinx speaks in riddles, so sometimes it feels like when you’re teaching you’re speaking in riddles that you’re forcing children to solve! So maybe that’s what I am!

Nishka: And what would you want to be?

Ms. Banga: Can you help me think of more mythical creatures?

Nishka: The first ones that come to my mind are like fairies, goblins, etc.

Ms. Banga: Oh I made it too complicated, I see… I would want to be a wood fairy in nature. I love going outside; I love hiking, and exploring trails, and being by the ocean.

Nishka: I think you dress like a fairy too, so you have a pretty easy Halloween costume idea right there…

Ms. Banga: I kind of want to be Zuko this year! Maybe I’ll go buy myself a Zuko costume. [Nishka: From Avatar?] Yeah, when the homeroom slides are over I always play Avatar the Last Airbender, and Zuko’s my favorite character.

Nishka: (Confused about the costume logistics) Isn’t he half bald?

Ms. Banga: He has a shaved head and then a ponytail, so I’m just going to do the ponytail without shaving the rest of my head if I go for it. But I might be too lazy to paint a scar on my face, we’ll see.

Nishka: Ok, this next question is a guest question: what is your favorite Studio Ghibli song?

Ms. Banga: Uh, I can’t name particular songs, but the composer who has done a few of them and I know did The Boy and the Heron, his name is Joe Hisaishi. He has some really good ones in The Boy and the Heron, I really like the soundtrack.

Nishka: What’s your favorite book? I know you asked all of us for our favorite books, so it’s your turn!

Ms. Banga: I, like any English teacher, struggle to pick a favorite book, so can I just tell you a recent one that I read? I just finished reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, and it’s a pretty recent release I think… like in the past two or three years? You might want to fact-check me on that one (Ms. Banga was correct: It’s a 2023 novel). It’s really excellent; it’s this multigenerational epic, and it takes place mostly in South India, but there’s a little section that takes place in Europe as well before that European character also moves to South India. It’s just a really beautiful cast of characters. Abraham Verghese is really amazing at making these characters who are really lovable but also deeply, deeply flawed human beings, and they change so much over time. So there’s this like, really meaningful character development as they age, and I enjoyed it so much; it was beautifully written, and it made me cry multiple times.

Nishka: What genre is it?

Ms. Banga: Uh, I would say literary fiction.

Nishka: Ok, cool! Last question: What’s your favorite drink? Do you like coffee, tea, water…

Ms. Banga: (quick to answer) Black coffee. Iced black coffee. That’s what I’m drinking right now.

Nishka: Oh yeah! Your classroom used to always smell like coffee (two years ago).

Ms. Banga: Yeahh, I’m trying to cut down on the coffee, I used to always walk in with my mug of coffee so it always smelled like coffee in there, and I’m trying to cut down from two cups a day to one cup. So these days I very, veryyy slowly go through my thermos of coffee from the morning.

Nishka: Ok, well that’s it! Thank you!