Kasturba was a rather shy girl in Delhi whom I tutored for two months. She didn’t want a tutor, but she had fallen so far behind in her academic work at school that her parents thought that the only solution was for her to have private tuition at home for two months in the summer holidays. Reluctantly Kasturba agreed. 

When I arrived in Delhi it was to find a positively hostile Kasturba who didn’t want to be tutored. As far as she was concerned she was doing perfectly adequately at school but her parents wanted her to do better in order to have a successful career. 

As soon as I started tutoring her I felt that she was of above average intelligence; in fact she was highly intelligent. I could not put my finger on what had been the cause of her not doing well at school. After about three weeks I discovered that however well she did at school her parents were never satisfied; they always thought that she could try harder. 

By pointing out that her work was above average, I managed to persuade Kasturba that she was really quite bright; in fact she was actually one of the more intelligent girls that I had tutored. The problem was that she was never good enough in her parents’ eyes. However well she did they were never satisfied and this had caused Kasturba constant stress. She was so stressed that it had affected her work. I got her to see the innocence in her parents' efforts to ensure that she succeeded.

Once Kasturba gained confidence in herself and her academic ability she began to thrive and her academic competence improved greatly. She came to ignore her parents’ constant pressure to do better; she knew that she was doing well and did not need her parents’ opinions. 

I kept in touch with Kasturba. From the beginning of the term after she had been tutored her school work improved radically; she knew that she was doing well academically, no matter what her parents thought. HN