nick names

teachers' day is here again. one thing that immediately comes to mind when i think of my teachers over the years are the nick names we had for each of them. nick names for teachers are pretty much universal, but very little is known about where this nick-naming tradition really started. here are some of my teachers and their nick names. enjoy:
our headmaster, Mr. Kukreti used to be called 'bull'
Mr. Sharma, our bio teacher used to be called 'penda'
Mr. Shukla, our english teacher was called 'chol'
Mr. Bhatt, the eco teacher used to be called 'baku'
Mr. Ghosh, our geography teacher used to be 'ghochu'
Mr. Khan used to be called 'khannu'
Mr. Khanna, our history and physical instructor was 'shera' (he always knew of his nick name and was extremely proud of it)
Mr. Pant. our hindi teacher used to be called 'panji'...
...and so on.

while on nick names, there are many names friends and colleagues have given me from time to time.
someone called me 'all india permit' because i have lived in different parts of the country.
there are some who have called me 'smiley' as i keep smiling all the time.
there are some based on my name: 'raj, raju, sinha'

they are all fascinating and make for interesting memorabilia.