Dedicated to my Teachers…

hmm….let me start this post with a wonderful Sanskrit quotation…

“Asatoma satgamaya!
Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya!
Mrityorma Amrutangamaya!”

Meaning :
Let us be led from the unreal to the Real
From darkness to the Light
From mortality to Eternity



Especially the second line of the quote clearly elucidates the duty of a teacher. Yes It is none other than teachers who help us travel from the world of ignorance(darkness) to the world of intelligence(Light).

Some how teaching had been my hidden ambition through out my career starting from my child-hood and it is because I love the teacher-student relationship. Yes, it is one of the most wonderful relationships in the world. I hope those who have watched the movies “Taare Zameen Par” or “Black” will be able to appreciate the relationship between “Ram Shankar Nikumbh” & “Ishaan Awasthi” or “Debraj Sahai” & “Michelle McNally”.

I would go a bit deep into this and say, the sacrifice that a teacher does is more than what our parents do. This is because, parents are related to us by blood but teachers aren’t. I have been gifted to have wonderful and great teachers through out my career and I promise I can never repay the debt I owe them. To perceive the level of their sacrifice, let me take you to my school days.

My Maths teacher(aged 75) had remained a bachelor throughout his life, with dedication to teach. The principal and the vice-principal of the school in which I did my Kinder Garden, remain as spinsters with the same objective. I was not matured enough then to understand realize their great sacrifice. But now I cherish how much gifted I am, to have them as my teachers. Nobody will debate, if I say when a person gets married, most of his/her valuable time is consumed for personal life.

But on the other side I have seen some crummy teachers. To get a feel of their stupidity let me quote some instances of my college days. My Control System lecturer was once teaching “scalars and vectors” and quoted “temperature vector” as an example of vector. We were perplexed if there can be a temperature reading “30 degrees Fahrenheit North”.

Another instance in which my electronics lecturer was deriving some expression for the gain of CC amplifier, she hurried to strike some parameters in the LHS of the equation even before writing the RHS. We stopped her right there and asked her why she striked some parameters in LHS? Only when she finished writing the RHS, we understood that there are some parameters that cancel out on either side.

In my kinder garden and in my early school years, I had hated promotions to successive standards, because I miss all my teachers. I have to adapt to new teachers when I get promoted. And in my opinion, in KG and say till fifth standard, the students always have an emotional attachment with the teachers and teachers play a kind of mother role.

Generally teachers don’t get promoted along with students. I mean 10th standard teacher doesn’t start handling 11th when the student moves to 11th.

And when I meet my high school teachers and college lecturers, they have not changed even a bit in their level of commitment, enthusiasm and dedication. But the distressing part is that little has changed in their career, their pay, and their life style. They remain as static ladders upon which we(students) climb. But in reality, they feel happy about leading a life like this (pure service motive). Had they thought about improving their career and earning more, they could have earned more than what we are earning. Now I understand that it is probably their passion which keeps them going. But I swear they are more happy and contented in life than what we are.

Last but not least, I end this post with a Sanskrit saying,

“Vidya dadati vinayam,
vinaya dadati paatrataam,
paatratva dhanamaapnoti,
dhanat dharmam tatatsukham.”


Meaning :
Education gives Humility;
Humility gives Character;
from character one gets wealth;
from wealth one gets righteous (dharmam) life; from righteousness gets happiness.

The teachers play a significant role in shaping up an individual’s character and students should remember their teachers for what they are today.