LIFE, AS A STUDENT, IS FAR FROM OVER, SIR















One of the widely shared posts on the Teachers’ Day goes like this: There is an image of a thumb impression on the left and a signature on the right… Below, there is this message:


“Do you know the difference?”
If Yes, then you are obliged to someone…

HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY!”


No doubt, our teachers did the difference. But, over all these years of my learning-and-teaching experience, I have become more and more convinced, that there is more than literacy to education. The maid servant, who works in my office for more than twenty-five years, puts her thumb impression when I pay her meager wages every month. But, through her loyalty and compassion, she has left an impression on my heart which is of greater value than some of the greatest signatures in the world!


Yes, we are literate… because we can sign… we can read and write. But, are we ‘educated’?



Yesterday, here in Mumbai, it was pouring like hell! Around 12 in the noon, I decided to close my classes and head home. I had already informed my students. But, as I reached the main road, it’s all flooded… School children and parents were all trying to get into any autorickshaw available. I left many autos just to make way for little children and parents. I had my office bag, the laptop bag and umbrella; with all these, I was trying to do a balancing act. Many autowalas were simply unwilling to go towards my home… Some saying, “Bahut paani bhara hai”… Some simply snubbing me, as if I did not exist. I, even, offered an extra fare to some autowalas so that they might agree. But, I was just struggling on the road getting drenched and frustrated. Then, an autowala stopped… He was a middle-aged man… As I moved closer to the auto, he refused bluntly. I couldn’t take that and gave a fiery piece of my mind. Luckly, he wasn’t a young man with hot blood… So, he sped off from my sight. The very next moment, a young auto guy stopped his auto… “Baitiye Sir,” he said gently not even asking where I wanted to go.


I got in. For quite a distance, my mind was disturbed. “Why did I lose my poise with a stranger?” I found asking myself. “He must’ve had his own reasons!” Yes, it took a long time – and a long distance -  for me to calm down and drop the autowala from my head.



Today is Teachers’ Day. The messages are pouring in: “You have made all the difference in my life”… “You have left a lasting impression”… and all that…


But, I alone know, the kind of difference strangers like this autowala and some of my tormentors have made on my own life.


So, it’s okay if I do not know to read and write… It’s okay if I do not know how to put my signature. Life, as a student, is far from over, Sir!


A Happy Teachers’ Day to all my ‘teachers’… whether they have left their impression on me with their signatures or thumbs!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Unknown source

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