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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...