CALL ME RAVI
“Politeness
is the first thing people lose
once
they get the power.”
Amit
Kalantri
Years
ago, I had a student, who I had taught in his Junior College. He must’ve been 15
or 16 and I must’ve been 23 or 24 at that time. He was raised by his elder
sister as their parents were no more. The sister, who was slightly older than
me, would call me by my first name – Gerry. So, her baby-brother, my student,
too, started calling me by my name. I had no problem with that at all. Yes,
whenever he would do it inside the class, I would feel a bit awkward (Shall I say
‘hurt’ or ‘small’?), but, I would wear a comfortable mask before my other
students.
After this boy completed his
Junior College, he joined Mumbai’s (then, Bombay) famed St. Xavier’s College to pursue B.A. One day, he took me around his
new college campus and proudly described the great heritage of this educational
institution. Now and then, I would hear him greet someone passing by, with – ‘Hi
Victor’, ‘Hi Stan’ etc. I would, later, gather from him that Victor, Stan or
Clint were his Professors… Jesuit priests, to be precise. Coming from Mangalore’s
famed Jesuit institution, St. Aloysius, what I was hearing, here, from this
just-turned-18 baccha, sounded too alien to me. “Is this how it is,
here, in Bombay?” I remember wondering…
Luckily, not always…
And, luckily, I learnt to come
to grips with the reality, that as long as it comes from a clean and healthy
space, whether my bacchas call me Sir, Gerry or Uncle – Ki farak
penda?
I shudder to judge on this,
Sir… To me, it is perfectly fine. Respect can’t be demanded, you know. We all
have to earn it. Amen.
Why am I pulling out this
skeleton from my old closet, this afternoon?
Two days ago, a gentleman named Ravindra* called me to enroll his 15-year-old baccha into my eleventh-standard
batch. We did not know each other. But, that evening, my wife told me, that his
wife was a dear friend of her, and, five years ago, we had attended one of the
functions at their place. I sent a text message revealing this fact to the
gentleman. “How small the world is!” he replied. Then, he added, “Call me Ravi.”
Well, it seemed a tall order! Coupled with two emojis – one of smile, the
other of laughter – I wrote: “Indeed, it’s a small world Ravi (Sir)… 'Annadatha
Sukhibhava’!”
I have stopped losing my sleep
over this issue. Let my students call me Sir or Gerry or Uncle, or, even,
Grandpa… Ki farak penda?
Haan. It does
feel good if my students call me Sir, without I asking them to…
Hope, politeness and respect continue
to be a part of fine education and culture.
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic's.: pixabay
Video: 1. TheRichest 2. British Airways
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