Gerald D'Cunha

“W hen the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Well, it’s very old and accepted. How about this one: “When the teacher is ready, the student appears”? Frankly, I believe, the second one is as old and as profound as the first one… Dare I say this: It may not be as accepted as the first one… but, certainly, it is more profound! Like all, I have been a ‘classroom student’ long before I became a ‘classroom teacher’. Today, I feel flattered – often get carried away – when hundreds of my students compliment me, wish me, praise me, glorify me on days like today – ‘A Teacher’s Day’… When many of them say that I had been their ‘Best teacher’… ‘Favourite teacher’ etc., I find myself smiling with a deep sense of surprise and embarrassment… It takes me back to my own school and college days… Was I a bright, brilliant, the Best student during any of those years? Far from it! Was I a favorite of any of my teachers? I don’t think ‘feeling’ so! But,...

Our minds get a lot pampered whenever people praise us. In fact, minds become so addicted to it, that we hungrily look forward to hear others praise us! I am no angel… and, hence, my mind, too, craves to hear praises… something nice said about me by others. When that happens – just a lovely compliment, perhaps - it is enough to make my day… yes, as the old expression goes. And, if that’s how my mind works, imagine what would be its state whenever people criticize us, talk ill about us! Our minds resist and detest the negative opinions about us by others, and, we fiercely guard ourselves against them… It makes us defend ourselves, and, then, go on an offensive! “I have heard a lot about you,” a stranger tells me. “Hope, something nice,” I tell, knowing very well, it is. Then, someone, who I know, comes and tells me, “So and so was saying such and such things about you.” Obviously, ‘such and such things’, here, are something ...