Gerald D'Cunha

  “Education is not the filling of a pot, but lighting of a fire.” W.B. Yeats   I f what Yeats says is true, it makes me wonder: ‘what is that I have done in the name of education, for over four decades – filling up the pots, or lighting of a fire?’ Every day, when my day starts, I juggle with this dilemma: ‘As a teacher, should I spend my day filling up the pots, or lighting up a fire?’ Mostly, we teachers become teachers because of our own teachers. I became one, because, I was hugely inspired by my own teachers. Some of them came in my life early, and some, late. The process of ‘filling up a pot’ has always been there, just as the process of ‘lighting up a fire’. Those teachers who strive to do the latter have left me inspired for life. As a student, I did not desire, that my own pot to be filled with ‘memorized knowledge’ and ‘marks’, nor, as a teacher, to fill the pots of my students with the same. The teachers, who inspired me, invariably, did not care too mu...

O n my way to my work, this morning, I met my friend, Gaurav, who teaches in an Engineering college. He was carrying with him a big bag. So, I asked him as to why he was carrying such a big bag while going to work. “It contains a set of some traditional outfit,” Gaurav said, “We have traditional day celebration in the college, today.” “Why didn’t you wear it while going to college?” I asked. Gaurav simply blushed! Gaurav reminded me of my own self. We both are so shy… that we would not wear our ‘traditional clothes’ while going to our work… We will go 'there'… and change! Shy people remain shy always… But, so what? Gaurav and I are fine individuals… Aren’t we, Gaurav? Gaurav will not say ‘Yes’, I know… He will only blush! Well, this post is not about my shyness or my friend Gaurav’s. “Students look up to us, Gaurav,” I had said to him during our brief interaction, this morning, “They want Heroes… the Role Models.” Despite my shynes...

What we deeply admire, we attract.  That’s the ancient Law of Attraction… in the recent years, made extremely popular by Rhonda Byrne in her DVD and the book – ‘The Secret’. When we deeply admire a person for some of his qualities, we attract those qualities in us. It is the best way to shape our character. Yes, that’s why the person who we deeply admire and try to emulate is known as our ‘role model’.  We become the heroes we worship! We do. Last night, I was watching an interview with my hero, Sachin Tendulkar. It was somewhere in Dubai, and in front of a select audience. The questions were very simple and direct and Sachin was humility personified, as he is always. We find it difficult to believe that, in spite of such mind-boggling fame, success and power, Sachin still comes about as someone who lives next-door! He is unbelievably unassuming and down-to-earth. We can feel that his stupendous fame has not touched him. He...