Dec 07 - Teachers

I have always pondered what makes us remember our teachers fondly or otherwise.

All of us remember something that one of our teachers said, out of the blue in a conversation, in a situation, in a particular place or even just when we are idle.

I think that every teacher leaves a mark on his/her students in some way - afterall we or our kids today spend so much time together with them in a day. Some qualities do rub off I guess. They somehow have the power to make things look so easy or oh-so tough.

I went to a convent school as a kid in a remote town in India. I remember clearly every one of those pranks we played on the nuns :) we lifted the veil on her head with a ruler when she was walking the other way, and we would giggle and whisper to each other that she does have hair on her head inside the veil, or that she also wears rubber bands to tie her hair in a pony tail. Brings a smile when I think of it now - what were we exactly thinking :) We always wondered if they had a family too, mommies and daddies of their own, wore normal clothes like us ever, ate what we ate and what they did in their spare time.

A smile, or a simple gesture meant so much when we were kids - didn't you go and gush to your buddies saying "can you believe what happened to me today ? so-and-so teacher actually looked at me and smiled ! - she even likes my dress !"
wow ! that made our day !

In my school only special favorites were allowed to help with carrying home work note books turned in by the students, back to the staff room - they were given special previleges to enter the santum sanctorium of the staff room on a given occasion. At that moment in time, you never missed a chance to rove your eyes to drink up all the minute details available, which would later be turned into juicy bits of gossip to be shared with your friends !! :)

Every simple action of theirs is almost always interpreted into something of great significance by the students - us, of yester years or our kids today !. Anything that makes them seem anywhere close to being mortal is cherished !

Small lessons taught by them go a long way - I remember my English teacher ranting "cross your letter "T"s, point your letter "I", and the letters "c" and "e" must be differenciated " just before every test and exam. I always always think of it when I put my pen on the paper, even today !

But, all in all I would like to truly believe that our teachers made us what we are today, along with our parents.

Quoting below is a Sanskrit verse, that translates to Guru (the teacher) being 'Brahma' himself -

Gurur brahmaa gurur vishnuh
gurur devo maheshvarah
gurur saakshaat parabrahma
tasmai shree gurave namah.

Kudos to those great teachers !!!