September 5, 2021
(Teacher's Day)

I recently had a visitor to my office who was my former student who had come all the way from the United Kingdom to see me. The one sentence he spoke to me made me ponder over the relationship one shares with one’s student. To quote his line, “The teachers that you come across in life have the power to change you”. I was thinking about the sentence he had spoken all the time recalling what the young man probably had in his mind. I faintly remember him as a very outspoken student and the bitter-sweet relationship I shared with him. I could not fathom what extra I had done to him that he had come seeking for me and met me during his brief stay in India for about 20 days on a holiday.

I went down memory lane and recalled the myriad type of students whom I have encountered in my almost three decades of teaching. I do not recollect anything I had said or done that had the power essentially to change a person’s life. Real life certainly is not as dramatic as this and is probably seen only in movies and novels.

Is the relationship between the student and teacher always positive? Do we see negative things as well? For one thing, if there is negativity, it is all but forgotten when the relationship comes to its close but the positives is what brings about this type of encounter after many years.

It struck me that a negative comment even with a positive intent can make considerable change in a student. It could make them feel really let down, especially when it comes from their favourite teacher. It is astounding how making or having put forth something negative can change a person’s self-image and make him believe that he is not up to the mark.

A teacher lives in a roomful of mirrors, some mirrors reflect success stories, some sob stories, and some narrate perceived injustices in a harsh world. Despite this there is tales of loss, and separation, misunderstandings and reconciliation but at the end of it, it is a permanent relationship that can be rebuilt with a chance encounter. A teacher jostles something in the soul of his/her student the condense of the relationship stays long after the formal relationship is closed. Being a teacher is certainly a precious gift – a gift of human endeavours that will carry us for the rest of our lives.

The student-teacher relationship is an ode to human relationship itself. It is primed with nostalgia, invokes a warm pleasant feelings and makes one’s alma mater to be considered as a home, which nurtured us in the most happy and joyful time of our lives. For a student, it is the place where he spent gathering knowledge and a variety of skills that worked so well in his life. The delightful time spent in the campus. The landmarks that have come to define the carefree life one spent on the campus. The values in life that one has learned. The insight that made one the person he or she is. At the heart of it is the relationship one has with his or her teacher which is the essence of love and understanding.

Every student is a self-taught artist who weaves the intricate sketches in his mind of the life he or she spent on the campus. It warms his heart to know that what he learned here is the beacon of light that nurtures and rekindles the spirit of human endeavour. It is probably this feelings that brings him back to where he/she belong to rekindle the sketches he/she has in his/her mind. One wonders if these imprints could have been there if there were no teachers who made an impact on us. Understanding the student teacher relationship itself is a work of art, a joyous relationship.

Out of the hundreds of students that pass out of the hands of a teacher, it is one or two who come back to establish, to seek and to preserve this immortal relationship and to restore the beauty of humanity. Every teacher could certainly have an experience like this. It requires a coordinated and sustained involvement on the part of the teaching fraternity. To restore this heritage that is so fondly spoken and the one that makes teaching a noble profession.

Every teacher needs to build relationship with mutual trust and compassion. One day when he looks back and realise that not every student loves him but you in the course of your job have reached the loneliest feeling you have reached out to those who in their hour of need, who were going through rough terrain in their student years, who had a whole range of friendship, disappointments and betrayals and you as a teacher was that beacon of hope, the sunshine in their dark hours. Having such a teacher in one’s life is certainly a blessing.

The biggest joy in the life of a teacher is when your loved ones come to you, seeking you that you realise that you have spent your time in this noble profession prudently and that the teaching profession is a special gift which really has no parallel.