Beyond Classrooms! Lessons of Life

Teacher’s day brings back memories of celebrations at school, where we practiced for skits or song recitations days before the d-day, competed with each other to give the best gift to our favorite teachers, for some it was a chance to erase that bad picture they had painted for themselves, while for others just, an opportunity to simply acknowledge the presence of those who had really made a difference in their lives

Post my classroom days, every Teachers day, I like to reflect and think about all those non- classroom teachers who I have met throughout my life. These people have never thought of themselves as my teachers but they have shared with me some important learning’s, experience, knowledge which has helped me graduate year on year with flying colors, and that is what makes them my special teachers.

But I would like to tell you about the Biggest Teacher in my life, who saw me the second I entered this world.

He always had a smile on his face, energy in his eyes. He had an ability to mesmerize people with his talks. He could talk to you about anything under the sun, from the way a certain teacher troubled him, to how he and his school gang(golden gang) played pranks on students, to anecdotes about his interesting friends ranging from the 80 year old Dadima in the building, to the middle aged women of the navrati group, to the fathers of some of his friends, to those countless travelogues of trips that were planned on a spur of a moment to gather handicrafts, to tales about his young entrepreneur ventures, stories of his weird clientele, to his escapade from foreign countries, to his survival trip adventures, to theories on best crop yield, land , plantation, to the techniques on making some of the best dishes, to Indian Mythology and Hindu philosophy, to Psychology the list can go on.

What was unique about my teacher is that you would always take back something new at the end of a conversation with him. His style of teaching was not advisory, but mostly sharing oriented. I think he didn’t want to be a preacher, but someone who wanted to share what he had learnt.

On this day, let me share with you some important lessons that I learned from him

Never be attached to anybody or anything, because if your attached to something, you will have expectations from it, and if you are bound by it, it’s very difficult and hard to let go if it, if it’s gone tomorrow. Don’t be indifferent to what you are attached to, but develop the ability to live without it if it’s gone tomorrow.

Fight your own battle. This is something I have grown up with, my teacher never came in the middle to be a mediator to solve my quarrels, he wanted me to fight my own battles. He often told me. “Life is your own battle, do not expect others (including your parents & children) to come and support you, because they have their battle to fight, if you expect them to come and they don’t turn up you will be hurt.”

Give. A giver is what my teacher was. I often argued with my teacher, that we shouldn’t give to people who didn’t deserve, or do not acknowledge what we do for them. But I liked what he said, “God doesn’t grant everyone with the ability to give, you’re the chosen one, so give and there will never be less”

Trust. My teacher often said, “Don’t trust anybody in this world, not even your children or parents.” I had thought that maybe he was being very cynical, but having seen the outside world, I somehow am forced to believe it is true

Smile- The world is full of sorrow, share your joys not your sorrows. He had an uncanny ability of hiding all his sorrows under his smile and those cheerful talks.

I wonder how big this list would have been, if all had not ended on 29 December 2001, the day my biggest teacher closed his books from the world. But as they say a Great Teacher always lives in the knowledge and learning’s that he shares, just like Papa.