OPEN LETTER TO A TEACHER….
Dear Teacher,
Gone are the days when both of us would sit under a banyan tree wearing bark clothes and I would have to obey each and every command of yours. If you would ask me to go and fetch a fallen bead from a 40-feet deep well, I would have to do so, no matter what. If you would ask me to walk 20 miles and pluck a flower, I would have to, no excuses. If you would ask me to cut my thumb and give it to you, I would do so without thinking twice. ALAS! Not anymore.
For I have changed! And that too a great deal. I would rather push you into the well, drag you through 20 miles and slit your throat itself. Ok, just joking. I won’t. But the point is that, gone are the days of the old “Guru Shishya Pratha.” And if you expect us to behave similarly, we won’t. Today, we can look you I the eye and answer you back if you ask something unjustified or unsound. For we aren’t gullible, unquestioning and susceptible as we were before. Why? I don’t know…maybe our new generation of (Apple)s and (Blackberry)s is 2 steps ahead of their predecessors. Whatsoever the reason may be, we aren’t as naïve and vulnerable as before!
Don’t get me wrong. We aren’t adamant or arrogant or ill-mannered. We absolutely love, admire and look up to our teachers…. but only if they earn our respect. And this respect is earned not by dumping extraneous work, mocking one of us in front of others or by highlighting our inabilities to not do something. It is infact earned by casually interacting with each of us throughout the term, giving extraneous work (but explaining why it actually has to be done, how will it help us etc.) and constructively teaching us how to do the stuff we are not actually able to do. And then you watch how each one of us admires you. Even if you are the worst in this Universe (which you are surely not since you’re still reading this letter), your students will simply love you. After all, it is You who are going to instill some wisdom into us, essential for our survival in this world.
Who am I to say all this? Well just another student! Every other student will want to tell you this (or perhaps, something even better than this in a better manner.) Sure some of us are simply hamburger chomping, soda gulping, video game addicted couch potatoes. We get into all sorts of troubles and don’t know about the innumerable trials and tribulations of this journey called life, which most of you have largely experienced. But at the same time, some of us are the very same people who spearheaded numerous protests world over. When time came, we did leave our hamburgers, sodas and video games for larger reasons.
Sincerely hoping to have not offended you by any means, I end my letter here. Hoping to see a new you soon.
From
The New Student
The New Student
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