Wind Beneath My Wings

It is  Teacher's day today 5th Sep being the birthday of Dr Sarvpalli Radhakrishnan, India's second President and a well known scholar and philosopher. Traditionally Indians have always been reverential to their 'gurus', most of us would recall the couplet of Kabir, where he places the Guru even above the Gods,

"गुरू गोविंद दोऊ खड़े काके लागू पाय,बलिहारी गुरू आपकी गोविंद दियो बताय।"

Right from the time of our birth, we have been a student, learning, imbibing, copying, imitating and in the process enriching ourselves through our first teachers, the mother and father, siblings and then school happens. Formal teaching commences in schools where we are taught the three Rs and a number of life lessons as well. Somewhere down the line we forget our teachers and the role which they have played in shaping our lives moulding us into the way we turned out from the raw recruits that we all were once. In India it is unfortunate that when the child is at his most impressionable age, kindergarten and primary level, the teachers are not really motivated and trained to groom these budding talents. Unless we start overhauling our education system from bottom up, our society will continue to be plagued by the deep rooted malaise of social evils and barely literate youth who are unemployable and liable to succumb to a life of crime. It is high time somebody should take note of this issue as today's well groomed and educated kids will be responsible citizens tomorrow.

As long as we were students life was good, we had someone to look upto, to guide us, correct us but then we grew up and suddenly we started assuming that we had learnt all that we had to and didn't need anyone to tell us what to do. The seeker within us dies or may be is comatose,  as a result we start stagnating instead of growing. We don't realise this as we are busy running in the rat race, running after  meaningless material pursuits in life and then one day suddenly some of us realise that the race doesn't get us anything worthwhile and it goes on even without us. No one is a winner, we all are just mindlessly running and that we need to reawaken the student within and become a seeker once again. The quest for knowledge if rekindled rejuvenates us, if not then we suddenly grow old. As ageing only commences when we stop learning, as long as we are keen students we are alive, each day a new day...

Hailing from a family of teachers, as my father was a Professor of Chemistry, my mother was also a Lecturer in Hindi before she quit for our sake, I have observed the  passion and perseverance of a teacher at close quarters. The pride on my father's face when a good meritorious student would bring the institution laurels, I think was probably the best reward for him. Having been a teacher of sorts myself, euphemistically referred to as Directing Staff (in the Army parlance) in the Training institutions, we do have an idea of what it takes to be a teacher. I dare say that we actually understood many concepts for the first time when we started to teach, as during student days we had merely learnt them without comprehending their true essence. As if this was not enough, my father in law himself was a Professor of Zoology and my spouse like all the spouses has been a teacher, with we being the erring students. That of course is in lighter vein, but actually most army wives during our times would be teaching in schools as that was the only professional pursuit they could follow with their husbands constantly on the move. These ladies have churned out some outstanding leaders from the Army Schools where they devoted their time and energy. 

The reverence for our Guru which was evident till a couple of decades ago has gradually waned, one reason is of course the quality of teachers themselves and second one could be the onset of blind pursuits of material gains, where money mattered more than the method of earning it. Somewhere down the line teaching turned into a very lucrative coaching business and 'guru dakshina' was  now unfortunately a business transaction. No wonder, now the student is a customer and the master a service provider, the roles clearly defined. But in the process knowledge and wisdom has been lost and a generation has been brought up on these very ideals. Here is hoping that that the powers that be take notice and institute corrective measures at the earliest before we lose out on our precious heritage and culture. Then every student would be able to say, "You are the wind beneath my wings.."