Sunday, September 30, 2007

To Sirs and Madams (Miss’) with Love.

Disclaimer: This post is a little belated. But then as the wise men say “Better late than never!”.

I owe this to my teachers. Its Teachers Day month and it’s only appropriate if I thank each one of them who have touched my life in some way or the other. The list below is in chronological order and not in the order of importance... I would never be able to choose one from other.
This one is going to be a very long one... since there are so many to thank.

  1. Amma: Mine and everybody’s first teacher. Our teacher at home. She taught me how to eat, sleep, play, talk... you name it. A BIG thanks to you Amma :-)
  2. Paati: My grandmother. What my mother didn’t teach me, it was taught by my paati. I love you paati... wherever you are, thank you *hugs*.
  3. Nandini miss: My kindergarten teacher – I didn’t cry a single day to go to school. She was so motherly and cheerful! She was the one who facilitated my smooth transition from home to school….
  4. Mani miss: My LKG and UKG teacher. Whenever I think of her, I remember Mother Theresa. She was just like that; so compassionate and caring. She used to roam around the school keeping us (students) in her waist… we used to eagerly wait for our turn to be carried by her around the school….
  5. Primary School (1st to 4th class)
    • Shyamala Miss: Not only did she teach us the normal subjects, she encouraged all of us to participate in all extra curricular activities.
    • Puranthar Miss: She was extremely strict at times.. and yet extremely funny on other occasions. Our favorite past time would be to guess her mood ;-)
  6. Middle School (5th to 7th class)
    • Ramamani Miss: Our class teacher. The best anybody can have. She taught us everything; English, Science, Social Studies and Maths! She made sure we not only just finished our homework, but also understood each and every word of it.
    • Skandavalli Miss: Our fashion teacher ;-) She was a fantastic science teacher, at the same time dressed immaculately. We girls used to admire her day in and day out. Our role model for looking good.
  7. High School (8th to 10th)
    • Miss Leena: The most beautiful woman I have seen till date. Our English teacher and extremely strict of course! She taught very well but at the same time her tests were very difficult.
    • Miss Beena: Science teacher. She used to clear all our doubts with enthusiasm. I am sure she will remember me forever as the most doubt-asking girl in class ;-)
    • Sister Cristella: Her smile, her charm, her energy. I was a kind of teachers-pet with her ;-)
    • Miss Vasundara: Maths Teacher. Not a fantastic teacher, but a very good human being. We were family friends. Was always ready to help somebody in need.
    • Miss Chandrika: Science teacher again. Known for her beautiful handwriting. She was kind of monotonous at time. She used to teach in a same leveled tone…. Afternoon classes were a challenge to stay awake ;-)
    • Miss Sukanya: Taught Hindi. Though I never took Hindi. She was famous for her two plaits. The funniest part was she used to dye her hair only on the top. The line where she used to take the partition to form 2 plaits was still white ;-). The test books which she used to correct was full of red lines… not because the students would have made mistakes.. she used to read the answers by underlining them!
    • Miss Srimathi: Sanskrit teacher. One of the most wonderful teachers I have had till date. Her lessons were a pleasure. Not one day was boring. Thank you miss! Because of you I am still fascinated by Sanskrit :-)!
    • Sister Clarabella: Our Headmistress. THE sister! Known for her strictness at the same time fairness in treating her subjects. She managed the school fantastically.
  8. P.U.C (11th and 12th):
    • Sambashivayya Sir: The fantastic physics teacher. Even today his voice rings in my ears. The way he used to teach.. every single concept is in our blood. Seriously! The only danger from him was for the short people (first benchers).. if he got angry with “anybody” he would actually hit the person sitting in the first row! Poor people!
    • GSS: Maths. Teaching and all was fine. He was good at it. But I remember him for other reasons! His son was in USA… yes THE USA. This son supposedly sent chalk (yes you heard it right! *chalk*) from America for his dear father to boast about it in front of his students! He made it a point that we never forget the generosity of his son and hence repeated it every time he got a new parcel from THE USA! Also he had two pet (I mean very very pet) students in our batch; PP and S. Whatever they said was “fantastic” and he wished they were his children. It simply got funnier by the day when he started taking “permission” from then to rub the board lol!!!!
    • Sanskrit sir: I am extremely ashamed that I forgot his name. But I have not forgotten his lectures. It was fabulous to say the least. I have heard that people who had taken other languages used to come and sit in his class just to listen to him narrate Kalidasa’s “Abhijnana Sakuntalam “. Ah! Simply superb!
  9. Engineering

    Most of the lecturers were good. But then in engineering colleges I guess friends influence you more than the teachers. I have very fond memories of our outings, group studies, etc etc etc. Will write a separate post on that sometime…

So all in all, Teachers, Thank you… Thank you for making me what I am today!

P.S: People like these really need some good teachers ;-)

1. Somebody please gift her, an Atlas!!

2. Killing is the only solution to all problems

6 comments:

Bit Hawk said...

Wow, you took me back 10 years!
I used to go to GSS too! His obsession with his sons and USA, rank, his weird glasses, his chalk pieces were so amusing.

If you did not study in MMJC, my sanskrit lecturer definitely has a twin brother. So, was it BSP aka Parvatharaju? He was very funny, explaining things very passionately, suddenly getting serious etc. I can still mimic him very well :D

We had a bunch of amusing, weird and interesting lecturers in PUC. Nothing can beat the fun we used to have then!

Unknown said...

wow... you remember all their names!
I am sure I would too.
Thats the thing I discovered a few years ago. Being a teacher gives you the best shot at positively influencing the largest number of people without being a celebrity. If you look at a typical school teacher's life, he/she teaches maybe around 20,000 students in his/her career. I bet every one of those 20,000 students remember the teachers provided they are good teachers.

Shark said...

@bit hawk: Bingo! Yes it was indded Parvatharaju :) aabah! now I am feeling so relieved after recollecting his name... thanks a bunch :)
Would love to see you mimic him ;-)

@Guns: Very true, a teacher (whether good or bad) touches thousands of lives. All of us remember them..maybe sometime for wrong reasons... ;-)
But then if we see them someday in a mall or someplace.. we get so excited to go and talk to them :)
It must be a nice feeling for a teacher also na?

Unknown said...

And it is so surprising that some of your teachers actually remember you even 10-15 years after finishing school. I mean, I would think it is impossible for them to remember because they teach so many kids.

-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs

Bit Hawk said...

BSP was awesome, he had very subtle mannerisms. I tried to do his mimicry today morning and I was not able to recall many subtle things, a decade is quite a long time I guess. But I could do a KNS (chemistry, with his usual 'what now'), MSS (Botany, I still can do the lesson on 'tissue') LS (I can still do the s equals r theta one, who said "ha" for "every "a", so we called him "Hell, Yes") and the very grand James Bond himself called GT.

Hey, and thanks for all the comments on my posts. I had never received so many comments in an hour :D

Shark said...

@guns: You said it! It's an amazing feeling when they recognize you! You feel so elated na?

@bit hawk: oh dear dear... how could I forget "what now"!!! ;-)

he..he.. one day MSS went on saying "woodyapple" in a typical kannada accent... It took us almost an entire lecture to figure out that he was actually referring to "Wood Apple"!!! :D

LS.. you are very right!

And HOW... and HOW could I forget THE JAMES BOND!
"YeraDane benchina moorane vidhyaarthi... neenu helu"... his fav dialog ;-)

Incidentally BSP used to call us LLBs.. :) (Ladies of Last Bench;-))