Oh to be a Teacher
At the end of a particularly enthusiastic, exhausting, sweat pouring, first hour lecture class by 8 AM on melting heat transfer today, I was greeted by a “Happy Teachers’ Day Sir”. I uttered a sheepish “Thank You” and left the class. Thrilled.
India is one of the few countries that celebrate Teachers’ Day. A list of other countries can be found in this Wikipedia page. There is a World Teachers’ Day celebrated on Oct 5 but its intention is more to commemorate teachers’ organizations worldwide and to provide support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers. Not a direct one for appreciating the Teacher for what she does. Those of us teaching in India for a while would know the Teachers’ Day celebrated here is of a different kind.
In India Teachers’ Day is celebrated on September 5 (today), the birth-date of Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the former President of India. His greatness as a teacher is legendary. An anecdote is in order. Dr. Radhakrishnan has served as a teacher in many of India’s premier Universities (which then was under the British rule). Once when he was teaching in an University in Mysore and he wanted to relocate as a professor in an University in Calcutta. On the day he was to leave from Mysore (500 2020 km south-west of Calcutta) by train, he needed to travel from the suburbs of Mysore to the Mysore railway station. He was carried in a chariot (the then 6 door Mercedes Benz), pulled not by the horses, but by his students!
The above incident I learnt from a talk by Prof. N. V. C. Swamy – former IIT Madras Director – arranged in celebration of Teachers’ Day in the past. This year, a panel discussion is being arranged tomorrow (Sep 6) in view of Teachers’ Day, the topic being “The IIT Degree: A Passport to Material Prosperity….?” Provocative isn’t it? Hope to attend it and see what is discussed.
To end on a personal note again, last year same date I was walking in a narrow corridor just about to enter a class, when one of the research degree student – who had in an earlier semester, taken a course with me – stopped me and without any warning suddenly fell at my feet. And rose and uttered a polite “Happy Teachers’ Day Sir” and went about his business.
I was shaken. Falling at my feet; Jeez.
The incident left me disturbed and I couldn’t take the ensuing lecture properly. Images of our politicians who receive such greetings all the while in all of the public stages, irrespective of the age and pedigree of the fallen and the fallen at, flashed in my mind. Is this some kind of joke that this kid has played on me? I am not even his “guide” (research supervisor) for me to suspect of any other “motive” for his actions. Then I was reminded of R. K. Narayan and his tirade against this one human falling at the feet of another business. And I was also reminded of the meaning of a sashtanga pranam and why we (should perhaps) reserve it only in obeisance to the Lord. And here is this kid whom I hardly know for an year or so and he is falling at my feet for what he believed as what I deserve for my teaching to him. I was troubled by the question “Am I doing the right thing to this kid to deserve this tribute?”.
A senior colleague later that day told me it is normal in North India to fall at the feet of the teacher (the kid who did this to me being a North Indian) and relieved me of the effects of a temporary bloatocracy my ego was suffering from. Pooh! So, after all, I don’t have to think myself as doing something superlative and in the lineage of Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. It is just normal for kids to fall at the feet of their teachers in (North) India. Thank Goodness. I receded to my two-feet-small, average, like-any-other-teacher, self.
And life became normal again.
Until today.
[...] the Webmaster Oh to be a Teacher » This Summary is from an article posted at nOnoscience on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 This [...]
1. Happy Teachers’ day to you and all teachers who visit here.
2. You need not have been shaken about the falling-at-feet routine. Even if you are not particularly gnostic or theist yourself, I am sure you are aware that the teacher is equated God what with the “Guru Sakshath Parabrahmaa..” sentiment and the sashtanga pranam holds water.
Puts a lot of pressure on the teacher, I know…but I personally approve of it!
Happy Teachers’ Day
Happy Teachers’Day….
[...] …to all the teachers out there, including the dude. [...]
As teacher is place above god, it may be a acceptable to do sashtanaga namaskaram to the guru.
If look book, I remember teachers who had deep influence on me and they are very few. It is a fact that we lack good teachers starting from pre-kg to post-grad level. Teachers should lead the students into learning and not enforce learning on them. Let us hope we have more of teacher who can influence the coming generation.
Interesting read it is to know that Dr.Radhakrishnan was taken in a chariot pulled by students. Also, it is disturbing. I strongly feel that it should not have happened even in the best of the students-teacher relation. If an Indian Professor had to subject his students to this condition, I wonder what his British counterparts would have derived out of them.
By the way, here I found some anomaly, i.e. a factual mistake “…he was to leave from Mysore (500 km south-west of Calcutta) by train, he needed to travel … ” – it should be more than 1500km (the correct figure is 2020 kms). I understand this must be a typo.
Thanks for catching the typo. it is corrected.
Thanks also for wondering what the Britishers would have derived out of our then students.
[...] Update (9/12) : A related post from a teacher. [...]
i felt goosebumps to read the information about Dr. Radhakrishnan. i think that respect is well deserved to good teachers. Teachers are poorly paid for the amount of time (preparation and actual teaching) they spend. For shaping so many students future, the pay cannot be equated by money. Falling at the teacher’s feet is the least that could be done. When you fall at a person’s feet, you are physically leaving yourself at his / her mercy. So probably you will do it only in two situations – fear & respect. So when you fall at your teacher’s feet, it is respect from your heart that has overcome the shame of fallin at some ones feet in the public. Politicians falling at feet donot belong to these two categories – they do it for self gain. i make it a point to atleast call all the teachers who shaped my life and thank them every year. They feel so happy and motivated to teach more. No money could give this feeling to a teacher. You should be proud that you are respected so much.
smalltowndoc: thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
Also, welcome to blogging (I can see you are a newbee from visiting your blog) and continue visiting here. Hope you are not as scared with equations as Vijay poses in public.
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