My most esteemed Sir,

I wish you all the best and why not? After all in a crisis-ridden age like this, you are my teacher. You know how innocent I am. You know how crucial I am for the prospective social structure. You know my fragility and you know my worth. You know that I have left my mother’s lap and have submitted myself to you under this assumption that you are no less than a beloved mother or father. My mother who laboured me forth as an oyster labours forth a pearl leaves me every morning in your custody believing that yours is the only noble company in this vast universe that will help her child shine like a dazzling star. Both my father and my mother rely on your integrity. They assume that you are the right person who can be the architect of their kid’s personality and that you alone can make miracles happen.  They hold that you as a teacher have a dynamic intellect, spiritual fondness and inspiring moral fiber. They expect with sheer innocence that you have some magic wand the touch of which would transform their ordinary kid into some extraordinary human being. What is more important is that when my parents place their trust in you, I began to trust you. I overlooked my mother’s absolute love and care and tried to develop an eternal bond with you. I firmly believe that you are an artist who can give me a nice-looking shape by chiseling away all the shabby and tattered stuff from me.………….

 But every tick of the clock is pushing me toward the walls of uncertainty and cynicism. Often I think that my parents have made a poor choice by leaving me in your care and at times I think it my misfortune to be your taught. It is very easy to guess that you are not a teacher by choice. Factually when you failed to reach all your desirable goals, you preferred to be a teacher because in this part of the world it is easy to become a teacher than to be a clerk or the like. I can reach the world of confusion you are held in. You are still craving for a white apron or some other comfortable job although you claim that as a teacher you feel exalted. Actually there is always a conflict between your body and mind when you go to that particular garden where little buds of humankind are supposed to flourish. Your ego ridicules you and your mind protests when your body leads it to the wonderful world of our innocence. You are forced by some customary rules and regulations, not by your conscience, to teach me. Just recall those teachers who proved miraculous at the time when science and technology was a distant dream. You know how my innocence is jolted on seeing dozens of computers, projectors, microscopes and other valuable equipment buried under the thick cover of dirt and dust on the racks of so called laboratories. Thousands of books in well decorated frames are mourning because you never bother to open them to enrich your knowledge. In the field of science experimenting is not everything it is the only thing. However, in this technologically advanced age you are still stuck to the traditional ways of teaching. You never take me to that corner of school which commonly is called science laboratory. In this era of internet you pass on information to me through certain nebulous methods. You teach me to limp where people actually learn to fly. I know you will not waste a single moment to involve yourself in blame-game. You will certainly throw the ball in the court of the authorities who appoint you as teacher and devise the policy of education. Yes you will blame me, a little angel, for not coming up to the expectations. You will feel yourself at liberty to blame my parents too. 

Please do not make justifications rather be bold enough to confess that as a teacher something most vital is missing in you that could make a role model out of you. Well you blame the system. Nonetheless, it is your own system that is to be accused. Presume the system is what it should be like, what heroic deed would be attributed to you. Again you would be forced by a set of rules and regulations to function as a dummy teacher. You have to swim against the tide to make things happen. You have to to push your way through all those death-traps that really make things difficult for you.  

  I do not know who will be accountable if tomorrow I turn out to be a good looking beast. Please tell me who will shoulder the responsibility if I fail to build the edifice of my personality.  A simple question Sir, why did you consent to become the architect of humankind despite knowing the fact that you have no taste for it? Didn’t you know that moulding and shaping little tender souls is not a common man’s mission and to uncover the secrets of the cosmos before the tender offspring of mankind is not everybody’s cup of tea. I am too unripe to express my feelings. I cannot translate my views and thoughts to action right now. I am in the making but the time will come when I would be matured enough to describe you well. My humble submission is that some jobs demand a deep sense of sacrifice and the teaching profession is on top of the list of such sacred jobs. Here “what you give” comes first and “what you get” comes next. If you presume that besides doing this noble job you would make heavens too, you are walking in a wrong track. I modestly request you to either change this track or change your outlook. Blessed are those who turn out to be teachers in the true sense of the term. So do it only if you love it to do and give it up if you don’t.

(Isaar Kashmiri is a columnist from Tral Kashmir who writes regularly for Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Uzma. Feedback at 1722004@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Sat, 4 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 4 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST