Tears welled up in my eyes

Tears welled up in my eyes, was it love, was it resentment, was it a silent sense of a long deserved achievement? Or was it a sense of gratitude? Yes, I am thankful Oo teacher, you have recreated the same frenzy of feelings of thankfulness which makes one feel, what did I do, to be blessed with such good things... Eleven years ago, I used to go for Maths-Science tuitions during my 9th Grade under a famous teacher in my locality called Mrs. Gokhale. It is very normal for students to go for extra tuitions in the city of Mumbai such that we used to feel obviously surprised that not everyone goes to tuitions in any other part of India. We have re-defined tuitions to a strategy to compete for the merit list in class rather than actually being a helping hand in understanding difficult subjects. I was among the group which is shy in class & generally tries to wrap up the classwork & homework rather than trying to find out 'what was what & why was that like that'. It was a 2:00 to 3:30pm class everyday after school on weekdays when we would finish our school in the morning, rush home, have a quick lunch, try to squeeze in a game of NFS Hot pursuit for leftover 5-8 minutes after lunch & rush to the tuition class by 1:45pm. Mrs. Gokhale was teaching Algebra - Polynomial equations. She had given some equations and a small part of which was to factorize a polynomial. I loved mathematics & absent-mindedly written in one part: x*x -7*x + 12 = 0 as x=3,4 as it was too simple. Mrs. Gokhale teacher was a task master & wanted students to express the steps in the right prescribed & universally accepted methods only. She would not like short cuts as even careless mistakes often lead to the common outcome of overlooking portent arguments. Mrs. Gokhale called me when she was checking that day's class work of the study group for the day. I was afraid as she seldom used to call anybody next to her for explaining things at the end of the class that day itself. It usually meant that there was some critical mistake for which there was going to be some serious remonstration. I went & sat next to her. She showed me the expression that I had written & patiently started explaining to me. I have written the monologue as much as my memory supports but I am pretty sure it remains embedded in my mind for life as a special event. Karthik, come sit. What you have written here is not the right way of showing sequence of steps in algebra. See, x*x-7*x+12=0 => x*x-4*x-3*x+12=0 => x(x-4)-3(x-3)=0 => (x-4)(x-3)=0 => x-4=0 OR x-3 =0 => x=4 OR x=3 I had been doing this kind of Math from 4th grade onwards and I was generally confident of not losing any marks in the mathematics examinations. This was nothing new to me. But what she had taught that day remains hardwired in my mind till now for the following reasons. She earnestness believed that I didn't know the steps involved and hence in all these years, I was simply solving algebra in a closed outlook fashion with less regard for knowing why I was doing what I was doing. I was absent-mindedly printing out answers for the prose of algebra alright without enjoying the verses hidden which had much to tell. She didnt shun me simply as most other teachers do by saying, "you should know these things by the time you enter 9th Grade. I am not going to tell you all this..." Instead, she taught me once & for all how to respect Algebra & write poems in Algebra. Though I may not have become a great poet of Mathematics more than an admirer of poems in Mathematics, I learnt it for life with her deliberate effort to reform me. I did reform for life with her little effort. Thank you Gokhale teacher. The tears of joy welling up my eyes is a silent sign of gratitude to you. Eleven years later, this feelings are revoked today. Sir, I am a young guy who had given innumerable public presentations in front of innumerable types of audiences in a variety of situations and pertaining to different topics.The mistakes I may be doing may have been camouflaged over the veil of experience. What is done for a really long time may not always be the right thing to do. Even though, you could have overlooked mistakes I made in the presentation & grade the personal errors like all my past teachers have been doing based on the mindset - 'Imbibing presentation skill is not my job, I simply teach the subject. Till he learns that, it is fine with me.' You instead sat with me for hours together, taught me why some things were wrong. Taught me, how what we express in written in presentation slides should be closest to how we frame the problem & attach with a solution. How to eliminate what is not needed, kill the residency & keep focussed on the goal set like a sure shot arrow. Your persona reflects the ideology that one's conviction is best if it is reflected in one's actions & expressions. Not only have I listened carefully to whatevery you say, your deeds also have an impact on me. I have been worshipping the virtue of earnestness in humankind for a long time now. Tears well up my eyes when I meet an earnest teacher. I am forever indebted to you for teaching me all those things which you have nowhere obligations to. Going out of the way may not be the sensible sustainable way for few others to be a senior teacher. But for me, it plants a seed of indebtedness in the students.Seeds from which 'the plants of gratefulness' will bloom which makes people feel: "Good things have happened to me, now it is my turn to return it to the society, now it is my turn to go out of the way." Tears of joy well up my eyes to see the greatest reformers of humankind at work - the Teachers.

Bane of Impatience

"Men by nature long to get on to the ultimate truths, and will often be impatient with elementary studies or fight shy of them. If it were possible to reach the ultimate truths without the elementary studies usually prefixed to them, these would not be preparatory studies but superfluous diversions." -- Maimonides (1135-1204)