My Teaching Journey!

Everybody needs something in life to pursue to keep up and rocking his levels of sanity...
For me this has been teaching!
The catharsis...
The nirvana...
The journey and the destination...

It’s been some good old 13 years since I started...
I was in Class 12th I remember...just freshly passed from school...hmm...in the year of 1996 and a month later I got a call from the Principal’s office that our teacher who took up Political Science for classes 11th and 12th had fallen seriously ill and they couldn’t find a substitute. And since I had scored 96% in the subject in the boards, she felt I was suitable enough to do that job. What an incomparable high! For a couple of days I think, I must have made cloud 9 my heavenly abode...

So there I was rubbing shoulders with all my teachers in the staff room as peers...just about a month later from passing out of my convent as a student. I was getting the first hand experience of all the gossip which we always wondered about as to what went on in the staff room’s closely guarded walls and needless to say I was enjoying it. I had shifted gears and the ride was taking new dimensions. The students I was teaching were all my buddies for I had a great rapport with my juniors, having spent hours cracking all the non-veg jokes or giving agony-aunt types advice (yup, I am doing it since then) on their blooming love lives. Yet I had managed to catch their attention this time as an educationist. They were ready to take me seriously when I was teaching and just as I would leave their classroom door and thereby my teacher garbs to step on to the corridor...I would get a dose of the latest gossip and scandals doing the round.

After two months of teaching Political Science, our Economics teacher left school suddenly and so I took up her shoes for another three months. I knew it then that this was my true calling. To be able to connect with a listener in such a way that he doesn’t only give you his rapt attention, but understands the import of what you are saying and most significantly what you have said made a difference to his perception, comprehension and intellect...I thought and still think that there’s nothing better than that!

Soon private coaching lessons followed up as the good word spread within my school of how proficient I was at bringing home the subject...please remind me when I am going overboard with self-praise...I wouldn’t stop...I’d just rephrase it to make it look more natural! By god’s grace everyone thought I was anyways awesome- being the Head Girl, Chief Editor of my school magazine, School’s Chief Spokesperson and the pet of all teachers, students, servants alike. So I think many students came knocking at my door just because they were in something of an awe of me as the Head Girl irrespective of my skills! As pompous as it sounds, for some it was just getting the whiff of being around me...mostly girls at that time, so those imaginative horses might take a rest. Again at the risk of sounding highly pretentious here...let me please declare...What a superstar-ish feeling it was!

From a handful to a couple of dozen senior girls and boys and soon the strength augmented to about fifty children that I was taking up during the course of the week...My hands were busy all day either in correcting notebooks or in collecting the money that was being showered from all corners. For an eighteen something...so much dough in hand could have been a head spinning experience! And I also indulged...not just on me but on people all around me...I gifted my mum a microwave...most of my brother’s wardrobe was sponsored by me...I spent on my friends buying them gifts they secretly cherished...and of course gave in to my own fetishes when I went down the market aisles...and of course did my share of hoarding too. In my own way I was realizing the luxury of splurging as well as the value of hard earned cash and though extravagant, yet i was selective in my spending abilities to get the full penny’s worth.

I got bigger batches, got attached to coaching centres and developed a sweet little fan following of sorts. All day I basked in the glory of being surrounded by books and happy, peppy faces who thought coming to me was more fun than studies could rarely be! I would blush and smile in admiration of students who would unabashedly declare that I was their favourite teacher and some would just look at my face while I read instead of reading the text book...more so to get me peeved than anything else!

And this journey continues....
I got married...switched to a new locality but managed to pursue my passion and to continue carving my niche...
Most students even after passing out from my hands remain in touch as they move out into the world...and the satisfaction of seeing them mould beautifully is akin to what a parent may feel for them...
May be momentary for me...but it brings me inexplicable pleasure and I say my little silent prayer to the almighty for being so kind to me. As of now...during peak time, the strength of my students touches a 100 sometimes...and I am glad that I end up managing them all as well as continue to trot on in the web of life surrounding me otherwise...
If asked whether I would have it any different....
NEVER....
Not for a million other temptations!