When I set out on the path to become an educator, about 16 years ago, I was on a high! Armed with skills and knowledge and fired by my idealistic dreams, I was confident that I would be able to make a difference. You dear students brought me down to earth with a crash! You made me realise how little I questioned or wondered and how easily I accepted what was given. You taught me to ask the unasked questions, to think ‘out of the box’, search and look beyond tex tbooks. If it weren’t for your constant pestering, your colossal amount of doubts and ‘What ifs?’, I would have never been on the path of rediscovery. A rediscovery of the natural world, of the connections and linkages between disciplines, of the thrill of looking at concepts from multiple perspectives. I would have been plodding along mechanically and would have become rusty and lifeless. It is thanks to you that I am constantly thinking of ways to innovate.
Mind duel
There were innumerable times when you pushed me to my wit’s end. There were times when I could have cheerfully gagged each one of you and made you listen to what I had to say. There were times aplenty when I had wished that each one of you possessed only your hearing/receiving faculty.This would have made it easy for me to complete the syllabus in peace. The strands of grey in my hair and the wrinkles on my forehead are my battle honours. The ones I have earned in my tough mind duels with you.
Yet I need to thank you for many things too. For the quest within me, the insatiable hunger to learn more, the humility to never take anything for granted. You have helped me experience what Einstein so eloquently said — “The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.”
