“Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.”

–          Luka and the Fire of Life – Salman Rushdie

Sickness brings out the worst in you. Okay I take that back. A lot of things bring out the worst in you. But sickness, physical ailment makes you think of things once impossible. The above quote was something that played in mind while reading the Rushdie book. Gifted man he is. Especially for those of us who cannot write fiction. Bringing back the worst, since yesterday I’m convinced that I suffer from Parkinson’s. I clearly do not, but the medication has made me weary and drowsy that I almost became convinced of it.

Like a few of my other posts, this may seem haphazard as well. It might be partially influenced by too much sleep, too little energy and grogginess from meds.

Ideally, I would’ve liked to write this while in India but circumstances were such that the last week proved to be physically exhausting, mentally traumatising and of course psychologically overbearing.

It never occurred until I went to college for the last time how much I would miss my teachers.

Teachers had always played not a very important role, but a fairly significant role in my life. Despite not remembering their faces, I can list out most, if not all teachers who taught me throughout my twenty something years.

A friend of mine recently said that teaching was one of unappreciated jobs. To an extent I agree. It is like parenting I guess. You take it for granted. Being a teacher however is no piece of cake either. It drains the life and soul and whatever else that reside in you.

I always considered teachers to be bodies of knowledge with wisdom coming out of their ears. I still do. Which is why when someone asked if I wanted to teach after I was done with college, I wondered how I would fill my ears with little snippets of knowledge and anecdotes of wisdom? How will I transmit what I know, or at least I think I know, to a group of people whom I think that don’t know anything? My last-class teacher told us that we are all limited by the knowledge we know. There is so much that we don’t know and through teachers, I’ve realised that it is alright to not-know. Despite the many fantasy-ridden novels I’ve been reading since of recent, I know it’s not possible to know-it-all and there is no shame in saying so.

Teachers are fascinating people. I think teachers should also try to be like Mr Lorry from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities; try to compartmentalise their lives for their well-being. The very good teachers are not necessarily those who empathise, but those who make that extra effort to ensure that their students get the best of what they have to offer. Those who ask students like me, “What happens to you during an exam?” Lols.

So here is to all the great teachers who taught me. I hope you are eternal and timeless entities who will continue to impart your oceans of knowledge and mostly relentless encouragement to not-so motivated students like myself.

On a closing note, I would also like to observe two things:

i)                   I sincerely hope all my teachers would pass me in all my papers 🙂

ii)                 I think I am able to enter the realm of ‘fiction’ only during an exam. My imagination knows no bounds and my writing becomes anything but that which is affiliated to the question paper 🙂