Three Ladies In My Life

Mrs Pamela Anwer

When I first met you, you were the HOD taking interviews of English Literature students. I was looking at your beautiful wide eyes. They were so expressive and they still are. You asked me if I read novels and I instantly nodded. I lied to you. In my entire school life, I did not read anything else but CBSE prescribed English Readers. But I didn’t want to lose the chance of being taught by you. Your name fascinated me & so did your hair style. It did so much so that I copy it now when I have become a teacher myself.

Always tried to sit in the front desk, so as to watch you read novels. Your eyes & face emote every single word so well that I had fallen for your art of narration. I would go back home, sit infront of the mirror & try to read the story like you. But I could never create that magic which you created in your classrooms.

You made novels so real that I thought they were your stories. Number of times I tried to imagine you as a sweet little girl running in the woods with beautiful curls on her face.

Always intrigued about your voice, your expressions, your persona and your beautiful wide eyes. I always loved looking at you. Looked at you so much so that I unintentionally picked up a part of your personality in me & made it mine forever.

We had been horrible set of students. Sometimes we made classrooms hell. On one such occasion, we annoyed you beyond all limits. That day you said that we do not oblige you with our presence. You  were right but I always wanted to tell you that you have surely obliged us in several hundred ways which I keep exploring with each new day & each new experience of my life.

Mrs Geeta Budhiraja

When I first saw you giving lectures to our class, I thought of you to be not more than a couple of years older than us. You were married & had a teenaged kid was a shocker not only for me but to all the boys in our class. Your youthful spirit was so infectious that it got all of us. You made a boring subject like Poetry so much interesting that even the least interested ones in the lot would leave everything else to come to your class.

The character of The Wife Of Bath & The Lady Of Shallot became real & interesting. Entangled between phrases, deriving our own interpretation.

I always wonder what is the depth of your patience. What brings that youthful smile on your face when you answer useless questions put up by morons like us. You made us learn how to appreciate the creative & aesthetic part of creation.

I work with a set of 35-45 yrs old people who are not very receptive towards change I handle them with the same patient smile with which you handled the most argumentative & unreasonable students in our class.

It was with your interpretation of poems that you showed me a creative way of expressing self. It was during your classes that I fell in love with the entire field of poetry. It is only because of all this that now I scribble few phrases sometimes & even try to compose poems. I am not a great poet yet, but whenever I will be, I want to make it so big that my poems get recommended in the University course & then you read my poems to several young minds. And I know that only your interpretation can do justice to my creation.

Mrs B Mangalam

Draupadi was only a name in the mythology till you gave her flesh & blood. Your die hard feminism was not just a perspective but a beginning to transform. Transformation of mindset of girls like me who thought they belonged to the weaker sex. You made me think about myself beyond all stereotypes. Beyond all prejudices which ever existed.

You introduced me to theatre & showed a new horizon to my personality. You had faith in me more than I had on myself. Ambitious as you are, you inspired me to create an ambition for myself and follow.

Today when I see young girls sacrificing their aspirations only for the sake of stereotypical expectations of their family & husbands, I stand infront of them with same strength & feministic courage with which   you stood infront  of us & inspired.

Last minute hustle- bustle during our plays. Those emotions attached. That feeling of being there for each other. Celebrations after the success of our plays. You gave me a personality which otherwise would have been caged inside me forever.

I have learned to fly & stand on my feet. Wipe my tears & give shoulder to others. To cling hard to my aspirations & make others realize theirs. To not only live but live on my terms.

I have a little bit of all three of you in me and this little bit will always stay with me, no matter wherever I stay. I am glad that I had spent time with you, happen to see & learn from you. You created me & several others & yet humility never left you. With every part of my heart, I wish to give you the warmth of my love & respect which I have for you.

HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY