To
My Class Teacher,
Miss Sudeshna,
Too rational to dream, too logical to be emotional. That’s exactly how the world speeds on its racing wheels today. In this world of mechanized mobility, where every soul is so hungry to trample imagination and embrace logic, I still believe in miracles. I believe in love, trust, dreams, passion. I love to shudder at the undulations of my emotions, to revel in its entrancing charm and to dive into its abyss.
When every voice around me suppressed my inner self and tarnished my very emotional existence to join the mainstream of logic, there was a hand on my shoulder who entered my life like a tranquil moonlight on a pitch dark sky who uttered to me the words which I needed the most, “It’s a blessing to be emotional, feel it”.
As I look back down the memory lane today to reminisce the best two years of my life from senior secondary school, I perceive you not just as a teacher who taught academics but the person who enabled the young minds in front of her to enlighten the inner being in themselves, to ace the tender souls so effortlessly, to gauge the impulsive teens sympathetically, to be the best version of ourselves, to push limits and extend ‘comfort zones’.
What does a teacher stand for in a student’s life? A pile of books, a milieu of red marks on the answer scripts, raging red eyes of reprimanding and a ceaseless exchange of notes and files. Astonishingly, I can not relate anything of this to you.
To me, you are the person who entrusted me with the faith to speak in front of the entire auditorium when I was just a naive,under-confident kid, too shy to glance at the panoramic view of the audience. My throat churned, sweat trickled down my spine, the microphone in my hand trembled tremendously yet you looked straight into my eyes with an unwavering gaze whispering, “You can do it!”.
I failed then, in fact miserably. But I feel if the fire inside me had not been ignited that day, I could never have shattered by the hollow shell in which I was cocooned.
The one who taught me it’s truly a blessing to imagine beyond logic, to feel intrinsically and exactly what the fast-paced world fails to envision, to look forward each day to bettering one’s true self, to believe in oneself, to reach beyond the realm of books to enrich oneself as a better human being, to gauge one’s success by the number of smiles we share is the one who mentored me through the most vulnerable phase of my life, not just as a teacher, but as a mentor.
Truly, it is impossible for me to pen down my feelings in one letter. But every time I was on the verge of giving up, I closed my eyes just to reminisce that spark of faith in your eyes that peered at me through your rimmed spectacles as the words “You can” reciprocated in my ears.
A lady who is courageous enough to challenge stereotypes and instil the responsible and equitable spirit in each individual, a mentor who polishes the best traits of each student to extend peripheries that we have created for ourselves, a person who dares to make others dream is what I idolize you to be.
When the world turned against me and threatened my very capability to success, you stood by me to say that I am worthy of much more. You don’t deserve just a day of recognition and acknowledgement. Every success of mine and in fact, every student, is just a reflection of your dedication, encouragement and trust that you have reposed in us with to groom us into ladies whose voices have an opinion instead of succumbing to any blind stigmatization.
The warmest hug after winning my first debate, the veiled tears as I left the classroom on the last parent-teacher meeting, the constant and ceaseless support and trust in spite of all my flaws, the spirit of persistence to bring out the extraordinary from a very ordinary girl, the perspective to perceive schooling as something beyond academics into a genuine human being, the words which stirred my heart every day, the puny acts of kindness which made me trust in the goodness of mankind, that’s who you are.
The smiles and hope your presence reiterate which made my heart ache to believe in love and miracles, the joy that oozed out of the simple pleasures of life like a blossoming flower ushering in the whirl of exuberance and ecstasy and the list is endless, ceaselessly proliferating through the realms of memories that constitute ‘my class teacher’.
Miss, maybe you were impeccably correct in your words….”It’s a blessing to feel “. The very emotions with which you lightened up my day every day intangibly yet inexorably as you instilled the enchanting charm of rejoicing in the magnificence of the nothingness of ordinary life. I humbly thank you for the very aura and perspective you have given to my life. Maybe I am emotional as I witness gut-wrenching lows and mounting highs as they tickle through my journey, but it’s the same trait that gives me the essence of who I am.
Thank you again for keeping my emotional being alive. May you continue giving wings to the sails of such young minds with your charm, dynamicity and the very ‘real you’.
Happy Teacher’s Day, Miss.
From Shreya.