“Teachers never die,they live in your memory for ever,they were there when you arrived,they were there when you left,like fixtures…and you never really knew them ,any more than they knew you,still for a while you believed in them…and if you are lucky may there was one who believed in you….”

Wonder Years—”Goodbye”

And if you are very lucky you will have more than one……

When a thought came to my mind of writing something about my old teachers, which of course is something the least I can do at this moment…these wordings came to my mind.It comes from my favorite English series “Wonder Years”.

Everybody usually says the first teacher is their mother, but in my case it was my grandmother.My mother left me for higher studies when I was few months old, and I stayed with my grandmother till  I was 2 1/2years…so she was my mother, I learnt everything from her…I even called her “amma”…I still have the faint memory when my mother came back home after studies and took me to our home…I cried “I want to go to my home and amma”….that is the special relation which even now I share with my grand “mother”…..so she is definitely my first teacher…

My first proper teacher was “Rosamma miss”,she taught me the basics from alphabets to till I was in 10th standard…It was not only a tuition class for me , it was my second school,where everything from homework to exam preparations were done.Usually the tuition classes start one month before school reopening,that is my second school starts in the month of May.Every year my second school reopens with same syllabus ….that is multiplication tables upto the multiples of 12.Every day we would be asked to write in a rapid fire manner random multiplication questions like 2×2 equals, 4×8 equals like that….it was really a rapid fire.As my classes progressed multiplication tables also got some promotion, and we were asked to by heart upto mutiples of 16….Her contributions in moulding me cannot be measured or simplified to this article and it is priceless..I remember her with some grief in my mind as few months back when I paid a visit to her home during Onam,I came to know that our new  school management asked her to resign along with many other old teachers even without a proper sent-off… they may be just employees of that school, but they are more than just teachers for us….

If someone is responsible for me being a doctor now,it must be Thomas Sir.A terror symbol for many,but a real teacher , visionary, religious orator….you cannot tag him with a single name.I studied my plus 2, living at Thomas Sirs Hostel.I will tell 3 instances of my encounter with him.First was when I got chicken pox staying at Sirs hostel, I met another sir to ask for leave…and that was the famous Sunny sir.He told me to meet Thomas Sir before leaving,as per his direction I met Thomas Sir,he fired me with all cylinders for seeing him and staying there so long with Chicken pox…and even called me so many names which  passed through my ears like bullets…only thing I remember is Sunny Sir  signalling from behind…run for your life son…. Speciality of Thomas sir was he used to conduct a famous 9 pm hostel raid,to see all students whether they are studying…even our wardens(who used to start sleeping after 7pm dinner) put alarms to wake up at 9 pm, as Thomas sir was very punctual everyday he used to come at that time…one day he didnt come at 9 pm…so after 9.15 students started moving around,everybody started little relaxing as we thought he would not come.I had a slight eye infection that time  for which I was using drops ,so I asked one of my friends to help me with that.On completion of that act, I opened my eyes to see…..Thomas Sir standing infront of me….this is what you call complete blankness….I was searching for words….but my friend helped in explaining the situation and he left without asking a question….Third and final encounter happened when I got rank in medical entrance and I went to see him, I was gifted with a toffee , and he smiled at me for the first time.

Another teacher who encourged my efforts , and which I consider the best teacher of Chinmaya ,Thrissur is Shobha teacher who is also the vice Principal of Chinmaya.She once told me to take food as I looked so pale and asked me never to skip breakfast .She was the only teacher who encouraged us to study for entrance as well, along with the board exam preparations.In a nightmare school life at Chinmaya for so many reasons , she was my only oasis.

Medical college teachers are more than teachers, they usually are our role models.From their way of dressing,talking,walking,to even how they hold stethoscope attracts every student.I had the privilege of doing my 8th semester medicine with the most soft spoken,calm,intelligent,dynamic teacher Nandakumar Sir.We had our daily morning discussion , which made me realise Harrison was not enough for preparing a topic to present before Nandakumar Sir.Saddest thing is that he left us few months back,owing to an illness which even the top doctors of our medical college failed to diagnose.He was left to the fate “died of fever” like so many common people, a truth hard to digest even now.

Teachers live in our memory , but few live in our hearts…we remember them till our heart beats…..

(Kindly write something about your favourite teacher or person who inspired you the most other than ofcourse your mother in the comments)

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