teachers

A friend of mine was complaining about how an ongoing political agitation had sent her child’s education for a toss. Schools restarted and the teachers were doggedly force-feeding chunks of English, maths and the rest into minds which had yet to wake up from the haze of unexpected holidays.

That got me thinking of my own teachers. I believe a good teacher is one of the greatest gifts you can get in your life. I’ve had the privilege of not one but two.

When I was in high school I had an English teacher, Sr. Laetitia. She was well over 60 even then, graceful in her age but with the passion to teach of a woman half her years. She also had a persistent wheezing problem which interfered more often than not with her regular life. Yet when she stepped foot into our class, everything else disappeared except her, the blackboard and the book she managed to transport us into. We wept for Caesar, we carved out a place for Kipling in our minds and his ‘If’, we admired the stoic old man and his sea--- we crossed space and time with her! She was relentless in her pursuit to educate, and we used to joke that our vocabulary was on a growth spurt in her classes!

This led me to think that among all that you learn in school, the most enduring is perhaps language. It’s difficult to unlearn and unlikely to be forgotten if you speak it on a regular basis or are a native speaker. Yes, you may forget the quotes, muddle up the poets and their lines – but you still have the essence in you. And for that Sr.Laetitia, wherever you are, I am eternally grateful.

After I did my post graduation in dermatology, I worked for a time under a consultant on a voluntary basis. Dr.Raghuram Rao was of the old school He paid attention to detail, was committed to updating himself and his students on the most recent advances, and was generous with praise when he thought they deserved it. He was also a clinician par excellence with a genuine desire to share his knowledge and ability with the younger generation. I learnt the nuances of the practice of dermatology from him and that is a big step away from what the books teach. It’s almost like crystallizing what he would have learnt over 40 odd years of trial and error into a single one or two for his student – because unlike many doctors he was never insecure. Generous to a fault, he never gave me fish, but he taught me how best to get it myself – that I believe is the epitome of a great teacher.

Every day in my practice I see a lot of patients; I listen to them; I help them out. Every day I also say a silent thank you to my teachers.