It is now my turn to say Thank You to you all

September 5, 2022 was a memorable day for me as 4 of my ex-students, now all senior citizens, came to my residence to wish me Happy Teacher’s Day. They came with flowers and sweet and touched my feet.

It was a rare moment for me. Their gesture, warmth and interest to know my journey in life so far were too much to put in to test my usual composure and emotional resilience. It was 42 years since I taught them Physics at Bhadrak College, when they were my students in Intermediate Science.

I myself returned back last year to my own state Odisha after 40 long years. During this period, I worked with ONGC, all across India for 21 years and 19 years with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in Kuwait. In the intervening period, I lost track of many things- my own batch mates in school, college and university; my own teachers and guides who helped me in becoming who am I now and many more well-wishers who either have migrated out of Odisha or gone to their heavenly abode.

It was really difficult for me to recollect the young faces of them at that time. During the conversation, I became so nostalgic that my thoughts, which had years of practice to be consistent, lost their natural rhythm.

After they left, I could not control my tears. It took a while for me to gather myself and started to roll back in memory the 2 ? years I was at Bhadrak College. After my Masters, I did a brief stint with the Forensic Science Lab, before joining lectureship.

Bhadrak College had a rural setting and most students who came to study here had their schooling in Odia language. They find sudden change in language of expression from Odia to English difficult and subjects like Physics pretty hard to command, that too when professors teach in a melancholy of the bygone era.

To make matters worse, just the previous year American authors (College Physics by Weber, Manning and White) book was introduced at Intermediate Science level. The style and approach of various topics were much different in this book, as compared to the entry level Physics books by Indian authors used earlier. Just like the students, we professors were also finding it a bit difficult, particularly the exercises.

In order to help the students, I put a board on the department wall and the solved exercises were put there on regular basis. I used to solve them and my senior honours students used to write them on papers and pinned them in the board. It was an instant hit amongst the students and I found them crowding the place at all possible times to make copies of these on their note book.

In my regular class, I used to give short dictation of major points for each chapter and then went on to solve odd problems in the general class. I remember, I never took the attendance for 128 students in a class, as that would take appreciable amount of time out of a 50-minute period. I used to make minimal use of the board and make them write down the salient points which I slowly and with pause used to dictate, while moving along the steps of the gallery.

On popular demand, after the whole college classes I used to have an extra class and I was pleasantly surprised to find near full attendance even at such late hours.

On that day, I was reflecting back on what my 4 ex-students (now 61 / 62 years in age) told me. What was that separated me from my fellow professors, while I was one of the junior-most in the department? I touched their heart through my unselfish and relentless service to make them understand the difficult subject like Physics.

I was touched to the core of my heart when they all said, in the intervening 42 years, they had not visited any of their ex-teachers. I feel a sense of gratitude to their young and innocent minds, which I could resonate then with my heart-to-heart connection. At that time, I had little idea of what I was doing and seeing their sincere reaction after such long interval, my heart filled with ever-compassing love for them and I feel proud to have them as my student.

Till date, I cherished the plaque given to me by my students in 1980 when I left Bhadrak College. Though in the intervening years I won many accolades, which includes awards from C &MD’s of both ONGC and KOC, this one has a special place in my book-shelf.

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?In the intervening years, this stint at Bhadrak college had inspired me to become a mentor, trainer and a coach. My life’s mission is now to help people transform in their thinking and belief to discover their own authentic self first and then to find the leader within themselves.

I can only sincerely thank you all, my ex-students of Bhadrak College, to reignite the same old spark which I have anchored within myself. Now it is my turn to say Thank You to you all.