Recollections of a retired teacher

He became a teacher by accident. He was originally a manager and then kicked upstairs into Corporate Learning. He was given the responsibility of training young managers. Well, it was not entirely an accident, for he had a propensity for sharing knowledge which made him think, in one of his most optimistic moods, that he was a natural teacher. But he had to spend enormous time compiling, gathering and organizing knowledge for titles decided by seniors.

The titles covered a vast spectrum, from psychology to strategy.

But the process became a routine of intense preparation and passionate delivery. ?In due course, preparation actually turned out to be time bound, and truncated research while delivery turned out to be presentation of case studies.

Looking back, he has never been original. All ideas taught by him had been invented by others. He ended up being a parrot; a self-proclaimed evangelist of borrowed principles. The glory and halo were evanescent and lasted till the audience received the references of original sources. The teacher and the students both appeared as learners in the end,

He lost count of the students he has trained. Should have crossed ten thousand.

He lost track of the places he has toured for teaching; they were far too many. There had been long waiting’s at airports and railway stations.

When times changed, knowledge structures he had painstakingly built turned irrelevant and disintegrated. ?The teacher retired.

After retirement it was easy to empty his head of the mission oriented subjects and fall back to a blank ground state. His active memory has become selective.

In retrospect, he has spent his life assimilating, explaining, and interpreting and simplifying what others have said. ?He can no longer bask in the wisdom of others - scientists, historians, travelers and thinkers. After all he has done a small service to a small audience. He has taught, not created knowledge.

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