To Sir, with love

This is my father, Z. S Chhikara. Octogenarian ( Ahmm ahmmm), lives in Delhi.

For many, my father is a beloved Teacher and Principal from their alma mater Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. He is recipient of President Award, conferred by India's President (Late.) A P J Abdul Kalam. After 35 years of active teaching, Pa went on to serve in the Department of Communal Harmony in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Pa now runs his NGO and supports various villages of Haryana. Pa went to BITS Pilani and Univ. of Reading in UK. Now all of this is long time back.

Pa's success is measured not by his merit and scholarship backed education, however it is measured by the love that he continues to receive from his ex-students, colleagues, juniors, team members and from families his NGO supports.

I wonder what makes a teacher, mentor, leader great? Greater than others? What are those qualities that sets them apart ? What is it about the leadership style that we cannot define in ranks and levels and job titles? Why are some leaders loved, respected and appreciated? .. the leaders that inspire? The leaders that are remembered forever?

I will come back to my Pa's story again here. Fast forward now, this year, Pa is Student number #XXXX970 at IGNOU and pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is going to sit in classroom with kids 1/4th his age and will learn. He will learn from teachers ( I bet younger teachers), read books, he will ask questions in the class, learn from other students, take feedback, take notes, read more, practice, apply - try - test, and he will know that he does not know enough- so he will learn more.

'Paradox of knowledge' of course - the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know. It reminds us of the vastness of the unknown and the never-ending nature of the pursuit of knowledge.

Pa's quest for knowledge is well known, he wanted to pick up Gen AI as his learning subject, however picked journalism. ( Thank God - RNN, CNN, Transformer, LSTM, GAN, MoE .. he said next year for sure).

I believe that there are some common qualities that makes great leaders, great mentors, great teachers.

• the curiosity to learn - to get better, to be able to give more, guide others better
• the humbleness to stay a student - to feel comfortable to be surrounded by smarter people and making learning a common mission
• to be able to inspire others with action- leading by example and not by instructions

Organizations are putting efforts and focus in constant learning, it is not just to stay current on the new technologies, but also to bring the teams together in a constant pursuit of knowledge. Teams bond on a common mission to learn and serve their customers better.

Only the 'curious' ask questions. Only the 'curious' look for solutions. Only the 'curious' will challenge and help drive change for good.

Remember Steve Job's 2005 Stanford commencement speech, the part of it was- 'Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice.?And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.? Stay Hungry , Stay Foolish'

Committing to your learning is your biggest responsibility.

Juggling work-life-learning is a fine balance akin to mind-body-soul. Act of learning, like finishing a certificate course / a book/ or an online certification means that you are efficiently allocating resources (time and money) , intelligently investing time, demonstrating self motivation and discipline. It means you are setting your goals and acting on it. It inspires others to do the same.

Learning is crash course in itself about all important life-skills.

I am sure , Pa's students will be elated to read this. As a young 80 something years old, he will be soon seen at Jamia University's department of Mass Communication high -fiving with fellow students, debating on ethical reporting , countering fake news and explainable AI for news algorithms.

To Sir, with Love - happy learning.