After several years in the corporate, I wanted to shift to academics. Easier thought than doable. I got my first break in 2008 to teach the Masters Class in the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Calcutta. Interview was taken by the Vice Chancellor Dr. Suranjan Das on the recommendation of the Head of the Department Prof. Dr. Tapati Basu.
I taught, Public Relations, Marketing & Advertising and Media Management.
I always wanted to be a teacher. My mother was a Head Mistress in Ushagram School in a remote railway hamlet called Adra, in the Border of Bengal and present Jharkhand. After we grew up she again took up teaching in Lady Brabourne. So every morning you had a teacher getting you ready and reaching you to School.
So much was my urge that I started my own school at home. In the terrace I opened my own school and went about the locality to gather students. It was difficult. Children of the house-helpers, drop outs and stray street children were my students. They came empty handed and it was my responsibility as a teacher to provide them with text and exercise books, pencils erasers, rulers. Over and above I had to make sitting arrangements and get a black board. Sometimes even a morsel of food saved from my own 'tiffin'.
The pencils, text books were not a problem as I went door to door to collect old books. The copy book hurdle was crossed as unfinished exercise books were torn to preserve the neat pages to be re-stapled to get a new copy. What was most difficult was to provide them a seat every day. For this I stole newspapers from my father’s library so that they could sit on top of it resulting in occasional yells of missing papers from the chronologically kept piles. The punishment was a singular swipe with the ruler in each stretched hands. The Black Board was a part of the wall painted black with ‘Black Japan’ tar paint. This play school continued for a long time supported by my mother and slowly faded away with the absence of students. How log could I run after them?
My eagerness to become a teacher grew as I passed through the school seeing so many good teachers when I was at primary school. My Class 3 teacher, Miss Murcott, was just wonderful. Her lessons were hilariously fun. My strongest memory is learning speed reading with her. We loved it. I wanted to be Miss Murcott. So, I really knew I'd be a teacher from the age of eight. I was really lucky through my whole primary school years with my teachers and it got more interesting at the High School. We had a line of interesting teachers including Mr. Rajan Bala, the cricket commentator who taught us history. The classes were more a commentary on history than a lesson or a discourse of sought. And off course there was Mr. Rozario, whom I remember every moment. The teacher responsible for teaching me English and all the writings that you read. That any essay has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. That you must break every new idea, every separate thought into paragraphs. For some reason he took a liking to me and made me the 'Reader'. Every day in the class I had to read aloud to the class, sometimes acted out passages from Shakespeare, Dickens and poems of Shelly and Keats.
Then I got involved in scouting and it shifted to teaching the young cubs and fresh scouts the art of tying a rope and lighting a fire. Through college there were moments where I had other career paths in mind, but then I began to take 'tuitions’ for students and got back to teaching in a way.
I began to volunteer at the Don Bosco Night School for the local children and that’s when I noticed the positive effect that I could have on a child’s life. I began to notice that I could encourage even the most challenging of pupils to complete work by introducing interesting and exciting ways to get them to think about what they were doing. It’s amazing watching the kids grow and become confident learners.
My father died when I was in the last year at St. Xavier’s, so that made it tough for me for my post graduate degrees, which I completed with much difficulty. Now I’m sure you’ve all heard the cliché “If you can’t get something out of your head, maybe it’s supposed to be there.” Well I took this on board and after two years on my job at Anandabazar Patrika Group I wanted, and set out along a new path but that was not possible. But I continued my teaching spree in the form of training programme, marketing of space and magazine layout and design.
I waited many years as I continued in the corporate world and then one day I just decided that I am going to teach. I left and took up teaching in earnest. Teaching at all levels from street children to universities. From B School to School B. To St. Xavier's where they carry a halo around their head to street children whose face lit up on the recognition of 'h' is for hello.
If I had to pick my favourite thing about being a teacher, it would definitely be those “light bulb” moments, when you have explained something to the pupil and you can see that they understand it. Now, I can’t wait to enter my own classroom and classes, but does my enthusiasm and passion for becoming a teacher mean that all of my students will always like me? No. Will every day be a brilliant success? Definitely not. However, I know that during my time as a teacher I will have a massive impact on students’ lives and will have influenced my pupils in a positive way.
I always wanted to teach. I love teaching. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't. I take all the bad with the good. Like when the students come back later and say it was their best year or when I know I've turned students around to learning. You don't do it for those end of term thank you cards, but you do get some nice comments in your Remark Book.
The students are brilliant. In many ways we sell them short. We should ask them what they want for their education; they know what they want and if we help set their expectations higher they will go for it. I see a big part of my job is to expose them to higher aspiration beyond wanting a job.
Moments
