Three People in my life

I was reading a book and it required me think about three people who made magical differences in my life. It dint take me a long time to figure out who these people were, though I was in this thought exercise for the first time. But I was surprised that all three of them turned out to be my teachers. Mr. Benjamin Daniel and Ms. Priya Menon both taught me in Indian School in Oman and Dr. Leena Sen was my Soft Skills trainer in my Post Graduation at IBS, Mumbai. This discovery tripped me to write this. I want to thank all three of them for making me the person I am today, for touching my life and directing me through a way that was the best for me. And sadly I realize that I did not take that path. Not for a long time. 

Mr. Daniel joined my school when I was in grade 7, as my Geography teacher. He taught us English in the next few years. He was the one who brought so many differences and positive changes in our school. His influence on me was phenomenal. He came to the school as the replacement for one of our best teachers, Mr. Ajay Samuel and to be honest, we did not like him at first. But then slowly with him, school became not just studies and boring activities. School became fun. I would like to think about him as a person who initiated free thinking and encouraged us to do everything that we wanted to. To dream, to scream, to laugh out loud, literally. He was amazing in bringing out the creative part in all of us. And I slowly picked up interest in reading and especially, literature. Today when I look back, I understand that it was my first introduction to the world of endless possibilities. Many years after school, we re-connected and how proud I felt when he told me that I was his best student. Thank you, sir.

Ms. Priya Menon was a very beautiful woman. She made us go crazy about books and by the time we were in high school, I became a voracious reader. I fell in love with words. She trained us for extempore competitions and recitations and took us for inter school fests. Once in class she asked us a synonym for the word "saturated" and said anybody who answered will get a treat from her. I did. The word was "satiated". She made me having said it look like an achievement and she took me to Burger King the next day. Now, they seem like those small, trivial things that made the big revolutions in me. Things that gave a different aura for the teacher community in our minds. She was a part of all the fun that we had after school, when we went for tutions and yoga...wow! Those were the best days of my life! I have never before actually thanked her, but have always thought about her with gratitude.

And it was all crazy time in Mumbai. The place was new and people were strange. Dr. Sen was an elderly lady who was very strict and particular especially about dressing and etiquette. Obviously because she was the Soft Skills trainer and one of the eldest among our faculty. She was also the author of the book “Communication Skills” which was the text book for Business Communication in many B Schools. And she didn't like me! We, from her first very first class, seemed to have born hating each other. Well, the reason could have been my immensely poor behaviour and lack of attention in her initial classes, though I am not very sure about it. I had started dreading her classes, and I really struggled to make an impression on her because it was impossible to get ahead in class without good grades in Soft Skills. As days passed, it became difficult for me to go on unless there was some positive energy flowing between us. So there came an activity where we had to speak for 5 minutes about anything that we liked. I chose poetry, for obvious reasons. I spoke on the one poem that has been my favourite always, "My Prayer" by Max Ehrmann. Dr. Sen had given a timer to someone and had asked to stop the speaker in exactly five minutes. I thought my speech was short but I had not finished reciting few lines of the poem after my five minutes and the buzzer went on. I prepared to leave without completing my lines and Dr. Sen gave me a privilege which she did not give any of my classmates. She stopped the buzzer and asked me to continue. I still remember my knees going weak at that moment with excitement. I finished my speech with these lines:

"And though age and infirmity overtake me,
And I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams,
Teach me still to be thankful for life and time's olden memories that are good and sweet
And may the evening's twilight find me gentle still".

I had made my statement. After the huge applause died down, Dr. Sen got up and came to me and told in front of the whole class, "You impressed me. You did not speak, you kissed the words".  And I almost fainted. And she became my best mentor and her classes became my favourite and I became known among my friends as the Kisser of Words :) We discussed so many books and authors late after class hours and she became much more than a teacher to me. She is not among us anymore. I came to know about her death few years back and all I can remember was that I could not speak for hours. I felt so much silence inside me. I have never been able to forget the look in those kind eyes.

These three great people taught me one thing in common. That life was all about identifying your destiny. I made all the wrong choices and here I was, struggling to get up and learn to walk once again, wishing that my school teachers were here to help me. But though they are not here, I had something in me that they taught. Gratitude and hope! I wonder if all three of them remember the few discreet hours we spent discussing gratitude. Though I understood nothing then, I am now aware of the immense power of being thankful for all that life has blessed me with. And the glowing light of hope inside me would lead me. I made mistakes, I learned from them. Ruins are the flames to improvement. So it's alright to fall out sometimes. And I made one big choice to leave behind my experiences and start afresh. Life doesn't come with a user's catalog. Not that I always speak in bumper stickers,  it is just that I know that I can, and I will soon be able to pull up once again and say to myself, Attraversiamo, means in Italian, let's cross over!