×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

To sir, with love

Last Updated 06 September 2017, 18:57 IST

Teacher’s Day is behind me, and as I switch on my music system, the song To sir with love from Erith Braithwaite’s path breaking book on a teacher who is a change-maker in the lives of a rapscallion band of teenagers, plays in the background. Much like that band of teenagers, I, too, had a lecturer, who completely changed the lives of my friends and I, making us set out — as one of my schools used to proclaim its motto — “In Pursuit of Excellence.”

I still recall the day I first saw Dr Rao. He was sitting in a small room surrounded by senior students of English Literature, who were busy helping the freshers fill forms for entry into Sri Venkateshwara College, Delhi.Back then, all I could think of was that he was certainly a pleasant-faced person.

After I joined SVC, as it was jokingly referred to among its “inmates,” I soon came to know a lot more about Dr Rao. He was known to all as a sensational lecturer, one whose classes were always jam-packed. Even the “errant students” made it a point to attend his classes.

If someone asked me what it was
about Professor Rao that made his classes so inspirational, I would say it was the manner in which Sir connected with us, so we could picture archaic texts from another century in an easy manner.

I still recall that day when Sir began teaching us Odyssey, the famed book by Homer. Truth be said, the unabridged version was way too abstruse for all of us to go through. Dr Rao, however, made it all as easy as a pie by stepping into our shoes. He knew our love for movies and songs, and offered us some help with his “creative visualisation.”

“Imagine Shahrukh at a climactic scene ready to jump off a cliff. Yes, Odysseus was about to do the same…” he had said. When we finally walked out of class that day, all the girls in class had stars in their eyes; no, not for Shahrukh Khan, but for the brave Odysseus!

As for romantic scenes such as the one where Nausicaa, the beauteous maiden, falls in love with Odysseus, Sir introduced Karisma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon, who were both the heartthrobs of many then! “Behold Nausicaa looking upon coyly at the magnificent Odysseus, as a Karisma or a Raveena looks on at the hero, completely entranced.” All thanks to Dr Rao, the Odyssey was so magically transformed into a gripping narrative, complete with thrills and chills, that not one student ever slept in these classes.

Three years flew by, and soon we were proud graduates, each to metamorphose into an adult of repute in the years to come. I would like to believe that wherever Dr Rao is today, he appreciates my transformation from a timid child into a confident, cheery adult, often putting in, as Churchill would have said, “blood, sweat, toil, and tears” into every endeavour of mine. And, like that teenager in that eponymous movie, let me sing for Sir, too: How do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 06 September 2017, 18:57 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT