A Letter to my Teacher!

Dear Teacher,

I hope that you all are in the pink of your health!

This day, today, when I close my eyes and reminiscence my days gone by, I would like to pay obeisance to one and all of you who have, in various earthly forms, been an influencer in shaping me into what I am today.

You, my dear teacher, I have met at every moment of life, where you have made concerted efforts to engrain in me the values, ethic and discipline that will hold me in good stead and the knowledge which will make me a responsible social and professional character.

The beauty of this whole interactive experience between you and me, surprisingly, have taken place more frequently and influentially outside of the four walls called a classroom. Beyond the classroom, you have met me as my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, my wife, my friend, my colleague, my boss, and now, more importantly and recently, as my daughter!

You have diligently made efforts to inculcate within me the values and virtues of discipline, respect and trust through tangible and intangible knowledge.

I hope, today, as I stand before the world, I am able to make you feel proud of your efforts.

Today, I seek strength from one and all of you, to give me the ability to impart those values, ethics, discipline and knowledge to my daughter which will help her in good stead in her yonder years!

Though it may seem a little clichéd this day, I still would like to convey my heartfelt Thanks on this wonderful Teacher’s Day.

May you all have the power to bestow your blessings to one and all of your students!

With best regards and Love,

Rajib Bhattacharjee

I choose to “live”!

I don’t know this road but I like to believe it goes somewhere. For now, I like to walk on it. May be I won’t like the place it takes me to, may be I will regret having left the place I was at. But nothing can take away the joy of walking on this road, now, that is a reality.

Is it important to love the destination? Or is it important to love the journey? It is the same question of weighing “what will be” to “what is”, of deciding to “live” rather than “live for”.

I choose to “live”!

© Swati Ramanujam, Tuesday, 3^rd April 2012, 12:01 pm on her Facebook post

This above piece, or rather, a masterpiece, of an assortment of simple words put together, is of such weight, depth and magnitude, that I could not resist being drawn to it and subsequently poaching it (with permission from the brains that coined it, of course), so that I can share it with you all.

This would be beyond my capability and ability to try and fathom the extent of the message above, and more so, about the person who houses such a grey matter at the place where it matters! However, I am going to make an effort, punitive though it might be from the perspective of the author, to showcase the author from my perspective!

I share a strange association with the author (‘relationship’ is certainly not the right word). A brief background to this effect is imperative to bring out the perspective of my inferences.

I got in touch with her about 4 years back when I joined a new concern. Not that we have had formal introductions from day one; but we did slowly get acquainted through our work. I always did find her being authoritative and possessive leading to aggressive, about her work and her team. She always did put a price on her efforts and time (‘any job not worth 5L as INCOME is not worth racking one’s brain about’).

Watching her from across the table during meetings, I always found her in three conversations at the same time – one that was taking place at the meeting; one that was taking place with her team on certain deliverables of another client; and, the one, more importantly, that was doing the rounds inside the frontal lobe of her cerebrum! I do not still know, if this qualifies and classifies under ‘multi-tasking’.

To me, she is a loner! She is an introvert under the garb of being an extrovert (am I coining a new species here, or this species exist…more on this later in my blog!). She loves words and lives in her world of words. To her, words are her weapon to reasoning! In her world of analysing facts and data, in her world of rationalising action, in her world of transforming numbers, in her world of making sense out of nonsense, she understands the essence of words and thence plays with it.

I always did observe her to be a vociferous reader, delving into any topic that interests her. She always did share her reads on the social media. You would also find her popping in and out of reading material sites as a person who had visited the site and read a plethora of topics on offer.

I still cannot classify her to be a friend, acquaintance, colleague or someone whom I know. You will have observed, all that I have said, or rather wrote about her, is and will only be my observation (not interaction) of her in a work environment.

But, I am proud to have her on my FB friend list (one that she accepted, or rather, should I say, granted my request). Proud to have someone who is having the capability of using simple words to reason out complexities of life, work and relationships.

Why did this certain piece, amongst the gems that she did sometimes throw around on the FB, draw my attention and interest? I must have read this piece almost about umpteem times, by now, and am sure will keep reading it in times to come. I have also edited the same when I put it here on the blog (notice the “!” at the end).

I have also debated with myself, whether, the last sentence of the first para should read as, “But nothing can take away the joy of walking on this road. Now, that is a reality.” OR as “But nothing can take away the joy of walking on this road, now. That is a reality.” I have decided to respect the thoughts of the author and you are reading the piece the way she had written.

This piece stares at me and reminds me, of me and my professional journey.

To those who know me through this journey in time, to those who have met me during different times in this journey, to those with whom I have had the pleasure of association in this journey, to those who have been magnanimous to have taken this journey with me during some part of time, to those who are still walking along with me, this is ME!

I choose to “live”!