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September 2010 Issue

Sultan

Sultan Speak - Not what we tell but what we do!

A few years ago I was hosting Horlicks Wizkids in Varanasi. The crowds, narrow streets, tourists, religious fervour all combine to make Varanasi one of the most fascinating cities of the world.

While at Varanasi, a very interesting incident took place during the event. Working backstage, concentration fixed on the flow of the event; I got this frantic call on my ‘walkie-talkie’ from my colleague from the help desk. She muttered at one breath that it was important that I go over immediately. I took a break and rushed to her. When I reached, I noticed that there were two boys, must have been in class 9 or 10 standing beside her. I could read from the look of my colleague’s face that she was very upset with them.

I asked her what the matter was and she said that the two boys were eating ‘gutka’ (tobacco) and that she had decided to take them to task. A quick thought got me suggesting that we take the matter upto their school teacher and promptly I had one of the go to fetch their escorting teacher. After a while a middle aged man walked up to me and asked ‘ka baath hai saar’ (What is the matter sir?) with a mouth full of ‘pan’. I said ‘aap inke teacher ho’ (Are you their teacher?). He said ‘haan sir’ (yes sir), I looked at my colleague, smiled at her and then told him ‘kuch nahi sir aap jaayen’ (nothing sir you may go) and sent back the two boys along with their ‘teacher’.

The kind of influence teachers have on young adults is amazing. ‘It is not what we tell them that matters, what we do when we are with them that matters’. We celebrate September 5th as teachers day in our country, if only all teachers could understand and appreciate the responsibilities that is on them it would make the world a better place to live in.

Recently I had a teacher writing to me about how my articles are biased towards students. She suggested that I focus on the issues that teachers face especially the stress. I agree with her. The kind of treatment meted out to them by the systems in schools, the aggression and disrespect shown by a lot of students these days and the utter humiliation they face at times from parents can be very de-motivating and cause a lot of unnecessary stress. In such a scenario schools can do a lot to enable teachers to grow as individuals and help them in reducing stress levels.

The new trend in the corporate world is to provide a gym for their employees, dance and music classes for them and several other simple and innovative opportunities for them to reduce stress. Schools on the other hand have ready infrastructure to enable this for their teachers if they only make an effort. I was wondering why schools don’t have a PT or games period regularly for teachers, art or music or drama or design periods for them. Here’s wishing all the teachers ‘Happy Teachers Day’