Good morning/Good afternoon/Good evening my friends, wherever
you are! This is 8:00am. 5th September, 2015, Saturday in India. Hope you are
doing well there!
5th September, is a special day for all
the Indian. India has been celebrating Teacher's Day on 5th September, since
1962. The day commemorates the birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakhrishnan, a
philosopher and a teacher par excellence, and his contribution towards Indian
education system. Dr Radhakhrishnan believed that "teachers should be the
best minds in the country".
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| Dr Sarvepalli Radhakhrishnan |
On this day, we gratefully remember the great
educationist, apart from honoring all the teachers that have made our life much
more knowledgeable and fulfilled, as serving as our beacons of light.
To salute all the teachers, I want share some more stories of
some respected teachers of India.
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| Savitribai
Phule |
Savitribai
Phule was a social reformer who along with her husband,
Rashtrapita Jyotirao Phule, played an important role in changing the women’s
rights in India. Savitribai Phule is the first female
teacher of the first women's school in India and it wasn't an easy job! She started
a school for girls in 1948 along with her husband; it was a cause for outrage
in the Bramhin-dominated city of Pune.
Life was never easy for Phule as a teacher in the
school, upper caste people were against setting up school for the girls. They pelted
stones at her and threw dung on her. She faced oral abuse from all quarters of
the village. During this time Phule also voiced her views against child
marriage and Sati.
When the village was struck with plague, she relentlessly helped the kids and
used to hand feed about 2000 children. Unfortunately, she succumbed to plague
and died in the year 1897.
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| Nissim Ezekiel |
Nissim Ezekiel was an Indian Jewish poet born to a
family of teachers in Mumbai. It is said Mahatma Gandhi brought simplicity and
clarity to Modern Indian-English prose and Ezekiel made Indian-English poetry
easy for the people.
Ezekiel started his career as a head of the Department of English in Mumbai and
also was a visiting professor at the University of Leeds. He translated many
Indian poems and was considered to be a world renowned critic and playwright.
During his time Ezekiel guided many poets on the
ways to approach the poem. He spent many of his years in Mumbai reading and
making literature easy for school students.
He was also awarded with the Padma Shri and in the
year 2004, he died of Alzheimer.
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| Dr
Manmohan Singh |
Long before he
became the Prime Minister of India, Dr
Manmohan Singh was a teacher. He has held various teaching
positions in the Panjab University, Delhi School of Economics, University of
Delhi and the Jawaharlal Nehru University among others.
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| Rambhau Kundgolkar |
Rambhau Kundgolkar, born in the year 1886 was
popularly known as Sawai Gandharva. He was a well known Hindustani vocalist and
an avid follower of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan.
Sawai Gandharwa was from Kundgol, twenty km south of Hubli, in Karnataka.
Although not from a musical family, he developed interest in music from a very
young age. After discontinuing his education, Pt. Gandharva's father put him to
Balwantrao Kolhatkar .From Kolhatkar, Gandharva learned many compositions and
also mastered a few taala. Kolhatkar died in 1898, leaving Pt. Gandharva with
no one to guide.
Sawai created his own students who are presently following his legacy. They
acknowledge him as a great trainer who had made them great artists. Some of his
students were Gangubhai Hangal, Basvaraj Rajguru and Pt.Feroze Dastur
In 1942, at the age of 56, his career ended after he suffered a paralytic
stroke. However, he continued to teach till he died in the year 1952.
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| Ustad
Alla Rakha Khan |
The greatest
exponent of the tabla, Ustad
Alla Rakha Khan or Alla Rakha Qureshi was also a beloved
teacher to many, many students.
Known as Abbaji
to his disciples, he liked most of his contemporaries ran away from home to
learn the musical instrument of his choice.
Eventually he
would become the first artist to play a tabla solo at the All India Radio --
making everyone sit up and acknowledge the importance of the instrument that is
usually an accompaniment to string instruments or vocals.
By playing with
Hindustani as well as Karnatic musicians, Alla Rakha bridged the gap between
the two styles of music.
During the peak
of his career, Pt Ravi Shankar would only play with Alla Rakha at concerts in
India and abroad.
Quereshi was also the teacher for two world famous
tablaists, who are also his sons. Zakir Hussain and Fazal Quereshi are now
leading the legacy built by their father.
Quereshi was able to teach and produce two of the
greatest jewels for Indian music, made him one of the best gurus in the
world.
Alla Rakha died on 3 February 2000 in Shimla due to a heart attack, which he
suffered on realizing the death of his daughter, Razia.
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| RK Narayan |
The man who gave
us some of the most endearing stories of Swami, his friends and Malgudi was
once a teacher though for a very, very short while. He is RK Narayan, who failed a
year and took four years to complete his BA was never really taken in by the
idea of having a full-time job.
According to RK
Ramchandran -- his younger brother -- after he completed his graduation, his
father insisted that he get himself a paying job because he never thought of
writing as a secure profession.
So using some
contact, he got the author a teaching position at a school Chennapatna near
Mysore.
As it happened
the headmaster asked him to substitute for a physical training master. Narayan
protested but was shown the book which said that he would have to perform any
duty that would be asked of him.
So even as the
boys waited for their drill master to arrive, Narayan put in his papers and
returned to Mysore. And that was the
first and last job he ever held!
There are so many teacher's are there in India; who deserve to be appreciated. Here I mention those, whom I can remember now!
Well’ that’s all for today! Take care of
your family and yourself! Have a good day/ afternoon/evening/night! Namaskar.
