With two of my buddies (Pots and Pinks) writing in comments - I have been driven out of my glumpiness to post another post.
This one is a shortie (I humbly promise!).
It's about teachers.
So we Indians all know about the little tale about Drona and Ekalavya, and the latter's thumb, right?
Ekalavya comes over to Drona after practicing shooting for hours, and days, and through time comes over to Drona (possibly witha *snicker*): "Master, teach me Archery!"
Drona grunts, and mutters under his breath, "Stop the drama you fool. Err...hmm..."
Ekalavya says, "Oops. No sorry. This isn't a kung-fu movie. Err...Sorry. Re-take."
"Master" Ekalavya says, "I wish to give you a gift - for I practiced archery in front of your statue."
Drona stares at Ekalavya going, "Darnit what are my lines...what are my lines..."
Looks over at Arjuna and goes "Oh well. Okay. I say what, Eka - why dontcha try practicing without the thumb..."
Ekalavya gives him a look, and goes, "Psst. Be formal. We don't want people giving us strange looks."
Drona says, "Whaddya mean?"
Eka goes, "I don't know. Make it sound like you're a horrid teacher. All jealous and possessive, and nasty and mean."
Drona grins and says, "Oh, I see."
And so Drona thunders, "Ekalavya, you must give me your thumb now seeing that you "used" me!"
Eka whistles, chops his thumb off and dances off into the forests.
Later of course the three of them - Arjuna, Eka, and Drona have a laugh and many a snigger at the "cruel" depiction of Drona...
Different strokes for different students, I'm guessing.
Now let's hop over to the 20th centruy. A neat book by Paul Auster by the name of "Mr. Vertigo". A young boy is being taught by his master the art and science of levitation. In order to get the last some inches (or maybe it was a feet) to his "levitation level", the Master tells the student that the kid must sacrifice something...now let's not get into all the details. But the kid is kinduv scared about the whole "sacrificing something".
The Master reassures the student with, "No kid. i think chopping off your little finger will do the job...I think that's what's stopping your so-far admirable progress."
The kid whistles merrily and says, "Oh, the little finger. Sure! Won't really miss that one!"
5 comments:
I removed some comments because they weren't relevant to the post!
Dear silpi di,
Sacrificing something for a teacher is something most of us fear these days. As suvro sir have mentioned in one of his posts that a techer is there only to give you some notes so that you can fare well in your examination. After your four years of notes taking from sir, they never call back or visit him again unless they 'need' sir for their children and grandchildren. How very disgusting isn't it?
Do they really deserve to be called a student or do we put them in a different species?
Regards,
Sriranjani
There was a typing mistake in the last post. It would be 'teacher' and not 'techer'
Sorry.
Dear Sriranjani,
My point wasn't about 'sacrifices' at all. You seem to have completely missed the boat on this one Sriranjani. My point was how teachers teach their students something that students need to learn, and how genuine teachers urge us to do and be our best. And we need to be very clear about what we MEAN by the words we use. A sacrifice is giving up a higher value for a lower value in one’s value hierarchy. If any teacher demands this of a student, and the student with all his/her awareness and mindfulness, careful introspection, and clarity realises that the teacher is asking that a higher value be negated by a lower one, then the said teacher is not a teacher. Far from that, the teacher is, if not completely evil (a debate that I won’t get into) – is someone that the student best stay away from.
On the other hand, 'giving up' something that a student can do without, sometimes even though it might 'seem' difficult is something that a genuine teacher is able to teach a student with discipline, care, and genuine love - even though what the student 'gives up' (it could be anything - from a bad, disgusting habit, an inessential and trivial material item or a character disposition) could seem to the student at first glance to be a terribly difficult task, and a ‘huge’, unreasonable and illogical ‘sacrifice’ - and this is the case with most mindlessly stubborn, lazy, and indisciplined students - even those who have seemingly quick minds. For other students (like the classic ones - the couple in my blog post belong to this category) - the trust and love for their teachers is absolute, and so they are able to see clearly, are mindful, and know, and are aware that 'what they are giving up' is something that they can and are able to ‘give up', both 'for their teacher, and most importantly for themselves'.
THAT was my point. As for Suvro da’s old students not coming back to meet him – how is that connected to my blog-post? I don’t quite get it. What sort of sacrifice would the students be making, what would the students be ‘giving up’ if they did come over to meet him every now and again? Such students are not even the topic of my discussion – at least not for this post of mine!
I certainly did make the post amusing for reasons of my own - but that doesn't dislodge the importance of the point that I was making nor does it talk about students of the breed that you bring up in your comment.
And while I certainly do want you and others to comment – I certainly will suggest that you carefully read the post before posting a comment, and that you read over your own comment so that there aren't too many glaring typos.
All that said - you have my good wishes. Take care.
Shilpidi
Take care.
Shilpi di
Hello Shilpi di,
My name is Sayan Datta. I am an engineering student nearing the end of his college life and I entered your blog through the link provided on Suvro Sir's blog quite some weeks ago and have been visiting every now and then since.
At the very outset let me say that I am not much of a literary person and that is probably why I have refrained from commenting until now and truth be told, I honestly did not understand much of your post until you provided that explanation in the comments section. Still I sense a serious lacuna, a sort of gap in my understanding of the concept that you have written about and no matter how inadequate I am, I feel I must ask my questions, at least to clear myself of doubts.
This absolute trust for a teacher that you are talking about - does it imply blind trust? If that is so, then will it not obscure reason and impair judgment?
For some reason, though I can’t point my finger at it exactly, it seems to me that it ultimately boils down to the honesty of the teacher and the student towards themselves first and then towards each other. But are there not instances when two highly knowledgeable and honest people look at the same thing and see it differently? So in situations where it is not necessarily a case of high and low but merely a difference of viewpoint; what seems to be a vice to one, can it not be an absolutely necessary condition to the other? For instance many great people have been known to be unbalanced and whimsical, sometimes to the point of being destructive and yet, it must be agreed that there is a very close connection between their unbalanced ways and their creative genius. Hence in situations where the student realizes that the teacher, with all his knowledge, honesty and wisdom is straight jacketing him on a front, which he (the student) associates with his very survival; what path must he follow then?
Lastly, they say that the task of a teacher is to help his student look at things with clarity, cognition and equanimity and learn to trust himself- rather that inner voice within. But when a student reaches that state he doesn’t need the teacher anymore. Now, when both the teacher and the student have elevated themselves to both moral and intellectual profoundness; is it possible that their ideals won’t match, even be sometimes exactly opposite? I was watching this movie the other day- the topic was ‘Dharma’; two characters, even in their respect for one another, believed in contrasting and conflicting meanings of it, were ready to give their lives for their beliefs, and I couldn’t figure out who was right and who was wrong – it seemed to me that both were right in themselves. So in cases where right and wrong overlap and merge to become obscure (or seem to be so) what is the way out?
Please don’t think I am nitpicking or trying to pose as some kind of know-it-all. These are just questions that cropped up in my mind and I will feel grateful if you can give me an answer.
Sayan Datta.
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