1988- A LETTER

Friday 8, July 2011 23:00hrs

1988- A LETTER
A letter- that changed my life!

I am so thrilled to pen these lines, which dates back almost 23 years of memory lane. Am falling short of words, to express my excitement with a thought of meeting my favorite and idol teacher. A teacher, in a true sense a teacher, who changed the course of my thinking and eventually my life, when I was just 10 year old kid.

I first met this teacher when I was studying probably 4th or 5th standard. She was my class teacher then. She was our best teacher. I am sure many of my friends and her students agree with me that, she was not only just a teacher but a mentor.

Its very difficult to get such dedicated teachers these days, who think teaching is not mere a job but a service…today’s education system has become very commercial and is more of profit centers for the management, than imparting quality EDUCATION to students. Education should be a responsible service than a money making industry…it has to be a nation building model than a management’s revenue generation model. I may not be a qualified person at this juncture to comment on our system..But I feel sad to see some where some thing is wrong with it. Because as a lay man, what I fail to understand is the amount of money my father spent on my entire education, right from day one till last day of my MBA program, is less than the amount I need to pay in the form of DONATION for first day of my daughter’s formal education, for LKG.!!!

I think am going too far from what I intended to write..

It was in the year 1982 when my father got transferred from Belgaum to Bhatkal, a city which defined my primary education and introduced me to this TEACHER. I was admitted to Government Model Kannada Boys School, Bhatkal for Ist standard. I think when I was 4th std, this TEACHER became my class teacher. Am proud to say that, I was one of her favorite student, and she was most of our favorite TEACHER.

Days passed, and life was waiting to take a turn, when we were in 5th std, for three of my friends. Me, Vinayak Kamat( settled in US) and Kiran Kalgal( unfortunately we lost him when he was at a very young age of 11/12 yrs. May god bless his soul!!) We three, Umesh Bhat and SACHIN SINGH BANGALOREKAR ( have a reason to boldly write this name) were good pals and sportively competing for First rank in the class..

One day Our TEACHER came to class and announced that, there was an entrance examination scheduled for Navodaya Vidyalaya, Now it’s Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya-JNV ( a dream project of Late shri. Rajiv Gandhi, the then PM) one of the then elite schools, managed by central govt. 3 of our seniors ( Raghavendra nayak, Srinivas nayak and Nagaraj Bhat) from our school were selected previous year and were studying there. They were among the First batch of Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Our teacher came to us and shared with us how important it was for any student to get admitted to JNV and study there. She motivated all the students to write the exam. It was only because of her words, most of us wrote the exam. And only we three qualified.

And we left Bhatkal, and joined JNV, located in Ankola. then. It’s a residential school, one for each district. Initially it was difficult for us to stay there and get adjusted to life there.. we called it CENTRAL JAIL in lighter mood..
But it was very difficult for me to adjust there. Staying away from parents, amongst people I never knew, emotions, sentiments, tough situations there,…and so on…I had made up mind to QUIT..leave it all there and come back home. I was desperate… my parents used to come there to meet us every weekend. Every time they come I used to cry..and plead them to take me out from there..

It was then, when my father met my TEACHER back home, and told her about my intent..

One fine day in the month of OCTOBER 1988, I received an unexpected Letter dated 10-10-1988. This inland letter card which costed 50 paisa then, is my PRICELESS possession. Even my teacher may not have thought that, this letter of her’s, would be so influential and that I would still preserved it…Yes I still have this letter..and am eager to see her reaction when I meet her and show this…

I blame myself for not going back to this letter when I was down and was running through rough patch of my early career!!! May be I might have overcome those situations, in a much better ways that I actually did. Now that I have realized it I will always refer to this letter, when ever I need motivation in future.

This letter is a precious piece of Motivation and influenced my decision then, to NOT to QUIT my school and stay there, FIGHT and WIN !! I was highly motivated by reading that letter…and listened to her words.. I was so stubborn and rigid on leaving Ankola, that I never listened to my parents, neither friends nor the principal at JNV until this LETTER came..
I felt, I was wondering in the darkness and this letter came to me like a guiding lamp and I changed my decision. I stayed back. Continued my studies there. Even went to Madhya Pradesh ( under migration program of JNVs) for 2 years.

Life @ JNV has a great influence on what we are today. I am happy to catch up with good old friends on Face book, who are spread across the globe and see that everyone of us are scaling new highs in personal and professional Lives.

Thanks to all those who made our life @ JNV.

And most of all to me It’s my TEACHER whom I thank, for making me stay there.

She is Mrs. NAGAVENI SHETTY Teacher.
It was Sachin Singh whom I met after 23 long years…(it’s again an interesting chapter!!) that we discussed about School days and about this TEACHER, who has influenced his life Also. No wonder she has influenced many such lives like me. It was then when we both decided to FIND her and Meet her after such LOOONG years. All thanks to him for he being successful to trace her and get her contact details..Thanks MAN!!! that I am meeting her… we planned to meet her in a group. We thought of going back to Bhatkal, catch up with an body who’s still there, like madhav, Ganapati, Chandralkant..( I still remember many others) and check when Umesh is back from Dubai, Vinayak is coming to India from US and meet her..
But I know it will take time to plan (due to geographical limitations..but would defiantly like to materialize it whenever opportunity comes..)..and I have relocated to the same city where she is residing now, can’t wait long to see her…

I am going there tommarrow..to Thank her.. Thank her for being my Teacher. And for she choosing to be a Teacher in her life!!!

THANK YOU, NAGAVENI TEACHER….whom we call with love NAGAVENI BAAI !!!!