By Not Einstein.
There are certain things people say that affect you in ways the person who said the quote never thinks of. I will discuss certain things said by some of my teachers now. I will only elaborate on how these quotes make me feel and the reason for my remembrance of the quote (I have quite an awful memory but if I remember something, you know it’s special).
“The greatest salvation one can achieve, is to not be born into this world, we live in a beautiful world that is just as cruel” – Eren Yeager, 2022
This is the only quote in the list that is not said by a teacher. I only included it because it is easily the best quote I’ve heard in my opinion and I felt the desire to share it with you all. A lot of optimists will very quickly jump to reject the truth that lies in the above given quote; however, it is very hard to argue against it. But first, let’s take a walk.
Our eyes seem to ignore certain things we see in our daily life. Place your brain on a treadmill and make it work. Grab that pair of rose-coloured glasses and slide it on your ears. Step out of your little house and fill those lungs with fresh, crisp air. Ditch the shoes. Let your bare feet step upon the dew dotted green blades of grass. Look at the rough, warm barks of trees and the blue sparkling sky reflecting its glory upon all the people it covers. The bright sun glaring its rays and the humid air sleeping on your skin. A man bicycles across the road, sweat dripping from his jaw. The jar of coins clanks as a two-rupee coin falls inside. A gust of wind ripples the tattered clothes that rest on the beggar’s body. Another woman drops a lightly damaged a ten-rupee note inside the metal container in the beggar’s hand. The poor man’s eyes smile from his cheeks.
Now take those Rose-colored glasses off.
The man smiles, knowing that it is only today he will be able to have a small meal. A sigh of relief escapes the woman knowing that she has gotten rid of the damaged note nobody would use. A snake slowly slithers up the same warm bark of a tree that leads to a thin branch carrying three pigeon eggs inside a tar nest. The cyclist reaches the finishing line, sweat dripping from his jaw, his lungs desperately gasping for air and a participation certificate in his hand. There’re always two sides to a coin, and it benefits us in no way if we only focus on one.
“Teaching isn’t my first passion; Learning is my first passion. I love learning, and thus I teach” – Joel Dave Sir (Teacher Music Marq), 2021
This is a very interesting quote said by none other than the music teacher for Chrysalis High Marq. What is the difference between learning and teaching?
Learning is when you acquire knowledge and teaching is when you spread knowledge. It is a phenomenon similar to the chicken and egg loop. Learning can only be done if someone teaches you and teaching can only be done if you have learnt something. If one likes to teach people, then it must mean he or she is an avid learner, and if one desires to learn new things, he or she has the raw material to be a teacher. Joel sir represented this loop in one sentence perfectly. There is no backing off from learning, nor is there a passion to teach without a passion to learn. A good teacher will always be a good learner because the chicken can only be a healthy chicken if it has come out of a healthy chicken egg.
“There was once a young girl, her uncle gifted her a book on her birthday. She couldn’t read English properly at that age, but she still read the book. Again, and again, until she could understand the words and start appreciating it. That girl was me, and the book was My family and other Animals” – Sonali Dutta Ma’am (Teacher English Marq), 2021
I remember listening like a curious infant when Ma’am narrated this story. And the final plot twist dropped like an atom bomb in 1945 (Little dark humour there). It was truly the most suited thing to say to grasp a person with hands of iron and drop him inside a pool of curiosity. This quote lives rent free in my mind, because of how quickly it managed to stun the listener. A sudden, abrupt urge to read My family and other Animals hits the listener like a truck. It is a great salesman trick indeed, but there is a deeper meaning to the seemingly simple set of sentences if one only thinks hard enough.
In the story, the girl could barely read English at first and it was only the sheer desire to know what lies within a leather coated hardcopy of a children’s book that drove her ambition to learn English. It isn’t a chore to learn, learning should always be a choice. Think of learning as a bonfire in a cold, angry blizzard. The blizzard represents the desperate need to learn, or one cannot make a living in this world. But to begin a bonfire, a spark is needed. That one crucial spark is what one must find in life to learn something. Children have a larger curiosity compared to the adults trying to balance their life. Children have potential that needs to be used quickly and properly, they are the ones who have the highest probability of creating a spark for a fire that will last them decades worth of knowledge.
“I was screaming in Joy when you all passed round three, I’m proud of you all, and I mean it” – Indrani Singh Ma’am (Principal Marq), 2021
This Quote was spoken by our Principal ma’am after we finished at a disappointing rank three in the Math Mania Event. Although the rest of the competitors were a grade above us, landing a third rank by a difference of fifty points was no impressive feat. The teachers had been head over heels on the concept of us passing Round Three, since doing so, would result in a sure position between ranks one to three. It was a desperate situation, several dumbbells pushed down our shoulders. We slid through a thin, fine gap for each of the previous rounds. All of us were in the end, unimpressed and had no feelings of joy whatsoever. But, just looking at our teachers’ eyes smile from their cheeks felt like a blanket in the early morning. If it were to be true, just picturing our Principal ma’am yell at the television screen in sheer joy was a sight enough to make a grown man cry. I appreciate this quote for the feeling it radiates, it radiates the feeling of pride. It made the slightly disappointed team of eighth graders feel like they made someone proud, and that all the hard work was worth it.
“I know you all got bad marks in Term 2, but I still believe that you can do it, so I will make you practice” – Prachi Gupta (Teacher Math Marq), 2022
I remember this quote only because I will never be able to forget the hideous math marks that fate wrote below my name in Term II. Those marks were easily the worst I’ve gotten in any term till date. It felt like the entirety of the sky came crashing down on me. Since that day, every time Prachi ma’am even mentioned her desire for us to ace the next set of exams and how much she is proud of our below average class, it was an obligation to remind her of the mourning raindrops that thundered upon our math marks last time. One day, she decided to say that she does not care about those marks anymore and we shouldn’t either. Before that miserable term, all of us got decent marks, so why be apprehensive about the upcoming exams?
It felt like she really poured her faith into us, and was drawing us a map to the treasure that lies in June with every equation she solved. She never hesitated to say she’s proud of the class and still believed in it, only if the mirror said the same to all of us, determination would chuckle at every problem. However, reality seems to differ. Nevertheless, my appreciation for the line remains the same regardless of its impact.
