2 days back, my 6th semester exams got over. It felt more like a relief from the fast (really really fast :P) semester that we had this time. It was almost like I remember the first day of the semester like it was yesterday.
Obviously, my brain will take some time to adjust to the fact that the semester is indeed over and I have no more exams to go, no more studying the same subjects and no more college visits for the time being.
What’s more interesting is that I still get up some nights, check the time in my cell phone (my cell phone does have a clock which nowadays is the primary reason for me to use a cell phone in the first place.. apart from receiving some telemarketing SMS and calls which consume most of my ringtone “consumption” and the occasional need to call a friend maybe and some rare cases when I receive genuine phone calls.. I am bad at talking so I avoid calling anyone whatsoever. WhatsApp forever 😛 Wow that was a large bracket text..) and still wonder if I had completed all of my homework for the day or calculate the time I still have that I can sleep before the alarm rings.. only to realize that there are no alarms now and no homework to do.
Ah the joy 🙂
That is still something we can happily adjust to.
What bothers me more is that 6 out of 8 semesters are over. The count is starting to get me. The days are near when we start counting our last days in Nirma though that’s still far, I say to myself.. but it will happen someday.
After the last exam of the semester, people went home.
Someday, they will all go home.. and maybe never go back to the same place again.
Some will give you the chance to say goodbye, some will share the roads, some won’t be doing either. And ultimately, we all have different homes to reach, different beds to rest on, different dreams to sleep to and say “Ah. Finally, the much needed rest.”
But if all we look at is the different homes we reach, then that is where the mistake lies. It is the long road worth sharing, and the long road worth remembering. Isn’t it?
You know your friends. Whom else do you really know?
Your parents, ok. Your relatives, ok.
Whom else?
Maybe the neighbor who smiles every time you get into the apartment elevator together? Ah not really. Maybe the shopkeeper who gave you chocolates even if you didn’t have money for the time being? Ah not really.
So think harder and tell me whom else do you know?
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Teachers?
Ah. Yes.
You grow up living in an education system, you get to meet and be with teachers through different stages of your life, you have a favorite teacher, a least favorite teacher, one who scolded you and you remember it forever (insert devil smile here 😛 ), one who made you and you remember him/her forever (insert holy smile here 😛 )..
What do you remember about your past teachers? Your school teachers? You remember how you met them, your first impression of them, you remember their teaching style maybe, you remember some of those moments they did something funny in class, but most of all you remember how they were to you, isn’t it?
And the least you remember is what they taught you 😛 (*ba dum tss*)
Some of them are just a part of your curriculum.. while some become a part of your education. Some leave because the subject course completed, while some leave only when they actually leave.. only to stay in your memories..
I was in my 9th standard in school, science class it was. Just a regular looking day except that we got a new teacher for test run that day. He was under the process of being recruited. Those days in our school, they had test runs on new teachers before recruiting them and some of the toppers of the class were called by the principal to ask if that teacher is good enough for us. Good, isn’t it?
The teacher we got that day, to sum up his teaching in under a paragraph, I can say that he was certainly the best we could have. He was a teacher who, before our school, used to teach 11th and 12th standard students and so he had enough “extra” knowledge that a science teacher should have. He didn’t use textbook while teaching, which again for my time in my school was an indication that the teacher “knew” the subject well.
I remember those 20 minutes of class went very quick, because that is what the theory of relativity says you know, good times get over faster than hard times 😛 Wait, that doesn’t mean my 6th semester went quick because it was any good ok?
I remember when we 4 or 5 students were called by the principal, I said that the new teacher “had a weak voice but really good teaching” or something similar with those keywords. Flashback again, those days we had rotating sitting arrangements where we constantly had to rotate between all benches from last to first throughout the days and that test-run day I was sitting way too back. I don’t know exactly what happened next but his voice reached even the last bench everyday since then. And that implies that he got the job for sure 🙂
What do I remember about him now? I do not remember what he taught me. No I mean I know 9th standard science I just don’t remember what exactly he taught me because well I don’t remember what a 9th standard science curriculum was. What I remember is that teaching was inspirational and I got 50/50 in both my internal exams and 99/100 in my final exam that year. At this point you would say that these marks are just normal for any topper in school? Yes maybe they were but if I remember these marks today, its because of him, and that isn’t just so normal in any way, is it?
It is when marks don’t matter and they just reflect how much you like the subject. And that never happened to me again. I always liked studying science but I never got these marks again. Not because the subjects got tougher year by year but because it just didn’t happen again… At least not the year to follow.. Because we got a different teacher next year… because our this favorite teacher left our school.
I still remember how a group of students including me went to sir only to ask him to stay or least to understand why he had to leave but you know child logic, we only understand things after we grow up! And no matter how sensible some of us were, we were all too selfish to think about everything we would lose once he goes, the great teacher we needed for our 10th standard boards, the one teacher who inspired these marks to me in science and I was hoping the same for maths next year (he taught science in 9th standard and maths in 10th standard) that we kids never really thought about why he chose to leave…
And that is what kids never understand. When people have to leave, why they have to leave and why they sometimes decide to leave on their own. No kid thinks about better opportunities that he/she might get in some other school or city. All he/she sees is the happiness there is in being “still”. But grown ups do realize that.
Our parents do. They change jobs, they change cities and while you cry and pack your favorite gifts and Pokémon cards your traded with your friends, you see the sorrow of change, your parents see the opportunity.. not just for them but for you too..
For us, our favorite science teacher was leaving. And we didn’t and couldn’t see anything else 🙁
I remember the first working model science project that I ever made, was in my 9th standard, for my science project. It was a simple windmill model and seriously speaking it had nottthinggg other than a toy motor that made it a science project, the rest was just Papier-mâché art project (remember Pogo MAD? That is where you learnt that word 😛 ) but it was still something. And I remember sir appreciated my efforts for that. Well yeah, for a 9th standard student in my school those days, to know how to make a basic motor circuit was good enough. And I did make it look pretty neat 🙂
All because that one teacher had inspired the whole class to make a working model for project (something no other science teacher did in our school) and I did get inspired, the result was the windmill, while most other students (I think everyone but I am not sure) still made theory projects on scientists and the likes.
Next year, we got another science teacher.. he was good. But not the best we had.
If there is one thing I realize today, looking at our parents and those teachers is that as you grow up, you stop fearing change.. at least you have to. We have to stop fearing leaving things behind. We stop holding on to everything with our crying hearts because as we grow up, we realize and we know, that nothing is permanent. And that the windmill of our life always goes on, breezing the winds of change.. And everybody and everything leaves..
One day will very well be the last day of college as well. Some will give me a chance to say goodbye. Some won’t. For some, even I won’t. Some will share the road, some won’t…
But it is the long road that matters, isn’t it?
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In my 5th semester, I made a “Human Following Robot”, which I guess is the most creative project I have made till today, all alone and not as a group project, with all that I learnt from a Professor here at Nirma… for a very similar reason.. and while I write this article, history does repeat…
The only difference is.. I accept it this time. We all have to. I understand his reason to leave. We all do.. It must be for his best, isn’t it?
“For the greater good.”
– Gellert Grindelwald, Harry Potter Universe. (Umm. Don’t back-search the quote please. It is a good quote which was used by Gellert’s character in a totally opposite context so not to contaminate the context I use this in here 😛 )
Do we always just understand or accept why people have to leave?
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I don’t…
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I just don’t complain anymore…