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Friday, August 02, 2013

Ha!

To start with, here's the link to the post titled 'Bye bye time again'. It will help my current senior batch, who will be leaving in a few months' time. After you have read that post, don't forget to click on the link provided there!

More than one person asked, after reading the 'zen' story, 'Sir, a) do you really think that kind of passionate interest and devotion are possible?, and, b) is it possible in today's trivia-obsessed world, when anything you write can be forgotten as soon as another Katrina Kaif item number is released, or iPhone6 comes on the market?' My reply is, of course not. I was merely talking about two kinds of extreme. One type will gladly cut off an arm, another won't 'sacrifice' a Facebook account for Sir's sake, and yet would be offended if I laugh at their protestations of love and respect and devotion: they must be given 'reason' enough before they take such a 'drastic' step (but let it go on record that three people have already told me they have deleted their FB accounts after reading the last post, and I won't be surprised if a few others have done it without telling me).

I have decided I shall communicate much less directly with individuals than via these blogs. For one thing, individuals don't really matter much unless they make themselves valuable, but no sooner do I give them some leeway than they begin to take all sorts of liberties with me, and for another, the '200,000 plus page views' tells me something very reassuring: a lot of people are reading what I write, and some do let me know how they are being affected, in a way that gratifies me, so I don't need to bother about particular individuals anyway. Besides, I have said before that my blogs are extensions of my classroom. Those who come to my classrooms come basically to listen to me and learn from me, and perchance to remember and think about and be improved by what I have told them, not to give me the backchat they haven't earned the right, intellectually and emotionally, to try. I have noticed, and not with one person, that those who are only too eager to give me a piece of their mind (whatever passes for their minds) in personal conversations are far more circumspect about doing that on the blogs, to the extent that 'they can't think of what to say', even when I want them to. And maybe that suits me best. 

Also, some people raised the question of gratitude and ingratitude recently. No one of course will deliberately call himself 'ungrateful', but I sometimes think I have got more than my fair share, still. Look up this blogpost.

That's all for now. I shall write very soon again. Don't forget to look up the previous post: it's not grown stale. Language is everything.

P.S.: Looking at the map showing people currently reading, my curiosity is tickled again. I know who reads from Golden, Colorado, and from Kure, Japan, and from Auckland, New Zealand - but who is my reader in Calgary, Canada, in Nokia, Finland, in Mountain View, California, home of Google, and the 'unknown' in Nigeria? Why won't they ever tell me?!

3 comments:

Abhishek Anand said...

Respected Sir,

Early in May, I had read the blogpost "To those about to become ex-students" and had ever since been waiting for this post. But now that I have read this post, I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

Time, indeed, goes by very quickly. It seems just yesterday when I was in your house, getting enrolled. Needless to say, I have learnt a lot in the course of these seventeen months and I have enjoyed myself a lot. I am sure that these months will make my life very rich, in the truest sense of the term. However, I do have a regret. If I had started reading your blog six months earlier than when I actually did, I would have certainly learnt a lot more by now.

As for the second paragraph, I don't know if I can answer question 'a'. However, as I have already told you, I am quite sure that if there is one teacher in this town(or district, for that matter) who makes a sincere attempt to teach his students the values which are infinitely more important than mere marks for leading a happy life, it is you. Therefore, you have done your duty('karma'). So, even if the answer to question 'a' is 'no', it does not matter a lot.You are not the one to be blamed.

I can only thank you for these seventeen months, and promise you that I will try my level best to continue learning from you for years to come. I badly want to earn a place in "that very small number" mentioned in the third last paragraph in the post "To those about to become ex-students" .

Yours faithfully,
Abhishek Anand



Joydeep said...

Dear Sir,

I am the reader from Calgary, Canada. I am in my second year of PhD in the University of Calgary. I thought I told this to you before, but may be I am wrong.

Thanks,
Joydeep

Unknown said...

Dear Sir,

I am based in Calgary, Canada and try to read your blog on a weekly basis. It is a refresher to all the grammar and sentence construction that you diligently taught to us during English class.

I am also glad to know that I am not your only reader from Canada and wish that the numbers keep increasing.

Regards,
Sibalik Mukherjee