dear professor

Posted on | August 13, 2008 | Comments Off

dear professor,

i write this as a small attempt to appreciate all you have done for us over the years.you have,over the years,in the course of our preposterously ambitious quest for knowledge,been the unacknowledged foundation on which we tried to erect our dreams.i would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done for us.i wish to thank you for being great, and being a vast repository of knowledge on our account,for being a sea of wisdom in which we soaked our insignificant existences.

you started, those long years ago,by teaching us the importance of beliefs.your beliefs.you also taught us that every complete man has his own point of view,and to take an appreciative view of information, man looked at it through the lens of his biases,his accumulated wisdom,and his beliefs which he developed over the years which translated into his experience.and this gave him his point of view,which he used to criticize information available,and that ability to critique was knowledge.and so,to assist us in this ambitious process,you not only gave us the above mentioned approaches,you also gave us the precise tools.you gave us your beliefs,your biases,your wisdom and your point of view.

but still,in the fine tradition of gurus that we have in our great country,you always stressed the importance of free thought and open discourse and discussion.and i would also like to thank you for this openness that you allowed us,where by entered the class,sat down in your chair,and allowed us to discuss and allowed us to judge all discussions as fair in every direction so long as it came to the conclusion that you wanted.you never tried to put in parochial interpretations in our theorization, you just allowed them to go in the right direction,which was the direction you wanted.thus,you protected us from the banality of learning from our mistakes, thus making it much easier for channelize our energies successfully along the established frameworks.

i would also like to express my deepest admiration for your polyglot learning, whereby you found such innovative solutions to prevent frustrations from developing in our intellects by letting us focus our discussions around a single phrase,sometimes a single word,for a whole ninety minutes period.i must say that was a thought only such a genius like you could have conceived to provide an outlet for our creativity.by this means,you also allowed us to see the obvious and remove the layers around it.after all,the obvious is rarely obvious until you have a long discussion around its obvious nature and build a consensus around its obviousity.that is the way where true greatness of spirit lies.

over the years you changed us at a very basic level.you taught us how to see things,and in that way inculcated in us deep rooted processes of change that made us more mature,more knowledgeable.you stressed that vocabulary was the visible manifestation of erudition,and so our changed view of things must be reflected in our vocabulary.and so we began to see things differently.we learnt that what at first glance looked “stupid” was really “fascinating”,and that a strategy or action which appeared “dumb” at first, was really “intriguing”.you taught us that nothing was “bad” really,it was “interesting” when we looked at it from new angles.

you are great.you have been great in the past,and you will continue to be great in the future too.i can say with every confidence that posterity will rank rate you as great a thinker as those from whom you took over the mantle of greatness.and you allowed us to bask in the reflected glory of your greatness,always.

at this juncture,i would like to pause for a few moments to reflect upon your greatness.i know you are so modest that you will either say that this does not matter;or,to misquote one of your favorite phrases,even if your are great,so……!but we know that you are great,an icon in your lifetime,and you have strived to make us unworthy souls great too,and would like to acknowledge it,even at the risk of incurring your wrath.kindly humor us.

it was shakespeare who said something about being born great,having greatness thrust upon you,or acquiring greatness.you adopted that most difficult and glorious of paths,you achieved greatness.long years you toiled in the shadowy groves of academia,absorbing like an industrious sponge,the knowledge of all those who were great before you.and for long years have you been trying to pass on that accumulated knowledge to us unworthy souls.like the  benevolent Buddha,who attained his nirvana five thousand years ago,you too achieved your nirvana.and following in those hallowed footsteps,you too spread the light of your knowledge,illuminating the dark world of our ignorance with your celestial brilliance.

i would like to conclude this humble effort by making the briefest acknowledgement of the vast sacrifices that you made,so as to not insult your humble nature,and yet shed light on them for the world to see.for long years you spend your days and nights in unrelenting pursuit of greatness,all for us,and you lost a lot for us.you best years,your hair,your hair and,most distressing for us,your sense of humor.you sacrificed all of that for us.

we can not even begin to repay all of that benevolence and sacrifice.let me take this occasion to say a humble thank you for all that.

we will be eternally grateful,professor.

Disclaimer: this post is intended as a satire.the professor referred to in this post is not any particular person who may have taught me ever in the course of the past twenty years of study across various venerable educational institutions across the face of india.in fact,i have  been rather lucky in the professors i have had,and a lot of them have been real giants who have made me what i am.this post is not a reflection on them,and i am not significant enough to judge those personalities.but we all know that professors like the professor referred to in this post also exist,much to the dismay of our educational system,and it is on that system which allows such personalities to flourish,entrenched in their positions,that i wish to comment.

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