Thank you series - Episode 1

For all those who are reminded of Ekta kapoor as soon as you hear "episode" this will not be a never-ending dramatic soap. If you have read "The touch of gratitude" I had mentioned that I keep a list of all those people who have gone out of their way to help me at any point in my life. So I got this new idea of starting a series of articles where I get an opportunity to let the world know that such kind-hearted people live on this earth and also thank them wholeheartedly. So here goes the first one. Since today is Teacher's day, I can as well start off with my teacher.

Kamal Peter

The whole school would agree with me that there is no student who studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya Malleswaram and does not know her irrespective of whether she taught you in a classroom or not. She is not just a popular person but someone whom you can never ignore. If you happen to be at the same latitude and longitude as her, you would not move without noticing her. If you happen to meet and talk to her, you would never forget her. For any person who knows her, the name itself would ring a bell and bring to memories a beautiful,charming and inspiring lady who commands respect from old and young. I wonder how many people would have gone home and looked at the dictionary whenever they heard her speeches in splendid English. But wait, she was a Science teacher. It does not really matter what you teach if you are an all-rounder like her. All said and done about her success story, she is a really nice person to interact with. She understands you, she encourages you, she leads you and she will make you feel important. She is the only one who calls me "Beta" and she means it. A small incident which brought her into my book would leverage that statement.

It is common for teachers to turn into nutritionists during lunch breaks and walk around in the classrooms to find out what and how the children are eating. It is enough work for the moms to ensure all the different nutrients mentioned in the science book are packed in the lunch box. But my mom was unwell to even enter the kitchen at that point of time. My father did a good job of juggling the responsibilities of a bank officer and a father. Unfortunately one day he too fell sick which made me knock the doors of "Iyer mess" as they called it those days to pack the breakfast idli as lunch for myself. She was a sharp teacher who could look through the curries in various lunch boxes to figure out the proportion of various nutrients. A paper packed lunch would not miss her eye. She took to me to the junior lab (It was something that she started. Otherwise lab would be something we would have experienced only after tenth class). She asked me with concern - "Goda, May I ask you why you have packed lunch from a hotel?" As soon as she learnt the reason, she immediately said - "Tomorrow onwards, I am going to bring lunch for you till your parents are fine"

Packing an extra box of lunch while you do it for yourself and your kids might not be a big deal. The big deal is to have the concern to find out and to offer such a help. It was a big deal for me. Ask someone in the desert how big a deal a drop of water is. This is just one of the most memorable of the innumerable ways in which she has shaped my life. I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart.

Madam, you are awesome and I love you.