Tribute to my teachers on the eve of “Guru Utsav”

15th August has been the true Independence Day for me. The day marks my own independence as I joined Cotton College SNBC Hostel (Formerly New Hostel) on 15^th Aug, 1990, as a HS 1^st year (Sc) student. It was once said “What Cotton thinks today, Assam will think tomorrow”. By the time I joined Cotton, the College had lost much of its earlier sheen, but the adage still held true.  The drifting Cotton of 1990 , void of any great thinking, typified the next two decades of murkiness in the History of Assam.

Before joining the College, my family decided that there were very few doctors in our extended family and really required one in me. So it was no wonder that I was to take Biology as one of my subjects.

The first class was of Physics by a dreary professor who came and straightway started writing the Coulomb’s law of electricity at the board.  Till then, I didn’t have an iota of information what and how electrons work. Somehow, I could endure the 45 odd minutes and decided never to attend his classes in future. To my utter disbelief, I found most of the teachers in the other subjects were also to be quite mediocre contrary to my expectation. Worst were the Professors in Assamese Department as we sometimes had to invite them to class and many of them adopted innovative technique to kill the time on irrelevant discussions. The glorious past of the dream of Sir Henry Cotton and Manik Chandra Baruah had started decaying thick and fast. Having said that, I must also mention that there were few extremely good professors in Cotton in 1990. But the wholesome degradation of the state was perceptible as  the college administration had to bow at times to the whims of few powerful students and some of them became powerful political heavyweights latter on.

However, my hope of becoming a Doctor met stiff resistance from the Biology class. The subject was not at all palatable to me as I had to mug too much without understanding head or tail. We were made to make drawings from various specimens in the laboratory  and as usual I was found to be the one most wanting. One Botany Madam was very particular with the drawing quality and separate sitting plan for boys and girls. But her advisories could hardly stop me in whispering to my friend in the next bench, who kept on fascinating me in those days and I could hardly keep my eyes off . It didn’t escape Madam’s attention and wrath. She immediately ordered me to move out from her class. Thus nipped in the bud , the hope of my family seeing me donning the white uniform with a stethoscope over it.   

Today, when I read articles related to Medical Science, I wonder why I missed the same excitement of reading my Biology books in Higher Secondary.  Perhaps,I thoroughly missed a teacher in Botany & Zoology who could inspire me to love the subject, the challenge which distinguishes great teachers  from the middling.

Like the Biology, the Chemistry was also no different for me as I got totally puzzled by the concept of Valency and others till I met Dr. Satyendra K Choudhury Sir.A very good Violinist and even better human being, the three months, that he taught us Chemistry at his home, was good enough for me to fall in love with the subject. Perhaps I will carry the elementary mole concept, the gas laws, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry which Sir taught us in those days to my death bed. The basic concepts of Chemistry still helps me as an Energy professional to understand how the intricate molecules behave and make life difficult at times.

When I am writing this blog as a tribute to my past teachers, the foremost name that I can recollect like a wink of light is Late Dinesh Sarma. He was my teacher cum friend cum philosopher in my childhood. I remember the first day, he didn’t ask me to open books . As I asked him relentless questions, he kept on answering those with such patience & interest that I felt myself to be immensely important. He couldn’t come everyday to our house, as he was suffering from body ache and other ailments which were latter found to be prelude to the deadly irreversible disease which took his life prematurely. But, I grew as a person under him who inspired to think that life goes beyond the textbooks.

I was once the honored guest at lunch of Sarma Sir’s house. Sitting atop a “Pira” ( a low wooden platform) in the kitchen, I savored the Pigeon and Fish curry. My taste buds still feel the tingling of the fish curry with tomato which Sir’s mother served with a big brass spoon.

On the eve of teacher’s day, I wish Dr. Satyendra K Choudhury a long and healthy life and peace for the heavenly soul of Late Dinesh Sarma. Whatever I am today, its all because of many teachers I encountered in my past 39 years of journey.      


(You can contact Kamaljit at kamaljitmedhi1975@gmail.com)