Dinesh and Bawa

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Beacons of Light

In school (Don Bosco, Matunga), we had something called a calendar, which was basically a smallish blue coloured book, with the portions for every year, a (duh!) calendar, so we could enter into it like a diary stuff that we wanted to, our marks in various tests and exams AND the Remarks page. Here sadistic teachers would put remarks about us when we didn't do something they wanted us to do or did something they didn't want us to do :)... like homework, or chatter in the class, etc.

You then had to get it signed by equally sadistic parents who would come up with very creative ways of making life miserable in exchange for their signature... I was too bhola to even think of forging signatures, besides parents had supernatural powers when it came to finding out stuff you really wanted to keep hidden!

Thats where grandparents came in... my grand dad would look at the remark, raise his eye brows, and silently sign it, almost as if it was an autograph book :)

Life revolved around the remarks page... You couldn't get more than 12 remarks in a year, or your parents would be summoned by the principal, and that would be REALLY embarrassing! And, you cannot get more than 3 behaviour remarks (talking in class, hit someone, etc) in a year coz, then the class teacher called up the parents ... stuff like that...

Now, there were teachers who were slightly english challenged... our hindi teacher Mrs Sampat for example, would only write "homework not done" in the remarks page, regardless of the offense... When i look back now, i see that the weak teachers- the ones who couldn't hold a class's attention or simply didn't know how to teach the subject and were doing just a "job" relished this power that they wielded over us hapless students who had to suffer them.

The really good teachers, the ones who bring a smile to our face and dampness in our eyes even when we think of them 20 years later, never ever gave a remark... They didn't need to discipline us at all. They commanded our respect and love, never demanded it... They were the ones who we looked at and thought, i would love to become like this... I guess the others just served as examples of how not to be!



And i know that we all are, at some point or the other, teachers to others... And as people who know how to meditate, we become teachers to the world at large. We become teachers of Life, of how to Be. Of how to tread gently on our beloved planet... When people see how we lead our lives, they need to get inspired and feel: Man!! I would love to be like this! What a wonderful life!

Sadhana, Seva and Satsang make us the best that we can be... Beacons of Hope and pure Light, radiating peace, joy and love to all, opening possibilities in others to live their Highest, teaching all to Be...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

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27 comments:

Unknown said...

dear bau..
to say about the remark stuff i used to have so many remarks that the remark page in my calender used to get occupied within the first six months and i always had to paste another page to the calendar for remarks.......indeed those school days can never b forgetten i missed those days....

JAI GURUDEV
THANK YOU

vinay said...

Bau, you r d best teacher in d world. We always look upto u. Thanks for being there bau.

Harsha Vardhan M.V said...

great post baw!
lol!yeah i too had to go through the trauma of getting the remarks signed by my parents!
p.s-waiting for dinesh bhaiya's post:)

Bhavesh said...

Jai GuruDev Bawa.

Truly inspiring as always. :-)

After joining AOL i can say that many times i set quite examples for others. With more sadhana,seva and satsang i am sure this will increase.

I am very grateful that AOL came into my life.

Jai Gurudev

Ajay said...

Hi Bau

A great post..'yet again'!!
So true and so inspiring.
I will be one of those 'light houses'. Need Guruji's and other enlightened masters (you can read 'teachers' in today's post's context) like you and Dinesh bhaiys's blessings.
Between starting from Hyderabad today night...wow....just a thought of this gives me a 'high'. See you and Dinesh bhaiya tomorrow.

Jai Gurudeva
'J'

Lavanya M M Ramaniah said...

Another lovely post ! and lovely picture too! Beacons of Light .. !

i remember the school diary too!(ours was blue too i think :) mostly we used to jot down the homework to be done!
if we had more than three (or so) remarks [the things i remember are stuff like : late to school- even two minutes counted, the gate would get closed, white or black shoes not polished, dress not ironed, lice in the hair (God Forbid ! :)) ]
we'd end up in detention class !
detention class meant staying on a couple of hours after school .. we'd have to do things like race several rounds around the school; or mug up several vocab pages of Dondo (the french text) (this one i didn't mind because i loved french anyway :) ...
more than me, i think my parents absolutely detested detention class! .. my dad would say it was a punishment for *them* as they had to find ways to get us home ...! i think he even complained about these things at PTA meetings, and *that* was terribly embarassing for me !!

looking back .. we got so much from our teachers - values and knowledge and yes, even lots of fun !

i remember reading one of the last interviews which the famous physicist richard feynman gave - he'd been diagnosed with cancer and knew he'd be gone soon - he said he wasn't afraid of dying, because he knew he'd live on - in so very very many people ..
(he'd spent so much of his life giving of himself, teaching) ..
such an easy way to achieve immortality!

sometimes we forget this basic lesson, until Guruji and our Art of Living teachers come into our lives and inspire us to give, give, give ... thankyou!

Trinaa said...

'YOU' got stuff written on your remarks page too?!! yeeaaaaaaaaaaayyyiii... :)) i hope my mum's going to feel i little better abt me now!! ;)

Monica said...

what an article !! :D reminds me of my school (which i left a year back...seems ages ago!). i was in a girls convent and well, Don Bosco school is a brother institution to our Holy Child Auxilium :D { Bawa I always knew i was related to you since long back. haha)

that school diary was indeed a menace ~ once I didn't take it to school and it happened to be an exam day ~ wallah!! i had to stay out of the exam hall for 15mins or so !! and leave notes were such a big khatra (one of the problems quite exclusively related to convents :D).
the insistence on CLEAN, SHINING WHITE (rather advanced white) uniforms, POLISHED BLACK shoes, TIGHTLY PULLED IN PONY TAILS, hands at the back, 'stop talking!!', 'complaints to the teacher, Prayer services, morning asemblies (you sure remember 'Our Father in Heaven...'), BREAK TIME!!! absolute Fun :D etceteras...

seems like an era gone past. It's strange to see myself so changed from that person at school. life changes...and i really want to become a beacon of light, love and hope as i go with it.

P.S.we would love to see a picture of school-going version of you baws please try putting that up else get ready for a "Home work not done" on your remarks page!! :D haha.
(i'm not giving that remark though, i am a good teacher. ;D)

Anonymous said...

I can totally relate to the trauma of having weak teachers in school, they put you through unnecessary negative emotions and end up adding no value to one's life.

Abhay Karnataki said...

There is this time of the day at about 4:30-5 pm, when I am done with work and tired of it, that your blogpage gives me a freshness to keep going on in work again!
very good writing, and I like the photos... :)

Anupam Gupta said...

Jai Gurudev Bau..

another lovely post...and in the true sense of the word Bau...YOU are our beacon of hope...i smile or cry everytime i think about you or Da...so true..

and even i remember my Diary...ours was blue TOO..hehe...and i had a (blissfully) empty remark page...in fact i used to be the class monitor..hence the impeccable record...though truthfully got bored of it after sometimes...so got a little naughty in 7th and got 3 remarks..suddenly mom was tensed...hehe...

and about the Teachers bit..yeah i remember having exactly 2 teachers like dis...who meant the world in school...sadly lost one of them to cancer...tough still remember each of her lectures...

and yeah...we will be teachers for the world...promise Bau..

Love
Anupam

atmarati avirodhena said...

bauu.. you and dinesh bhaiya are such major "beacon" people ..:):) was in the middle of a lot of work ruckus when i read yr post and almost instantly felt such love and warmth... :):)
your blog's the best !!! now i dont feel like im missing all the good stuff by being away ..:)

truckloads of love
tanu

Seema said...

Yes Bau & You are my Beacon of light - i wouldnt even dream to do what am doing right now had i not been inspired by you :)

lotsa love,

Arun Rajkumar said...

I had tears in my eyes while reading the last paragraph. Love u bawa!
Jai Gurudev

komal said...

Jai Gurudeev Bau,
i passed out of school in 2002 . reading your post brought back a plethora of memories . sometimes id have similies by teachers on my remarks page for early submission and most of the others it would be bad remarks for not doing math homework. I really like the way youve put taht all of us at one point or the other is a teacher for another person. Bau and dinesh da , thank you for being my teachers and being there always. Iknow teacherrs day is far away but i dont need a teachers day to say thanks.JGD

Anonymous said...

Bau I had 2 calendars one for my home one for the school, you r the boss! if ur friends with the class leader cos' he distributes calendars.

srikanth said...

Bau ,, a post out of the heart ,, lovely ,, gives me thoughts of all the teachers back in school ,, and true ,,

Vinod Raghavan said...

truly amazing n touching post Bawu..I guess your blogging adds not only more fun to our lives but more reminders about so many knowledge points(in this post's context - the purpose of our life is to give). Grateful, that's what I feel to be in this knowledge & in this world of Art Of Living.

Jai Gurudev!

Anonymous said...

JGD..
As usual very nice n interesting post.. i really lyk 2 read ur each n every posts, as they r full of fun n knowledge..
thnx a lot!!!

Unknown said...

how true indeed even girls were not spared u took me back to my school(hell) days again vey nice post the last sentence made me think what kind of a teacher am i

Anonymous said...

Rightly said dearest bawa...........we always look upto u teachers and hope against hope that we could be as tough as u all always and added advantage is that u make the others tough as well.

I wish freshly to do seva and I am readily offered one by my Guru. But when I start off I start getting a little disturbed by the events and then mind searches the easy way out .......drop and stay quiet and the next thing I know that months and years pass by and I reach nowhere because of my own decision and small/weak mind. Why do I want to see only bawas and Dineshs and Gurujis and why cant I accept all of them as they r.......tired of my analytical mind or perhaps it is the best way for me to get out from the path and stay in my zone of comfort which i later gather is the most uncomfortable experience for me.

Thanks to Guruji as when I felt the need to keep in touch with u all.... u 2 created this blog !!!

Unknown said...

wow Bau it really made me feel nostalgic about my school times and my teachers. You really are a beacon of hope to me, had it not been for you i would have been where and what i am today. You gave me the right light and push in the right direction. thank you so much for everything.

GauravNath said...

Easily the most powerful post ever written by you :-)
I'm putting it up on my faourite posts list...everyone should experience the feeling that goes with reading such an inspiring post!

Jai GuruDeva

Anonymous said...

beacons of light tats what u and bhaiya are(even lovelier than the pic that you have posted )and the beauty is that you are making us like you guyz (gently ,slowly but surely)

lots n lots n lots of love n gratitude

jgd

Anonymous said...

Jai Gurudev Bawa...
now that u said it i can really understand y my class hindi teacher (class 6th -10th) was so damn sadistic.... she absolutely detested me for some reason...she slapped students for not doin their homework...n guess wat...i was the 1st target!....doesnt matter if i did the work or not...my handwriting was always too big/shabby/small/crooked OR my answers were always too small or incorrect... wen she got bored of slappin me she got the head girl of the school to do it to embarras me further.... once it even caused me to break down in class!!...imagine a guy in 9th std crying!!...
i complained to priciple, to my parents but it all fell on deaf ears... no1 believed that i didnt do nethin worng...no1 believed that the teacher was just sadistic...
this was the start of my "i dont give a damn" attitude ....i just stopped caring abt watever ne1 had to say abt me....critisism just bounced off me.... that gave me a tag of "Arrogant"...
but now i really understand.... she used me as a scape goat to show others that she had authority...she demanded respect by invoking fear ...
till before the basic course i never even could think abt forgiving her.... but u noe wat?... now i think it doesnt matter... atleast she got happy wen she insulted me... i was the reason that she was happy...!....
i really forgive her now...

thank you bawa...u really ARE the Becon OF Light...and i throughly njoyed the time i spent wid u in the few days at the course....


PS: i really hope u get time to read thru all this! :D

Anonymous said...

hey and by the way... i used to sign my own remarks in school.... heheheheh

Rintu said...

Bawa,
This reminds me of "The Wonder Years" episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf7axGx063M

Love,
Rintu

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