On the occasion of the Teachers' Day, Outlook readers have shared tributes to the teachers who left a mark in their lives.?

Farah Naaz's tribute to Kaneez ma'am

Kaneez ma'am saw me when I could not see myself. She taught English literature at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).?

In 1993, I changed my stream from science to humanities. At the age of 19, I was adrift like a torn page in the air. Kaneez Ma’am, with her passion for words, Thomas Hardy, and ethics, changed my perspective.?

Even today, her words ring in my ears: "Farah, tell me, I am curious to know your thoughts." With that one sentence, she hooked me, and 30 years later, I marvel at her ability to see through my indifferent face.?

I was hurting as I had failed not once but twice in medical entrance exams. With her ‘jazba’ for teaching and booming voice, she slowly but surely enveloped us in the magic of words. Thank you, ma'am, for opening up the world for us in that small Aligarh classroom and showing us that there are multiple ways to live life.

Pritam Sinha's tribute to Pandit Sir

I was in class 9. It was examination time and Sanskrit examination was going on. Suddenly, tears started rolling down my cheeks. I was not able to answer any question. Even passing marks seemed a far cry.?

Pandit Sir was on classroom duties. He saw me crying and, after the exam, he called me to meet him at his house near our Government High School, Gulzarbagh. I went to him the next day and he said he can guide me via tuitions. My father was not getting his salary at the time due to some strike or some other issue those at the time. When I told him that, he said, "Don't worry about money, just come."

With those words, my nerves got calmed a lot. I started cycling to his house for morning tuitions. He started guiding me in his humourous but effective way. As far as Sanskrit was comcerned, I started by rote method. Golden Examination Guide of Bharti Bhawan was duly put in mind verbatim about 80-90 per cent in the next year or so.

I was anxious when the matric examination was announced. My exams went well. When the Results were announced, I got 85 per cent in Sanskrit and managed to come first in my school in 1983. That was the happiest day in life. I prayed to God and thanked Pandit Sir for the guidance. I was a First Divisioner and the whole area knew of my feat. A guide can indeed change your life.?

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Lyn Nazareth's tribute to her teacher

We had a new rector, ?Fr. Fonseca, who never smiled. His favourite utterance was, "I'm going to make gentlemen out of you."

For Rector's Day, I wrote a poem for him which I read out at the morning assembly:?

Father Fonseca, the gentleman-maker?
Has improved the standard of our school?
Though his manner is frigid, his discipline rigid?
We cannot complain of his rule?
For
If our shoes are now polished, if long hair's abolished?
If our clothes are now tidy and neat
All of us know where the credit should go?
It is Father Fonseca's feat

Cricket's his game; in pursuit of the same
He can often be seen at the ground?
An imposing figure, considerably bigger?
Than all the little children around?

A well-behaved boy is his pride and his joy
And quick his goodwill to acquire?
But should he behave like a scoundrel and knave
He shall bitterly taste of his ire

Father maintains that one should take pains
To master one's native tongue?
For his own fluency in Gujarati
His praises have often been sung

I've heard Father say "Hard work is the way
To achieve greatness in our lives"
Let us follow the road, the path that he showed?
Let us strive as he himself strives

Rahul Ranjan's Tribute To His Teachers?

Education is a journey that shapes our character, intellect, and perspective. Throughout this journey, there are educators who leave an indelible mark on our lives, molding us into better individuals. I have been fortunate to have encountered several remarkable teachers during my academic pursuits, but there are a few who stand out as true life-changers. These mentors, through their guidance and wisdom, have not only enriched my academic experience but have also inspired me to think fearlessly, be vocal about injustice, and pursue my goals with unwavering determination.

My academic journey led me from Patna, Bihar, to the hallowed halls of Delhi University for my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. In this diverse and vibrant academic environment, I had the privilege of being taught by educators who went above and beyond to foster personal growth and intellectual development.

One of the first teachers who significantly impacted my life was Prabhu Mohapatra. He not only imparted knowledge but also encouraged me to think fearlessly and be vocal in the face of injustice. His passion for social justice and his dedication to nurturing critical thinking skills left an indelible mark on my academic journey.

Santosh Kumar Rai and Raziuddin Aquil were instrumental in inculcating a love for research and academic discipline. Their guidance and mentorship pushed me to delve deeper into my chosen field of study and develop a meticulous approach to research and academic writing.

Charu Gupta's teachings on gender roles in public perspective and history writing were eye-opening. Her ability to shed light on marginalized narratives and her commitment to rewriting history from a more inclusive standpoint inspired me to be a more conscientious scholar.

Pradeep Kant Chaudhary, or PK sir as we fondly called him, was not just an ordinary teacher. He was a mentor, a guide, and a role model. He instilled in me two invaluable qualities that have shaped my life - punctuality and discipline. PK sir believed that success in any endeavour begins with the basics, and being punctual and disciplined are the foundation stones of success. He taught us that time is a precious resource, and wasting it is equivalent to squandering opportunities. His daily mantra of "Five minutes early is on time, on time is late" became ingrained in my mindset. It taught me the importance of being proactive and responsible, two qualities that have served me well in all aspects of life.

Another teacher who left an indelible mark on my life is Rana Behal. While most students dreaded history class for its endless memorization of facts and dates, Behal sir had a unique approach to teaching. He believed in exploring history beyond the confines of textbooks and encouraged us to think critically and analytically. Behal sir gave us the sight to look at the world through a different lens - one that appreciated the complexity of historical events, the motivations of historical figures, and the impact of history on our present. His teaching transformed history from a dull subject into a fascinating journey through time, and it instilled in me a love for learning and a curiosity to explore new things.

Suvritta Khatri, another remarkable educator, trained me to be clear about my goals and prepared with a plan to achieve them. She emphasized the importance of setting clear objectives and creating a roadmap to reach them. Khatri ma'am taught me that success is not a matter of luck; it's a result of careful planning, dedication, and hard work. Her guidance was instrumental in helping me navigate the challenging path of academic and career choices.

Similarly, Ashwani Shankar, Late Anil Kumar Jha, Achala Bharti, Laxmi Meena, Toya Sinha, Ashutosh Kumar, and Urvashi Gautam were teachers who instilled in me the courage to speak up for justice and work tirelessly toward my future goals. They taught me the significance of standing up for what is right, even in the face of adversity, and the importance of perseverance in achieving success. These educators collectively gave me the spine to advocate for justice, uphold my principles, and work relentlessly to fulfill my ambitions.

Tauqueer Ali Sabri's Tribute To Prof. Rizwan Qaiser: My Teacher, Friend And Mentor (1960-2021)

He was not only my teacher but mentor, guide, and one of my great admirers for what I have been doing after finishing my study. That was his personality, he was never hesitant to give respect and dignity, no matter who you are. What kind of relationship is with him? My personal connection with him began far before I met him personally. I am from rural India, where I studied until my graduation. We had a kind of serious news-reading habit in our family and my father also guided us to read the editorial pages including writing on social or political issues. Those days, Rizwan Sb, used to write for Hindustan, in Hindi. Since I was a regular reader, that was interesting for me to understand the social-political aspect of the marginalised social group on which he usually wrote.

When I got admitted to Jamia Millia Islamia for MA in History in 2003, that was transformative and a dream come true for me to study at Central University. At the same time, I was very nervous in the Capital of India, for me this was not only a cultural shock but difficult to cope with new phenomena being a student of the prestigious university.

Then, one of our acquaintances, helped me meet Prof. Rizwan Qaiser at his residence. I was thoroughly nervous but at the same time excited to meet someone whose articles I had been reading and whose writing and ideas I had been admiring. He did not ask for anything, but after some time tea and snacks were there. Then, I introduced myself and explained why I was there to meet him. I confidently said I don't need anything from you but of course your guidance and blessing. And then we started discussing the various personal and social issues. One of his advice, I still remember, "Don't compromise your dignity, always remember your roots and there is no shortcut to hard work." Meeting with him kind of facilitated my mind and heart to process my anxiety and try to find some solution. Since then, he has kind of always been with me, even after I left the Jamia.

He always encouraged students to study and also facilitate participation in social issues to learn larger issues of our concerns, that were used to be on social, political, or global development. I still remember, I one day I went to see him after finishing my classes – I always used to go to him to discuss my personal, subject, or social issues, and he always navigated my curiosity with the logical end. But, that particular day, he said, "Sabri, there is an important conference going to happen, if you are interested in joining, I will recommend your name along with some more students of the Jamia". That was The Second National Convention of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) in November 2004. I thanked him for this opportunity. That exposure was required for people like me who never visited any other city than my own in Bihar to Delhi, and this event was going to give me a chance to go to Jaipur. This event was kind of the first experience for me to meet many students, scholars and activists from across the county, our visit was planned with the students of Ramjas College Delhi University. For me, this was a great learning and exposure to a new city and to meet many new people who have been associated with social change in India and elsewhere in the world.

I cannot stop myself from sharing Rizwan Sb’s hospitality on Eid. During my student days, every year, it was compulsory for me to go to his place for Eid. He was a great host and served delicious food along with love to guests. For me, these were great opportunities to interact with many of his friends and colleagues, to understand the social and political discourses.

He always encouraged us to attend conferences and lectures which was a great help for me to shape our ideas/knowledge. The best part of those conferences at our University, Rizwan Sb always asked students to go first to have food, with a great smile and humility, because food used to be an important part of those conferences for students, staying away from home, and during those conferences, one can have good food.

In August 2017, Rizwan sir organised a symposium along with his friends and colleagues at Jamia, on the topic of ‘Citizenship in Secular Democracy’. He messaged me about this event, and he was very happy to see me at the event where renowned scholars and activists shared their inputs and comments on the current political and social issues, related to Citizenship in our democratic country. Then during tea time, he introduced me to a few scholars and activists as usual. At the end, we had a brief exchange on the importance of these kinds of symposiums for students and the community. We had a consensus about doing these kinds of events regularly.

My last physical meeting with him was at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, where Rizwan Sb was there to give a lecture on "Idea of India and Maulana Azad". I went there to listen to and meet him. For me, always listening to his thoughts on the idea of India was like hope for the future of our country. Despite all odds, he was confident through scholarly works and action for a better world. He not only contributed through academic work but was also active with various social action groups for developing and sharing his ideas with the larger community for social change. His contributions were always remembered by the people of Jamia Nagar when he contributed to building a citizens group. One particular in the post-Babri demolition, when there was a need to build solidarity among the citizens, I had heard from many people, how that citizen group was active in the area. People like Prof Romila Thapar and Advocate Anil Noria were also part of this initiative.

Rizwan Sir has relentlessly contributed towards the progress of many individuals like me and the larger community through his vast knowledge and based on own his experiences associated with the social movements in contemporary India. His scholarship on the Indian freedom movement, secularism, and most importantly, his ways to discover Maulana Azad's contribution to the freedom struggle and aftermath, through his Book Resisting Colonialism and Communalism: Maulana Azad and the Making of Indian Nation, one of the path-breaking work for understanding Mulan Azad's vision and acumen.

The world cannot forget Prof. Rizwan Qaiser – it must not. He died due to the Covid catastrophe on May 1, 2021. I am still not able to reconcile myself. He is no more with us and we need people like him now more than ever because as a country, we are passing through a difficult phase and the surge of Far-Right is a new reality not only in India but everywhere in the globe. This is where Rizwan Sb's thoughts and guidance were needed. The way he defined the understanding of secularism, Citizenship, Rights and dignity for all, not only in the prism of theoretical space but his collective actions throughout his life is an example for people to follow.

The ‘Ayurvedic’ Supervisor: Saurav Kumar Rai?Remembers?Biswamoy Pati

On the afternoon of June 24 (2017), I was sleeping comfortably after having my lunch, when I got a call from my friend Manmohan. I picked up the phone in slight irritation. “Pati Sir is no more,” said Manmohan on the other side. I could not understand what to say and hung up the phone. I was numb for a moment. As I gained my senses, I rang Manmohan after a few minutes and asked, “Where are you now?” By that time, he and some other people had already reached Paras Hospital in Gurgaon. I also picked up my bike and hurriedly reached the hospital and then to Lodhi Road Crematorium. After a while, it was all over. Dr Pati had physically left this world forever. But before leaving, he had drawn a long line behind him which is still unsurpassable in many regards.

My candid association with Dr Biswamoy Pati began somewhere around 2012 when I eventually settled down for social history of health and medicine as my research theme for MPhil/PhD which was met by an equally enthusiastic and generous response by Dr. Pati. Although he had taught us earlier the paper on Social History of Modern India during post-graduation, the deplorable teacher-student ratio and time-bound (or rather ‘time-starved’) semester scheme at the University of Delhi provides minuscule scope for extensive interaction between students and teachers on a one-to-one basis. Nevertheless, right from my MPhil days, Dr Pati remained the strongest pillar of support at Delhi University. He was particularly unique as a research supervisor and guide, the role in which I saw and experienced him at length. In this role, he was very much like a traditional Ayurvedic practitioner or vaid – incidentally a figure who happened to be my research subject.

One very fundamental difference between biomedicine and Ayurveda is that while the former hits directly on target focusing on immediate relief, the latter surroundings and other subsidiary matters acquire far more importance than the obvious disease. Hence, if a patient approaches a doctor imparting biomedical treatment he/she provides medicine targeting the obvious disease, whereas when the same patient visits the Ayurvedic practitioner or valid, he/she starts enquiring about a lot of apparently subsidiary things as for instance the daily routine of the patient, his/her dietary habits, mental condition, so on and so forth. This is largely because according to the Ayurvedic philosophy, all the bio-elements responsible for proper functioning of the body can be categorised into three types of humors – Vata (or the airy elements), Pitta (or the fiery element) and Kapha (or the watery element). A healthy body exhibits the proper balance of all three types of humors inside the body. However, these humors by nature are highly unstable and change day and night and with food. Hence, proper daily routines and dietary habits are essential to maintain humoral equilibrium. Disease is nothing but expression of either excess or deficiency of one or more types of humors at a particular point in time thereby distorting the equilibrium. As per the Ayurvedic philosophy, health can be restored by mitigating such excesses or deficiencies by advising respective diets and routines. In a similar vein, for Dr Pati, unlike many other supervisors, research and thesis writing were not the one and only concern while interacting with his research students. He knew that until and unless a student is provided with ample props to pursue his/her research, quality work could hardly be produced. That is why taking care of proper funding, discussing the tricky familial and career-related matters which very often distract the student in the long course of PhD and trying to come up with solutions, exhibiting keen interest in arranging for field trips to collect archival sources, etc. were major concerns for Dr. Pati while supervising a research student. He very often used to say that his research students do not work ‘under’ him, but ‘with’ him. It was this sense of togetherness which prevailed among his research students, that was vital to keep the stress and depression – which is of common occurrence while pursuing research – at bay. In short, Dr Pati ensured perfect equilibrium of ‘research-humors’ which resulted in some remarkable theses produced by his students.

In fact, Dr Pati was one of the few teachers whose presence at the History Department of the University of Delhi made its environs student-friendly and a place of jovial encouragement amidst frustrating surroundings. One could hardly hold back his/her smile irrespective of his/her mood during howsoever small meeting and interaction with Dr. Pati. His diverse research interests attracted a wide range of scholars already working or planning to work on colonial and post-colonial history of South Asia. Through many of his monographs and edited volumes he introduced several potential topics of research, including the extremely over-worked theme of the 1857 Rebellion, for future researchers. He was one of the most easily approachable teachers in the department who nurtured the budding research interests of many young scholars; helped in bringing forth many spectacular works into print; resolved the emotional whirlpool of many students; saved a few of them from going into utter depression and above all extended his helping hands to numerous people and brought them to shore irrespective of their worldly affiliations. In fact, he often used to say that if someone would ever ask him what was his greatest achievement as a teacher, he would reply, ‘I saved a couple of students from going into utter depression, which I consider my real achievement as a teacher.’

Dr. Pati was equally considerate whenever it came to bringing the research work of his students into the limelight. He had a firm belief that it is the young generation of scholars which has something ‘new’ to say. That is why, there were instances when he forwarded names of younger research scholars to a particular conference or seminar where the organisers had actually intended to invite him to speak. It was a rare gesture of open-heartedness in academia which is full of cases where senior professors stealthily lift the research work of their students without due acknowledgement.

The sudden demise of Dr Pati on 24 June 2017 was a huge loss not just for the existing academia but also for those future students entering into the discipline of history who could never get the chance to feel his ‘presence in person’. Nonetheless, he would remain alive forever through his various works. Whenever someone would decide to work on and divulge more nuanced terrains of ‘colonial and indigenous/tribal medicine’, ‘tribal and peasant movements’, ‘history of madness’, ‘history of lunatic and leper asylums’, ‘1857 Rebellion’, ‘history of caste and social exclusion’, ‘Christian missionaries and conversion’; ‘princely states’, etc. he/she will have to interact with Dr Pati through his written words. Incidentally, I went for numerous interviews mostly pertaining to Ad hoc/Guest lectureship before settling down at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the place where Dr Pati held the position of Senior Fellow (2015-17). There were places where Dr Pati used to say that ‘Saurav! Never invoke my name there; I am a kind of monster for them.’ This was largely because of his ideological leanings towards the Left which had earned both friends and foes to him in the academia. Nevertheless, had he been alive I would have told him that there is nothing to conceal, rather it is a badge of honour to have a gentle ‘Ayurvedic’ supervisor like him. We will miss you Sir for numerous said and unsaid stuffs!