Bangalore:
Very often, Teacher's Day is full of tokenisms. With the best of intentions, we say it with cards and flowers. But could there be a better gift than helping our teachers find their feet again?
Like 67-year-old Abdulla Baig, who taught Kannada in an Urdu school for 36 years and won a national award in 1990, but simply couldn't afford to treat his arthritis.
Till he saw an ad for a week-long series of joint replacement surgeries that will treat 100 retired teachers who have suffered most by arthritis.
"Oh I don't think I am doing anything great, I am just compensating them. Without a good teacher, I wouldn't even be finishing my education," said Dr Yu Sing Chan, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Manchester, UK.
Such students would make teachers proud, especially 86-year-old Susheela Singh.
"Even today at functions, someone comes running to me and says 'I was your student' and you taught us this, you taught us that. They even remember the topics I taught," she said.
"We have beautiful shlokas, like Guru Brahma, guru Vishnu. But tell me how many of us remember our teachers? What have we done for them? Once you leave the school, what connection you keep with them? And when they are helpless, what do you do to help them?" said Sudha Murthy, a philanthropist.
So, this is a lesson we must not forget.