I still remember vividly the day when I first entered
Suvro Sir's house. It was 4
th of April ,03,a bright sunny day. I along with my buddies-
Arghya,
Arnab were at his house by 8:15.
Nirmal Da , the house keeper led us to the study room. The room was very spacious and comfortable. A portion of the left wall was occupied by a rack completely filled with books. On the opposite wall I saw a piece of paper framed and hung to the wall. It stated the qualities that a Teacher should have.
Soon the entire room was filled with students, most of them were familiar faces. At the stroke of 8:30, our teacher entered from the door on the right. He was around six feet tall, skinny, looked too young to be in his forties. He neither looked like the 'techie tutor', one who would have a projector and would dictate notes from his slides, nor did he belong to the traditional kind. He was unique. He took his chair and asked us to take out our notebooks. He said that before starting with us he would like to know on what grounds do we stand .He took a test(The Diagnostic Test)to judge our level of confidence with the language. I was simply shocked. None of us expected it. We gave the test.I scored a miserable fifty-five. Even now when I am writing this post I can recollect the the mistakes that I had made on that day.I am going to remember this test for along time
I was impressed by his style that day and decided that whatever happens I am going to continue with him till the very end. At that moment I didn't even have the slightest idea of what was in store for us. ICSE English was only an excuse.A certain amount of time of everday's class was scheduled for extra curricular activities. We did everything.From solving jigssaw puzzles and unjumbling words to playing scrabble and voice recording.He introduced me to Western music.When it came to serious business he was very professional.Among the stories and poems that were included in our curriculum I enjoyed "The Lady Or The Tiger"and "The Man With The Hoe" respectively the most.No one could have done more justice to the play than Suvro Sir.As all of Sir's ex-student will know,Sir is a phenomenal storyteller.The Rashid of Durgapur.The ambiance that he creates is awesome.I can still recollect the goosebumps that I felt when he narrated "The Believers".He has translated Rabindranath Tagore's "Galpo gucho" in English while he was a teacher in St. Xavier's School,Durgapur. And as many of you know he has written a few french poems as well.
This part of my post is concerned to all those parents who have either enrolled their children in Sir's classes or intend to do the same.You would listen different kinds of rumours about Sir and his style of teaching- that he gets too far fetched and is not limited to the school curriculum,that he asks his students to read books other than those which are a part of school syllabus.If encouraging students to read good books and watch good movies is a sin then I have nothing to say.It is you not your neighbour who will decide what is good for your child. Next year my brother will be in ninth standard and hence eligible to get enrolled in Sir's classes.If my father doesn't get posted somewhere else I won't even give it a second thought about getting him admitted .I know what I have gained there.I intend to do an MBA from an A plus college.In order to do that one should have a formidable stock of words.Your vocabulary has to be very strong and you cant develop it in a day or two.It is improved with time.Some of the other requisites are your communication skills.If you can't communicate your interviewer your point in the interview then you are a dead duck.Group discussions are organized here on daily basis. The advantage that your child will have here is that he will not have to look for a group for group discussions.This will help your child get out of the shell.So my advice to all the parents is to turn a deaf ear to all the fake rumours and choose what is best for their child.
Suvro Sir is the kind of person you come across once in a blue moon.A man in his mid forties having so much enthusiasm and passion still left towards his job is simply phenomenal.I don't have marks to show what I have learned and gained from him.It can only be felt.As Shantunu Sir said in my blog 'Sir is a great motivator of young minds'.He has been a tremendous influence in my life and continues to be.
You don't always get an opportunity to thank your teacher. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for being such a great support in everything that I have done.At the beginning of the post I mentioned a list stating the requisites of a good teacher. Sir fulfills all of them.
If I have missed out on anything important please let me know by your comments
This image drawn by my mother came as a surprise to me.I was taking my daily nap when I felt someone jerking my shoulders.It was my mother,her eyes were gleaming,the look which she usually wears when she has created something.It may be a sketch as in this case or a recipie . My mom is in her late thirties but has more enthusiasm and passion than most teenage girls I come across everyday.I was looking through Suvro Sir's posts in his blog when she saw this and at that very moment decided to sketch it.When I told her that I am going to publish this in my blog she denied me and insisted upon changing my decision till the last moment.
