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
7 comments:
Words would not be enough to communicate to the reader the magnitude of influence that Sir had on the lives of many students. Many abominate him. No to mention, most of them are themselves despicable characters. But there are a majority of students who love him and admire him. And there are some who love him and know him well enough to stay with him and boudi till their last.
If he had not been there in my life, I would have, unknowingly, suffered great loss. I am not good at studies. My results at CAT, MAT, XAT and other exams would not be laudable, but not bad either. But I have been said by counsellors, by a few corporate managers, and even by the admissions-in-charge of one or two B-Schools, that my varied interests and extra-curricular activities would add to my scores and give me a strong platform in the interviews. Needless to say, if Suvro Sir had not been there, I would not have developed varied hobbies and interests.
Dear Partha,
Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting on this sketch of mine. I took a lot of patience and concentration to sketch this one and the one on Antarmahal. I sketched both the pictures on the same day. This is actually a sketch of the famous portrait of Einstein taken by the legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh.
I am glad that you are sensitive enough to realise that art has very little place in the hearts of an overwhelming majority of people in India. Ask any Bengali mother if she wants her son or daughter to become the next Raghu Rai or Elliott Erwitt. Leave alone the dream of seeing their sons and daughters reach to the level, they haven't even heard these names. To them, being an MBA or an IIT pass-out is the highest goal that a person can have. In such a society, it is difficult to make a mark in the world of fine arts.
But is it not that many have indeed made names in this field?
The key to success in this field, like in many other fields, lies in 'whom you know'. I believe a student of M.F.Hussain has a very good platform for launching his works. And since he is a student of M.F.Hussain, any half-educated rich businessman will buy his paintings for the sake of enlivening his status. M.F.Hussain's paintings will be bought by millionaires for the same reason. And the problem with such reputation is that anything - even if it is a couple of colours thrown and rubbed on a canvas - is sold at high price; prices as high as ten lakhs per picture. Where as you will find artists sitting on the grounds of the book-fair with their works and people hardly noticing them. This is a tragedy. But I fail to understand the reason why this has happened. One reason is the advent of photography, which totally wiped out the significance of painting in portraying the world and its people. What is practised widely today is abstract art. But personally speaking, I do not like abstract works of art. Almost any work is displayed these days in the name of abstract photography. I remember an abstract picture with blue background and a red triangle in the foreground. That was the most costly picture in that exhibition. I simple did not understand why? In face of such absurdity, a portrait of Einstein, like the one I have made, will lie discarded in the dust-bin. But I have no repentance. I do not sketch to sell. I sketch because I fell happy while sketching. That is all I am concerned with. To make millions by taking pictures, or by sculpting, or by painting, one has to be a 'genius', and with good 'contacts'.
Regards,
Subhanjan.
I would like to have a few more comments from you Partho. You have a fondness for fine arts and it is a cherishable characteristic. I will be glad to have your comments.
You may even join as my follower. I will be extremely glad. You may even vote. The voting machine is at the bottom of my blog.
I suggest you crop the picture of Einstein. Crop it from the right to the edge of his hand. And also crop the border frame. That is not needed here.
Dear Partha,
It was nice visiting your blog and getting to know someone who studies engineering, builds robots, has a serious interest in literature and films and writes well. People with such diverse interests, like you and your friend Subhanjan, make the world the interesting place it is.
It was also nice to get a first-hand account of the den of Suvro Sir, who I am sure is a great motivator of young minds.
Please keep posting. I will certainly come back to your blog.
I cannot say how grateful I am for this post, Partha. If a teacher works for something beyond money, nothing hurts him more than being forgotten by his old boys and girls (far more, in fact, than abuse by those who disliked him: dislike can be easily ignored or laughed at); and, conversely, nothing warms his heart more than the knowledge that some people remember, and have reason to be thankful.
I know for a fact that a lot of people do indeed have happy and grateful memories; my only sorrow is that they (unlike those who love to abuse me) prefer to keep quiet. If a hundred young people who like me and owe me had spoken out like you or Nishant or Stotra over the last two decades, I would have been a far more famous person today! But no matter: kind words from even one human being are always priceless.
Dear Partha,
It was truly great to read this post and all the comments and see you people remember such fond memories! It's really admirable to see that you people along with Sir have been able to create a relationship that is so unconventional...
I, alas, have nothing to add to your reminiscences and I truly and thoroughly regret for not being the resident of Durgapur for atleast years!
Take care.
Zee.
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