Teachers' Day

I have often wondered that would I say or do if I met Amitabh Bachchan?
Or for that matter, what I would do if met anybody I wanted to meet very badly?
Would I be able to impress them with witty comments? Would I have a sparkling conversation they would remember later? Would I make a fool of myself? Would I recognise them?
The last possibility never crossed my mind - till today morning.

To give a bit of a background, I have to go back about nineteen years when I was in love with my History teacher in Class IX.
Apart from being breathtakingly beautiful, she spoke exceedingly well and for the first time for me, she managed to make History interesting. She gave away reference books, told stories to bring the texts alive and despite setting tough exams, was the darling of the class. She had just joined our school and we were her first batch.

While on the subject of teachers in school, it would be apt to mention two more - Amit Dasgupta and Rajat Bhattacharya - without whom, I would have never realised I could write or that I could enjoy writing. These were the two guys who gave impossible essay topics, forced me to participate in creative writing contests and generally knew much more about my abilities than I did myself.
This blog is a direct result of their efforts to give their student something more than education. They gave me a lifetime of enjoyment.

Today, standing bleary-eyed in Delhi Airport at 5 AM, an extremely elegant lady did what has not happened to me for a very long time... she pronounced my full name perfectly.
That should have given me a hint but I refused to take it. And I could not recognise the one teacher I wanted to meet most after leaving school.
As she pointed out, it was a 'lovely' Teachers' Day gift I gave her!
But you will agree that her gift was fantastic. She identified a pot-bellied and slightly balding man to be the teenager she last met fifteen years back. A day could not have started any better than this.

Ma'am - I was tongue-tied then but did you realise that it's because I still haven't gotten over my crush? It is for moments like these that life needs a rewind button.

Happy Teachers' Day!

BTW, today is my sister's birthday as well. S Radhakrishnan and her - two more disparate people could not have been born on the same day!