It’s ironic how this profession has followed me!

After post-graduation, I worked in a corporation in NCR away from my hometown. My parents wanted me to leave this job and come back to my hometown and become a college teacher. An idea which I absolutely hated at the time. I did not want a slow-paced life. I was bustling with energy and wanted to prove my mettle, not necessarily in corporate, but in life itself.

The idea of taking up a teaching job in a college and a laid-back lifestyle I could not imagine myself in at all. And one of the underlying reasons for it was the conservative thought process prevalent in my hometown, which felt like shackles to me.

When your parents show persistence, teacher, teacher, teacher, you kinda start to get pissed off at the word itself.

Another reason for not following this advice was, I was not interested in computers. In my understanding, becoming a teacher would mean researching the subject, being thorough about it before I take up the responsibility of teaching others. And I did not feel inclined towards it at all.

I only know how I topped the examinations, story for another time. 😄

Also, to emphasize what it meant to be a teacher, to me, let me share an incident.

While I was in Post Grad, I had a dear friend. We often used to study together at her home or mine. She used to take tuition along with college. One day, I was present during her tuition time and a student asked a certain question. I saw that she did not know the answer, but instead of admitting to it, she gave a superfluous explanation. I could not believe it.

I asked her later if she could have easily admitted to it and had said, ‘I don’t know this at the moment, will check and get back to you tomorrow.’ It was a plain, simple idea for me. ‘Why did you give a false answer to your student ?’

Her explanation was based more on survival. That if she didn’t give an answer, student may think she didn’t know and she may even lose him as pupil. Probably she would have learned it from her elders. I was aghast within but did not say anything further.

So, I was very clear I am not passionate about any subject that I would want to teach!

But this did not leave me easily.

Once, I was helping a distant niece who was good at her studies with the computer science subject itself, and she exclaimed, ‘Maasi, You should be a teacher! I hate computers as a subject, but if you had been my teacher, I would have loved it as well!’ And I rolled my eyes like, Here it is. Yet again.

Fast-forward. Without my conscious decision, I did not realize when this profession found me. I was teaching about life to my surrounding people without the tag of Spiritual Mentor much before I made it public.

And I am deeply passionate about it. So much so that I breathe it. I see myself all the time upgrading myself and my knowledge in order to guide others better, and I absolutely love this.