Today is a very special day. Why? It's Teacher's Day. It is the day we celebrate the great people who have transformed our lives for the better through the medium of education. The people who significantly contributed in promising a life of education, erudition and learning. It's our teachers.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. That's exactly what a teacher has done for us and we celebrate this joyous occasion in remembrance of one of the greatest teachers of India, on his birthday , our first Indian President, Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, a distinguished alumnus of our own Madras Christian College.
Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5 September, 1888 in Tirutani, a well-known religious center in the Madras State. He was the second son of Veera Samayya, a tehsildar in a Zamindari hailing from a middle-class, respectable Hindu Brahmin family.
Dr.Radhakrishnan was married in 1906, at the tender age of 18 and while still a student, to Sivakamamma, and spent a happy married life with her for fifty years before she died in 1956.
Bright and precocious, with a scholarly disposition and a serene demeanor, from the very beginning, Radhakrishnan spent the first eight years of his life happily and fruitfully in his home town with his parents. The tranquil and challenging atmosphere of that famous and well-loved place, as well as the benign influence of his parents who, as was common in the South, were intensely religious in the traditional sense, went far in molding his character and sowing a lively seed of religiousness in him.
Dr. Radhakrishnan was educated at Lutheran Mission School, Tirupathi (1896-1900), Vellore College, Vellore (1900-1904), and finally the crowning glory of his education was at Madras Christian College (1904-1908) which shaped not only his destiny but also the destiny of our GREAT NATION.
On this special day, I deem it a humble privilege to remember MY GREAT TEACHERS, including Miss. Helen, Late Miss Noeline, Mrs.Sybll, Mrs.Rita, Mrs.Selvi, Mr & Mrs.Veeradhas, Dr.Suresh Frederick, Dr.Ranjan Samuel, Prof.P.Natarajan, Dr.Manalan, my admired librarian, Prof.R.Duvarakan, Prof.Daniel David, Mrs.Baby Eliammal, Dr.J.Edward Manickam etc., for making me who I am today, with their guidance, their encouragement, their appreciations, their commitment and their patient endeavour in bringing out the best in me. You have influenced me a lot, and shaped my way of thinking to a great extent, dear teachers. I am so proud that I had you as a part of my life. Your BLESSINGS sustain me and continue to direct my paths dear revered TEACHERS. Every word of wisdom and knowledge that you have told me, years ago, still keep ringing in my ears and they give me strength and nourishment for daily life. “A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others," goes a good old maxim. I thank you dear Teachers, for you have proved it true in my life.
*Thanks to Nikita C, for valuable inputs on Dr.Radhakrishnan.
For a beautiful speech on Teachers' Day by our beloved Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, based on his own personal reminiscences, CLICK HERE.
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