Anupam- The Dreamer

There was a great teacher at Bansal Classes, Kota, and he had a unique style of motivating his students for IIT-JEE examination. He taught Organic Chemistry. He was very good at his subject, but at the same time he was at times too harsh on the students. It is because of his second quality, many of the students feared to face him. He used to literally humiliate the non-serious students for not doing homework/not trying to solve the questions that he gave and who didn’t work hard. But then, on his last day of our class, he told us a powerful short motivational story, which sort of justified his approach of strict teaching. Somewhere, he connected the dots going backwards and I understood why he was so harsh with us at times. Let me share with you that interesting and motivational ” Gobar story (गोबर story)“, which this teacher shared with us long ago in our farewell class.

“Once there was a little aspirational bird, it was flying high in the sky. From such a high altitude height, the world looked small. As it went further higher and higher, the world looked smaller and smaller. The bird was filled with pride and ecstasy and thought that everyone down on the ground was looking so small in front of it. As it went up and up, you know the temperature drops below the freezing point at very high altitude.

So, as the fate had it, the bird froze completely and had a free fall back towards the earth. When it fell, it fell directly in the cow dung (gobar), which was freshly pooed by the cow. You know that fresh gobar is hot, and the little frozen bird sprung back to life in that hot gobar. A dog was noticing this movement in gobar, and intrigued he came near it, saw the little bird, cleaned it up from gobar and ate it.”

End of story 😀

As he finished telling the story, the class was dumbstruck! We didn’t expect the sad ending to the story. Infact, we were feeling pity about the poor bird. But then came the surprise interpretation that he gave us.

The moral of the above story was this:

1. However big you may become in your life, but you must not forget your roots. If you get cut off from your roots and still think that you can rise higher you are hugely mistaken, because then you would suffer a free fall towards the bottom.

2. Not everyone who throws gobar at you (like the cow in this story), is your enemy. There is something good hidden in there too. Often the people who are critical of you and humiliate you, are the ones that help you wake up from slumber and help you grow faster. (Sir considered him in this category, that’s why he humiliated his students, not with an intent to belittle them rather shaking up their soul to work hard)

3. Not everyone who cleans up your gobar is a well-wisher (like the dog in this story). They may as well eat you up after cleaning. So, you must be wary of the dogs roaming around you wagging their tails as if they are happy to be near you. At first, they may portray as your well-wishers, but they have their own hidden nefarious intents.

And after hearing these, we all were stunned. At that moment, whatever he did for humiliation of students and his teaching approach, suddenly started making complete sense. In place of the hatred for his strict teaching style, I suddenly became his one of the biggest fans. It is true that a right teacher not just teaches to his/her students, but also inspires them to work hard. This was one such teacher in my life. Hats off to SR Sir!