I am a teacher

Qazi Sajad Delinavi
I am a teacher working in a Government run school. I work, earn and live my life. I perform my duties like any other government employee….. But I am different and being treated and looked upon differently. When I go for some shopping, the shopkeeper behaves as if I am going to purchase without paying him anything. They call me Kanjoos (miser) even if I spend so lavishly. On my way to school everybody around ask me for time. Even bystanders call me Dutychoor even if I reach my workplace as early as I can. I eat well, dress well and live well but even employees below my rank call me Bechoor Mashter (hapless). The fact remains that my fellow employees are never called as Police Ji, Clerk Ji, Water Works Ji so on and so forth but I am always known and named tauntingly as Mashter Ji even when there is lot of nomenclatures in my cadre.
I don’t mind and why should I do for such petty things. I am content with my income and thank God for not providing me much chances for earning black money. I don’t feel jealous about the properties being made by some other government employees for I know they are corrupt and have done so through sin full means. However myself being looked down as incompetent, non-performing and dishonest person irks me a lot. I don’t understand why people criticize my department alone and keep demeaning and defaming my job. I aspire to be the same teacher who was being respected more than anybody else till yesterday. Deep down my thoughts I realize the reason behind the metamorphosis of my profession, so noble and so pious. The fact of the matter is that there are some brothers who are sowing the seeds of corruption, incompetency, non-performance, dishonesty and dirty politics in my saintly profession. There are three categories of people responsible for demeaning my reputation. One comprises of those who seldom teach and largely remain preoccupied with thinking about making easy bucks while retaining their jobs as not more than their side business. Second comprises of our non-serious students and their parents who hardly know about the requirements of present day competitive atmosphere. They think a teacher is the sole pillar in teaching learning process and forget to perform their important role as such. This lot leads to waning of enthusiasm of even dedicated teachers. Then there is third category of my brothers who have become leaders while stamping the future of their voiceless poor students. Some have earned certain tags while tarnishing the very image of a teacher of our recent past. They all claim to raise my standard while forgetting the fact that they have done a lot of disservice to my job. Don’t they know it is action which speaks louder than words and not vice versa.
I want the above mentioned categories to come to my rescue. Along with living a fully satisfied life I want to live a conscientious life which is possible only when i do well, teach in my classroom, convince parents to send their future to be nurtured under my guidance in my school and succeed in attracting more serious students and enhance the pass percentage of my Government school which has become not more than a subject of ridicule in my society. I am a teacher and I don’t want to be a greedy public servant, an impracticable leader, an unsatisfied employee and a power hungry politician.
(The author is Lecturer in Political Science at GHSS Laridora Baramulla.)

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