An Open letter to My MA English Students who graduated on 28 May

Dear II MA English Students,

On the day of convocation i wanted to meet each one of you and convey my wishes but i  managed to meet less than half of you. All the same, let me use this medium to wish all those whom I could not meet. Congratulations and all the best. May you have an exciting life ahead. 

A few days from now you may not remember much from the courses your have undergone. That is true of any student from any institution in the world. Neither do I remember much from my college or university days. However, what university education does is, broaden your worldview and rub on some of the passion of your course instructors or those whom you associate yourself with during your university days. The difference among you will not be about how much each of you have learnt but how much passion of the different kinds, towards different issues you have got rubbed on, and how wider your woldview has become. As much as your future condition depends on the social conditions you exist, it also depends on the these two things - worldview and passions - you carry from here. 

With this little reflexion, i wish you the very best. I will leave you with an extract on teachers by Khaleel Gibran's Prophet; this is especially for those who plan to become teachers. 

On Teaching

      Then said a teacher, "Speak to us of Teaching."
      And he said:
      No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge.
      The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
      If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
      The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
      The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
      And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
      For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
      And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth. 

Warmly,

Anil Pinto