Manzil’s Teachers with Prof. Anil Gupta

Prof. Anil Gupta Ji

Along with our regular teacher meetings and events, we at Manzil never miss out on Teachers Day. Under normal circumstances, we would have had a learningful session with many people. However this time, we were forced to conduct it online. To our surprise, tons of people showed up and it turned out to be a great success.

A poster shared among teachers

This year’s teachers day celebration was really special as we got a chance to meet Prof. Anil Gupta, an IIM Ahmedabad Faculty and a teacher of Ravi Bhaiya (Founder of Manzil). From many stories, we have heard from Ravi Bhaiya about Prof. Gupta, it reflects that he played an important role to encourage him to work for the welfare of the society. While Ravi Bhaiya has been a close mentor and guiding light to the students at Manzil and a chance to meet the teacher he learnt from, came as a huge opportunity to everyone at Manzil.

Volt. Teacher

Prof. Anil Gupta was invited to share his own experiences of service with individuals and communities at the grassroot level. The conversation between Anil Sir with our teachers was an insightful dialogue where he shared plenty of his own experiences.

Once, a student asked him a question related to spiders and he didn’t know the answer. The not-knowing didn’t let him sleep that night. Our teachers who have also faced difficulties in answering such questions in the past felt motivated after listening to Prof. Gupta’s experiences. It was great to learn how curiosity can turn a roadblock into a learning opportunity. A learner should never stop asking questions and remain curious. Curiosity makes learning more effective and enjoyable. A curious student not only asks questions, but also actively seeks out answers to his/her questions.

Guru Vandana

In Prof. Gupta’s words "Mera kya tha jo maine tumhe diya, sab tumhara hi to tha, jo tumhe diya" (What did I have that I gave you, everything was yours and hence was given back to you). This statement itself tells us how simple and down to earth he is and how much he loves his students. 

Another lesson that we learnt from Prof. Gupta is that one should express their thoughts freely. He also shared with us that an individual is living a meaningful life when at the end of the day, sleep is waiting for a person and not when he/she has to force himself/herself to bed. He shared that anything is possible when our minds are open and free and full of energy and enthusiasm. We are grateful to Prof. Anil Gupta for guiding and motivating our teachers with his lived experiences of teaching the students unconditionally and serving the world.

To conclude, we would like to share a beautiful piece of poetry written by one of our teachers Mahak Saini:

Behind My Shine 

Teacher is a painter

They paint our mind

And tell us when, what, where

We have to fly

A Teacher is a role model in our life

When we started going to school 

The first day we had lots of cries

Teacher is a hero in my life

They teach us everything

Whatever they have tried

I have a dictionary in my mind

I found no words

Which can describe

That My teacher is the reason

Behind my shine, behind my shine

Written by Aman Raj Singh (Manzil Teacher and Newsletter Team member)

Edited by Devina Singh and Vaibhav Sharma (Manzil Volunteers)