How Teaching in N G Acharya College Changed My Perception of Mumbai

Teaching definitely is one of the most enriched experiences. I always believed in it, however got to know only recently.I appeared to be happy with my job as a journalist: reading, writing, analyzing people, places and propaganda, when I co-incidentally bumped into this gentleman called Dr. B.N Gaikwad, who happens to be the Head of the English Department of N G Acharya & D.K. Marathe College at Chembur. He could somehow see that I had this inkling to teach and probably I could be a good teacher. Promptly, I was called for an interview in the same college on his recommendation, of course, and before I could realize I was in the classroom with about 100 students waiting to analyze my lecture (for a change).

Soon, I realized that the job of a teacher is no cakewalk. The utopian idea of delivering a couple of lectures and then prancing off to home, crashed. It was a totally different experience for me. Having read in Xavier’s and worked with the Page 3 celebs (for the Times of India), Acharya College’s atmosphere came to me as an eye opener.

The point, I am trying to drive home will become clear after I give you a little more background about myself. I have come from a rather conventional, yet highly educated family from Bihar. After my graduation, when I decided to come to Mumbai for further prospects, I faced major opposition at home. Mumbai to my family members was the “maya nagri” that would engulf anyone into its high end superfast moving glam sham life. To some extent, even I believed in this picture of Mumbai and I wanted to explore it myself. With much determination, I convinced my father to let me go and from there on begun my journey.

My father said,

“Now that you have stepped out, you are totally on your own. With trust and confidence in you I am sending you out to find your own path and calling.”

It became all the more important for me to prove it to my family that I have made it and not lost it. I cleared the all India entrance test for Xavier’s Institute of Communications, did my post graduation diploma in Journalism from there, and got my first appointment with the Times Of India Group as an editorial co-ordinator and Features Writer for a lifestyle tabloid. Soon, I was hobnobbing with the celebs, interviewing the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar and others. Just when, I had lived up to the glam sham image and had almost got used to the fake air kisses and hostile hugs, I realized that I was oblivious to the overload of population that throng the local trains every morning, risking their lives just to commute long hours to their work places from their matchbox homes in some remote areas like Dombivili and Kalyan! But before I could ponder over this, I was swept into the Mills & Boon type Romance with a shipy fella, I stumbled upon in a train journey. Life continued to be rosy with marriage, world cruise and the joy of giving birth to a beautiful baby. I had now turned into an online reporter, writing from the nooks and corners of the globe.

It was only, when my husband, Prashant decided to come back to Mumbai for a full time shore job, I got to see the other side of this city, which is a complete contrast to what I had experienced before. Soon, I saw my family life going down the drains as my husband could hardly spare time for us. He continues to work for almost 15 hours a day and a lot of time is wasted in commute. Most of the time, I find myself playing the role of a single parent at my son’s school, managing home and work simultaneously. I had the advantage of working from my home and so I had to get into this mould of an Alpha Woman more by default than design. I had almost started hating this life, when DR. Gaikwad introduced me to Acharya college.

The students of this college are no where like the Xavier’s crowd. They come from tough backgrounds and many of them have had a hard life. They work part-time to help their large families. They come from areas like Govandi, Tilak nagar and Mankhurd, areas those are non-existent on the Page 3, and if at all, they appear, it is only when a celeb decides to send some charity to them. These students coyly come to the class every morning, trying hard to learn and achieve their not so high aims. Most of them have a problem in sentence construction in English, forget speaking in English. And here I was left alone to tackle almost 100 of them in a class. For me the contrast was obviously shocking and I had a tough time learning the ropes. There are times when I have to teach English in Hindi, but that’s fine, as long as they understand the concepts and become confident enough to imply them, my purpose is achieved. It touches my heart when in a Business Communication class, a student tells me he would be thankful, if he becomes an accountant in future or a girl student shyly confesses that she wants to be an office secretary. It’s ironical that these students are even scared of dreaming Big. I don’t laugh at them when they tell me that Robert Frost in his “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, talks about woods(literally) and not woods(forests), for now I know that “KADI” is called wood in English and that’s all they have learnt in their school!

It’s a challenge everyday to teach these kids and coax them to perform well both in their papers as well as in their lives. However, they are so much better than those of the colleges like Xavier’s. They are full of humility, dignity and strength of character. They are not ashamed of their backgrounds and feel proud in working towards their betterment. They show utmost respect to the teachers. Not that, they don’t have their fun time. Cat calls and shy flirtatious comments in the class are also a part of my lectures. But it is seen that the line is not crossed from both ends.

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What impressed me most is their extremely organized and co-ordinated performance in the college’s annual fest, “Tarunotsav”. They sang and danced like accomplished performers. They proved that though they represent the other side of Mumbai life, which is not glamorous at all, there is still a ray of hope, a desire to achieve and the need to shout out to ourselves that “ ALL IS WELL”, even when the going gets tough. At times, I feel it is difficult to make out who is teaching and who is learning…