• Who should be given total charge of developing and maintaining the National Highways of Manipur?
  •  
     

    E-Pao! Essay - Thank you, Dear Teachers

    Thank you, Dear Teachers

    By: Ringo Pebam and Sanad Aribam *



    Today, everybody in Manipur who is a teacher by profession is honoured and remembered.

    Teachers, you have touched the lives of the students in so many ways, you have touched them deeply and changed the course of their lives.

    'A student spends 25,000 hours in the campus. The school must have the best of teachers who have the ability to teach, love teaching and build moral qualities' - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

    Johnstone, TG, CC, Kha-Imphal, Ram Lal Paul.... were the top notch schools in Manipur, these schools have produced so many good students who have shaped Manipur so much.

    Hats off to them.

    A legend and a respected leader Hijam Irabot was a student of Johnstone. These are the schools of the generation of our fathers, and they still hold Guru-Puja to honour their teachers.

    Being so far and away from home, we would like our teachers to know that they are not forgotten. For our generation - Don Bosco Imphal was a name to be reckoned with.

    It dominated the HSLC exam for almost the last three decades. Many bright students have come out of this school who have done well in various fields of admistration, engineering, medicine, business, teaching etc.

    Above the quality education, they gave us some things that are very important - Morals.

    In the words of the respected journalist Mr Yambem Laba in one of his articles - " What makes them stand out in today's contemporary Manipuri society is the fact that they have all had moral science lessons in the formative years of their youths. Thus a Don Bosconian would look to be less corrupt than say his peer group members who have not been exposed to the lessons of moral science classes in their youths."

    On this day we also want to specially honour two people who can be considered in the list of Makers of Modern Manipur - Reverend Father Peter Bianchi and Father A Ravilico, who sowed the seeds of Don Bosco in Manipur way back in 1956.

    Fathers, you must be old and grey by now, and when you sit by the fire side in the cold winter night, just know that your works have made a great impact in the society of Manipur, just smile whenever you go to sleep knowing that you will always be remembered by generations to come.

    For us going to school was a very exciting and learning experience, in fact at that stage for us everything was a new thing.

    Our friends in school and spending time with them and the happenings of the happening school made every day a new day.

    But at that time we never knew what effect a school can have over a growing child and that the school can make him or break him. Only now after so many years and after becomming independent with our own careers we have realised how much we learnt from that school.

    We have realised that education, knowledge and the spirit to carry on with our lives, everything was given to us by our school.

    On this occassion of Teacher's Day we salute all our teachers who gave us light and helped us shine in today's world.

    Its a sad fact that some of our teachers while giving us light like a candle, got melted and burnt and they are not with us right now.

    "Oja", the word is so sweet and the people we remember whenever we use this word are our teachers of Don Bosco.

    We will never be able to forget anyone of you, we will always have all of you in the highest of esteem and respect.

    Ex-Bosconians who wants to get connected or help the school can join the e-group at
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/donbosco_imphal/
    or by sending a mail to
    donbosco_imphal-owner@yahoogroups.com


    Ringo Pebam and Sanad Aribam are software engineers from Bangalore, and contribute regularly to e-pao.net
    They can be contacted at ringo_pebam@yahoo.com and sanad_tatu@yahoo.com
    This article was webcasted on September 04th, 2006 on the eve of Teachers' Day.