||om tat sat||

Teacher's Day 2020

The Teacher's day remembrances are happy moments recalled from a distant past, as in Teachers Day 2015 remembrances about our early school teachers ,or the Teacher's Day 2016, remembering the unheralded teachers of Naini. There were many other posts too. The Gurus offer lessons. We are what we are because of our teachers. Our aims and goals were also shaped by their remembrance.

This year the it was as though we were remembering our teacher almost every week of the year or in every issue of kasarabada.org . Reason is the Tattvadipika , the inner meaning of Sundarakanda which was completed over a period of one year in both English and Telugu. The reference for our posts on the Tattvadipika, is the seminal book of the same name by my teacher Shri Bhashyam Appalacharyulu garu in Telugu. To pay respects to him, every Sundarakanda Sarga summary posted by us on a weekly basis carried a line at the end stating -" This is what we understood from the Tattvadipika of Appalacharyulu garu". That was our humble way of acknowledging that we might not have fully understood what was implied by our teacher in his book . What was presented is only our understanding. That way we believed that the onus of any misrepresentation is squarely on us.

Appalacharyulu garu was our Sanskrit teacher in Pithapur Rajahs Govt College in Kakinada. During our BSc program he taught us Sanskrit. In those days of regular transfers for central Govt employees , we moved to Kakinada from Rajahmundry, midway through our BSC program. Because of asynchronous teaching, we missed out on some Sanskrit texts when we joined the college in Kakinada. In the most selfless manner typical of Sanskrit Teachers of those times, Appalaacharyulugaru asked me to come to his home on weekends to learn that missing text. Learning "Chandraloka" the master piece on figures of speech, virtually sitting at his feet while he was sitting in an easy chair at his home on weekends and learning "Chandraloka" the master piece on figures of speech, was a memorable moment. Thus he was truly my -"Guru".

At that age as an young student , when the goal was getting maximum marks, he would elaborate on the inner meaning of the classical texts. I still remember the explanation of the dust raised by the Dushyanta's chariot in the opening scene of the immortal Abhignyana Sakuntalam of Kalidasa. The explanation of the inner-meaning of the opening scene remains forever in my mind. That explanation of inner-meaning of course helped us score more marks is the truth. A Sanskrit student getting the highest marks in languages among all students of all languages of the college was a matter of pride for him. So much so that he took me to the lecturer's room and introduced me to the other language teachers. From that time I could keep up the relationship of Guru-Sishya with my teacher. Eventually he became a very widely known "Pravachan Karta" of Ramayan. He became a Guru for our family including my parents.

That we retained our interest in a classical language in a busy professional life is, in no small measure, due to the inspiration of those Sanskrit teachers in our schools and colleges.

Sri Bhashyam Appalaacharyulugaru remains our Guru for all times.

||om tat sat||
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