Dr. Prakash Dave
Many people underestimate themselves. They live by accepting that they are nothing and cannot do anything. A person suffering from such hypothyroidism also gets strong supporters, who remind him day and night that you are nothing, everything else is! Chanakya's well-known sayings about the greatness of teachers – Teachers would have been ordinary teachers, pralay aur nirman unki god mein palate hai – teachers have already accepted that we are extraordinary. But after hearing this sentence, many teachers are confused. His complaint is that Chanakya has only talked about the teacher, not the teacher! At first glance, this argument of the teacher sisters seems to be true. If a speaker in a public meeting begins with 'My dear brothers..', naturally that address applies only to the brothers present in the meeting. Then whether those brothers are dear or not is a secondary matter. The main point is that if sisters are present in the meeting, that address does not apply to them. Based on this pattern, the sisters are reasoning that if we are exceptional, then both the words teachers and teachers should be mentioned in this statement. Our name is not in it, so we will not be extraordinary! Some argue against the argument of the sisters that the teacher is included in Chanakya's statement but because there was no gender bias at that time or because Chanakya himself did not believe in such a distinction, he did not feel the need to divide teacher and teacher into two parts. In their support, these people also argue that now even when the government makes any announcement related to education, it does not differentiate between teacher and teacher. As such, the government says that the dearness allowance will be increased by three percent in teachers' salaries from this December. Even though the word “teacher” is not mentioned in that advertisement, she is given the benefit of dearness allowance and the teachers take it willingly. If this is valid in one, why not in the other? Even those who ask such harsh questions do so. However, female teachers are also not overwhelmed. It counter-argued (meaning double-argued) that even though the term teacher is used for the salary increase, it ultimately applies to every employee. This case is different, so if the government circular says that teachers are not normal like teachers, then we will accept it. Thus, the rooster is really confused. If the matter was like this, it would not have gained importance, but the need to examine this question of teachers has arisen. Someone has said that doctors are God. With that statement, doctors are also feeling proud just as teachers are proud of Chanakya's statement about those teachers. However, instead of treating a patient, a female doctor wakes up tomorrow and claims that the slogan 'Doctor is God' applies only to male doctors, because there is no mention of female doctors anywhere. If such an argument is made, we will not have any satisfactory explanation for it, because we have been able to give a woman doctor to the society but till date we have not been able to give any concrete word for a woman doctor. My friend Magan thinks that Chanakya said this only for teachers, not for female teachers! Magan also has a strong reason behind saying this. Magan says that no woman is ever normal. Be it a teacher, a doctor, a laborer or a housewife. What is the need to declare something extraordinary by combining it with its profession? This cannot be said for all men. Therefore, such a statement has been made for teachers to show that men can also be great. It means that a teacher is supposed to be extraordinary even before she came into this profession, and it is logical to believe that men are extraordinary because they came into this profession, because teachers and poets are not ordinary…! However, not all female teachers believe that this sentence of Chanakya does not apply to them. Some sisters even say that Chanakya launched this phrase just by seeing our power and work! The teacher brothers have gone wrong. Some sisters have named their children Pralay and Nirman and have also shared photos of raising them on their laps on social media! In short, a teacher is never normal, if not a dummy!
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).