By D N Singh
It is time immemorial that, the teachers are viewed as Gods for what they give us. Knowledge, insight and steering through ignorance into wisdom.
On this teachers’ day we can remember ‘gurus’ of epic era like Dronacharya but, here on the ground there are teachers who made teaching not merely a profession but passion.
A missionary zeal where age and hardship get sublimed by love to teach.
On the dusty tracks of Bhadrak district’s Bhandaripokhari, one may witness a man in ‘dhoti’ and ‘kurta’, cycling through the lanes to reach out to willing students who want to be taught. That is Golak Chandra Mohanty, who had taught in several schools as a teacher and retired in 1992.
But Golak Chandra Mohanty, more known as, Golak sir, has never stopped at that nor has he allowed age to weigh on his spirits for imparting knowledge.
On every misty mornings he picks up his bi-cycle and pedals down the village tracks to reach out to every willing pupil to teach.
What is noteworthy that, he sweats through the heat and dust on his bi-cycle unperturbed and the time and place get thronged by boys and girls to learn their lessons from Golak sir.
It is nothing less than a mission that Golak sir ventures voluntarily and in those years of his teaching mission after retirement he never takes a penny from the students.
An octogenarian by age, Golak sir’s forte is his passion to teach and teach. When he bristles through the heat of summer and reaches the designated place where students wait for him.
There one can see a Golak sir, 90, and his face blooming with smiles as he takes out his apron to wipe out the sweating.
Subjects do not matter for him. The grand old Golak sir is like a vast collage of knowledge who can teach any subject and, lo and behold that, this ideal teacher can handle lessons of higher classes as well.
Besides, teaching as his passion, he writes story books, his many books on epics and literature have been published and earned appreciations.
It is little disappointing that, despite this man’s self-less goal in creating good human beings students, Golak sir has somehow never been given the due recognition nor any applause for his contribution to writings.
On this day, when the nation observes the Teachers’ Day, a teacher like Golak Chandra Mohanty should have blinked among the galaxy of great teachers in the world.
