Kochi: More than a teacher, students cherish the days that they spent in the school and have vivid memories of the teacher whom they most liked.
C.A. Francis, who is celebrating the ruby jubilee of his teaching career, had a taste of this as he was recently invited to and hosted by his past students who are now in the US and Canada. They all are the alumni of Don Bosco H.S.S Mannuthy, Thrissur, and Mr Francis taught them Geography covering the US and Canada with the help of maps and globes.
He was given a chance for a live’ darshan’ of these places by the old students as a ‘gurudakshina’. Most of these students are now in the age group of 36-54.
The recent three-week vi-sit covered Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York in USA and Toronto in Canada.
“My ‘sishyas’ took me to Kennedy Space Centre, White House, Washington Monument, Statue of Libe-rty, Wall Street, Freedom Tower, Headquarters of the U.N, CN Tower and Niagara Falls, among others, and I was amazed by their warmth and love,” Mr Francis said.
He had worked as a Geography teacher and vice-principal of Don Bosco HSS, and he was also the principal of Salsabeel Cen-tral School, Mundur, Thr-issur, for five years. At pre-sent, he is working as the academic administrator of Devamatha CMI Public School, Thrissur.
Around fifty of his students in the US and Canada who hosted him also arranged for his trips. The main reunion was at New Jersey at the residence of Rudrash Sharan who is the chief manager of a multinational company there.
Most of the alumni work as doctors and IT professionals.
“The warmth and affection I received from the old students overseas are, in fact, a reward to the whole community of teachers. The teacher-student relationship is still best of rel-ations,” said Mr Francis.
