Metanoia

A mild air of contentment blew upon me as Sir said “Knowledge never goes waste”.  I looked at him with eyes very curious. A busy man, Sir, who never usually smiled very easily, smiled today at me, looked straight into my eyes and I rather thought he was looking into my heart that had so much respect for him and said “You did your best! I have never wanted anyone to excel in exams but always in life". Some part of me knew Sir has always liked me for being sincere, which I more or less tried to be.

I met Sir in the twelfth grade, or I should say, in the second year of my coaching for the JEE. Sir was my lecturer for Chemistry. When Sir taught, even the one, who couldn’t say the IUPAC names of compounds or figure out what benzene was, became an expert in Chemistry. Or maybe I thought so. Yes, I topped almost every exam in Chemistry that I came across in the second year.
One thing that is always required to succeed is respect for the one who teaches .I realized this and never left an iota of disrespect for any of my teachers this year.

My attitude has completely changed, for good. All motivation I ever needed was seeing him. He never did anything for that by himself. I just needed him to be present.  I worked very hard to get my basics clear.

And, I cracked the first level of JEE. It was a reward, though not a very great one, it was a reward!  I know I didn't succeed further because of all the little acts of disrespect I’ve ever done before this year.

I was happy to know today that Sir is proud of me. It gives me satisfaction. This is all I’ve ever wanted.

P.S.: No combination of letters or poetic words can describe this feeling.
Image courtesy: Google.