Grateful!

Luck? No, I never believed that any such thing exists. All I used to believe in was hard work to get something, but around one year back luck hit me up like anything. Ya, I was lucky enough to have a lot of great teachers in my life, but one, in particular, shaped the person I am today: Miss Nidhi Gupta. In traditional Hindi language, Nidhi means ‘treasure’ and just like her name she ended up being the treasure for my life. The treasure one would never wish to give up on.

Nidhi Mam came to our school two years back. She used to teach us English in class eleventh. For the initial one year I didn’t try and make up any connection with her, but then I got to know about her leaving school. I don’t know what happened to me but I started talking to her, like going to her class every single day, texting her and all. She used to talk to me nicely. And in this talking of every day, we built the most beautiful bond which a student and a teacher can have. In this chit chat of every day, one day I told her about a thing that I actually wanna do in my life. She listened to me calmly and explained to me what all things I need to do to reach my dream. For that, I need to get qualified first.

So she gave me a solution and asked me to start writing. She asked me to write a story in between the range of 2000-2500 words, basically a short story. When I heard of that, I was a bit confused that how would I be able to write, how a person who has never written anything before can write a story out of nowhere? But then I did write one. I remember, the night she told me to write a story, I couldn’t sleep. The whole night I wrote the story and then slept at four in the morning. No, it was not that I had to submit it the next day only or something but my instincts didn’t let me sleep and asked me to write and trust me the feeling of relief that I got after writing my first own story was something which can’t be expressed into words. Having written my first story there was some nervousness in me when I sent it to mam.

After some time, I received a reply from her which said “Very well written, amazing thought and storyline.” There were some grammatical errors as well which she told me later. I was happy with her reaction. Since then I have been writing stories and making them reach people. She has read them all, and she told me the two most valuable words you can tell anyone at that stage “Keep Writing.” Those words were magical for me and they inspire me to write more and more. Behind every story of mine there is always some emotion, imagination, and a wish to create something. As it is said that ‘a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates but a great teacher inspires’ so she ended up being the greatest for me.

The things I am unable to say but want someone else to hear I suppose. Ideas that I can’t quite see or articulate unless I can get them down on a sheet of paper or notepad, those things are conveyed to people with the help of my stories. There is always some desire in me to see my stories reach people because I am a writer at heart not by profession. And perhaps writing is a form of listening to the shapeless silence within you. I truly do feel blessed to have a teacher like her in my life who inspired me to be what I am today as a person. Couldn’t thank her enough for anything and everything that she did for me.