A teacher plays a crucial role in our life. A teacher however may not just be a person who teaches a subject or two to you, but one who guides you through thick and thin in your life! A teacher is always compared to a gardener, who not only undertakes plantation, but also takes all the efforts to bring out the best out of every seed that he has planted.
If an anonymous author is to be believed, we come across about a million teachers in our life who keep instilling at least one value or one lesson in our lives. A baby trying hard to crawl and reach its favourite toy lying three feet away can definitely be not less than a teacher to us!
We all have teachers who have taught something to us and they have literally cornered and occupied a space of special people in our life. I would like to narrate to you all about my teacher, who is miles beyond being just a teacher to me!
My teacher and my inspiration is Prof. Anita Agrawal, Associate Professor at SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sion for the Department of Management Studies. A Master of Commerce and Master of Philosophy in Accountancy, she has been educating young minds since past fourteen years in the stream of management studies. She is one among that kind of people, who believe that education is a continuous process, and hence is pursuing her doctoral (Ph. D) degree in Human Resource Management and conducting her research titled ‘Study and Analysis of Labour Absenteeism and its Impact on Indian Industries’.
Prof. Agrawal has been teaching subjects like Principles of Management, Business Environment, Principles of Banking and Insurance, Export-Import Management, Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship Management and other core management subjects for the BMS students.
She is also a visiting faculty for post-graduate management programmes (MBA/MMS/PGDM) at different business schools for the subject of ‘Financial Management’.
An event which may be regarded as a crown on her list of achievements, was when recently she was an honorary invitee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan where at she enjoyed high tea with the then President, Her Highness Dr. Pratibha Patil and she got her Ph. D thesis autographed by her.
She is one kind of professors, who become a favourite of the student community in her first lecture itself. She is a true practitioner of the thoughts of her teachers and believes in spreading knowledge and education far beyond the four walls of a classroom. Just like a classical singer who has the ability of mesmerizing the audience with their swar, aalaps and taan, Prof. Agrawal takes her students to a different world altogether by imparting practical, knowledge-oriented education rather than just
score-oriented.
Prof. Agrawal not only teaches us the textbook-based theoretical chapters, but she also takes helps of technological aids to teaching like presentations, video screenings, debates, case study solving, quiz and other such activities.
Apart from teaching, she is always active in developing students in the co-curricular activities also. She is the Joint-Convenor for the Entrepreneurship Development Cell which caters to develop ‘business minds’ of the students. She is also the faculty representative on the Editorial Board of SIES SKYLINE, the bi-monthly newsletter of our college. She consistently motivates the students to excel not only in their academics but also in other related activities which would boost their personality and profile. She also plays an important role in organising national and international industrial visits for students to places like: Rann of Kutch, Chandigarh, Shimla, Malaysia, Dubai etc.
She also recommends internships, traineeships and jobs to students who wish to gain on-the-job training experience. She is a person who never says ‘no’ to any student seeking any help in education. She also guides her students those who are willing to take up higher education in India and abroad. She willingly shows interest in counselling the students and their parents in these matters. She has no hesitation in writing ‘letter of recommendations’ and ‘letter of references’ to those students who seek higher education or employment, and those who shown academic excellence and have won laurels to the institution.
I have always mentioned, she is my inspiration and I have decided to be just like her: sincere, kind, honest and dedicated to students till the time ‘education’ exists in the world. I have decided to be an educator, an academician just like her. I have taken up this challenge to contribute to this industry not just for the sake of earning livelihood but to contribute towards a noble cause of ‘educating’ people.
Image Courtesy: Akshay Agrawal
Prof. Anita Agrawal is greater than what I have been able to put into words. She is a teacher to a few and a mentor to many! May be it’s a wish too big to be fulfilled, but I wish I get all the professors like her in my future life too and wish that her blessings be with me even after I graduate from the college next year.
Education does not succeed by teaching and learning, it evolves by values like co-operation, affinity open-mindedness and commitment.
–Â Ojas Ajay Barve
 Consulting Content Editor
