Resigned!

Pukar Dhital

Resigned today from the job I enjoyed
Four merry years did I spend,
Those fleeting moments with my students
Fourty minutes –that was all that mattered and that was where I was—alive and present!
For it must have taken something for numerous minds to heed to me
While I spoke in the whole wide Universe!
           
And I observed, those ephemeral moments changed me and my students as I beheld
Forty minutes changed to weeks to months and to four years!
And these years changed me and it changed my students and I had seen the change
Yes, I have seen life change; how brief this life–
And how pompous our pursuits!

Amidst this ever changing life, folly did I find myself to be a witness of this metamorphic life
So I denied to let life change me but in one little place!
My message – I have bestowed to my students,
I realized no one can teach, for you have inside you, that which is already kindled
And little by little, it intensifies and enlightens!

Perhaps I just gusted and when I did—
To some the fire intensified more whilst to other it sparkled
So where am I in this folly a game?
Who is a teacher and who a student?
Neither was there a teacher nor any student
Andit dawned on me— there were both!

Sometimes I was a teacher and sometimes the students—were mine!
This I realized, so I resigned!
And this is the beauty; to teach and to learn
And which I shall but continue in different places, in different time– if not the dimensions
So that I shall let my light expand and hope my words alight my students
Such is the beauty in the whole wide existence.
This I realized, so I resigned—to learn more! 

[A teacher of English literature for the past eight years, Pukar Dhital is a student of philosophy, literature and international affairs. An avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction, he writes in various genres as a freelancer and profoundly adheres to the principal of independent self and lifelong learning.]