Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Teachers are the unsung heroes of our society and no sooner do we get our degree, than we forget about them. Even though Teacher’s Day is a long way yet, I’d like to talk about an extraordinary teacher, Swaroop Sampat Rawal who has seamlessly juggled roles from passionate and successful actor to teacher and social influencer.

Tweaking teaching

https://youtu.be/sJ0vHaO4Rwc

This video by Aditya Rawal highlights the importance of having the right teacher.

Swaroop Sampat Rawal, heroine of yesteryear’s TV Hit sit-com Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and who was recently seen  as Kia’s mother in Balki’s in “Ki or Ka” has a side to her that very few people are aware of, leave alone her fans.

How many of you know that as late as 2006, she earned a PhD in Education from the University of Worcester ?  And did you know her doctoral thesis was for her research on education, drama and learning disabilities ? In fact earlier this month the University conferred an honorary degree in recognition of her work encouraging girls and young women to continue with education in Gujarat and her work with Save the Children to change the lives of disadvantaged children in India.

Apart from the fact that Swaroop has introduced a new concept into teaching, she continues to help the underprivileged conducting camps in tribal areas of Jawhar ( around Mumbai’s Wada District). She is also training primary school teachers in Gujarat. And trying to work with other Governments to make education more meaningful, especially to the underprivileged.

Why I salute Swaroop

Swaroop comes from  a privileged background and she could very well have spent her life as a lady of leisure. But already inspired by her oncologist mother, she had dreams of following her footsteps. Fate had other plans and she landed up following father’s vocation and pursued her passion for acting. In the course of her unusual life path, she married the man of her dreams, raised two amazing sons and got two doctorates in Education instead.

I salute this lady who continues to remain young at heart. She is as agile as a twenty year old, I may add. Not one to rest on her laurels, she continues to be motivated and motivating . But above all, she still has the ability to enjoy life and laugh!

You can read more about this amazing woman here and  here

Now isn’t that truly amazing?

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I am participating in #WATWB and initiative where on the last Friday of every month bloggers will share their stories led by six co-hosts. This month’s co-hosts are Peter Nena, Eric Lahti, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal , Roshan Radhakrishnan , Emerald Barnes and Lynn Hallbrooks