Teachers’ Day is memory, not ceremony. The author—Principal for ten years—still wears PPS Nabha colours and tells students that his life was shaped there (1964–1970), by his parents, and by Army seniors. What stayed was character: discipline, self-reliance, commitment, compassion, courage.

The teachers taught by example, not only by subject. Kate mobilised resources; Malkani mixed love with a strict routine; housemasters made boys wash their own clothes; Kakar demanded work be finished; Matoo taught geography with maps and “chalk missiles”; Peace Corps teacher Pine taught swimming in a canal when the school had no pool.

The debt is paid forward. School laid the foundation, parents the values, the Army the practice of responsibility. A teacher lives on when former pupils repeat their words to a new generation—and when a Principal tries to return a little of what PPS Nabha gave him.

Every Teachers’ Day, 5 September, we celebrate the memory of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan—a great philosopher, teacher, statesman and former President of India. For the last ten years, ever since I became a Principal, I have made it a point to address the school assembly. For me, however, it has never been merely a customary speech or a formal observance. It is an occasion to travel back in time—to journey more than half a century into my memory lane and reconnect with my school days.

On this special day, I often dress in the colours of my PPScschool uniform and I tell the students that if I am standing before them today, it is largely because of my teachers. Whatever I may have achieved in life, I tell them, I owe a substantial part of it to my teachers at PPS Nabha, Punjab, India, where I studied from 1964 to 1970, to my parents, and to the seniors who guided and moulded me during my years in the Army.

I also share with my students some memories and little anecdotes from my school days—incidents that have remained remarkably alive in my mind even after more than five decades. Each of these memories reminds me of a particular quality that a teacher quietly planted in us: discipline, self-reliance, commitment, compassion, accountability, courage and, above all Character.

The Teachers We Never Forget

More than fifty years have passed since I left PPS Nabha, yet the faces, voices and mannerisms of some of my teachers remain remarkably fresh in my memory. I believe this is the true measure of a teacher.

Some teachers left their mark through scholarship; others through discipline, affection or understanding. Some appeared strict to us at the time, but only much later did we understand that behind the strictness was concern for our future.It is only with the passage of time that we begin to understand what our........

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