Teacher’s Day 2020: TV Celebs share fond memories about their gurus 

It is said that everyone, in some respect, is a teacher, some just work harder to do it better. And we couldn’t agree more. A teacher doesn’t necessarily have to mean someone teaching in school or college, and a teacher can be that one person who taught you the meanings of life, or who pushed you and motivated you and encouraged you, to do better.

So on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, celebrated on September 5, celebs talk about their teacher, mentor and guru.

Amal Sehrawat

A person that helps and trains you to look at life objectively and optimistically is the right mentor. My parents and Atul Mongia Sir have been the most important mentors in my life. I still remember the day when I lost all hopes of getting an acting job and my confidence had hit rock bottom, then, my mentors taught me The Art Of Mindfulness i.e. not to judge the situation in light of good or bad, rather accept it the way it is, do my best without thinking of the past or future and only concentrate on the present. It helped me by lightening the burden off my shoulders and maximize my potential.

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Vijayendra Kumeria

Guru or mentor for me is the one who shows you the right path and encourages you to do your best. For me, my father is a friend, a mentor, a guide, and also a teacher. When I feel lost, he is the one who guides me. My brother and I studied in the same school, and he is three years elder to me, when I was in Jr. KG he was in second, so I used to meet him in his class sometimes. His class teacher was a beautiful Parsi lady, and she used to give me chocolates and I even told her that I will marry her once I grow up. We still remember that and in fact her kids, who are way elder to me, also laugh about it.

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Dhruvee Haldankar

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual. I am lucky to have found the best teachers one could get to learn from. Mamta Maharaj Ji, daughter of Pandit Birju Maharaj Ji, is my spiritual guide, who helped me discover the same potentials that she had already realised. Mamta Maharaj is my teacher, trainer, guru and my didi. She taught me kathak, perseverance and how to love. At school, all my teachers loved me, Mrs. Aneeta Arora and Ms. Veena Malik, who would teach me English, Mrs. Branda Briganza who would teach me Maths, were all very fond of my mummy’s pickles and would often ask me to bring new bottles to school.

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Ankit Siwach

A guru or mentor need not necessarily be a school or college teacher, and he or she can be any person in life who is directly or indirectly showing us the guiding light. A person who we show full faith in, without any apprehensions, someone who can hold our hand and pull us out of the darkness we might have fallen into. I respect and love all the gurus I have in my life, but I consider my family to be the most important teachers, it is because of them that I shall always remain rooted and place ethics over any temptation. One incident from school I can recall is that when one of my favourite teachers got to know about my feelings for Nupur, I was in class 9 then, and It was very embarrassing and terrifying. I could not sleep for days out of the fear that the news could break out everywhere, but now when we look back and discuss the whole situation, it seems hilarious.

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Rajit Dev

My guru or mentor is like a family figure, because after my parents it’s my guru who I have always looked up to. I’ve met many teachers, gurus in my life, and every one has been such an inspiration to me from my school days to working in the film industry. I’ll never forget my teacher Anita Balan from my school days. She is the one who always supported me for inter-school dance competition to even paying my fees when my family was going through a rough time. When I was in college, she gave me her mobile phone and I still have the same number which she gave me. I look up to her on another level. She’s like a mother. Santosh Kale and Mehul Gadani were my first dance teachers who taught me the basics of dancing. I will always be thankful to them my entire life. My favourite mentor is Vaibhavi Merchant, who I worked with for more than 10 years from being a dancer to her chief assistant. Guru is like God. They always give you the right advice to go achieve your dreams.

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Shamin Mannan

A real guru or mentor is someone who not only just sticks to teaching a particular craft or subject but also gives life gyan, which stays as real wisdom helping us through life. At different stages I had different mentors who really carved my life. I would like to name Neeraj Kabi Sir from whom I had not only learnt the craft of acting and its intricate details but also learnt a lot about seeing life from a different perspective. He taught me that in order to be a good actor, you need to have a lot of experiences in life, good or bad and not to ever judge the process called life. My most memorable incident from school is when I was in class 10, and I was kicked out of the classroom by my science teacher and was asked to stand outside for the entire period, where she asked me to face the playground without hiding my face, just because I was exchanging smiles with my best friend across the classroom. For me it is memorable, because it was embarrassing for me as my juniors laughed at me and I literally had to hide my face from my teacher and those juniors after the incident. Now that memory makes me laugh that I was so silly to cry for it whole day!

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Aashish Mehrotra

Right definition of guru or mentor is someone who selflessly teaches everything that he has experienced in his life. I believe in my life there hasn’t been just one mentor who has always shown me the path but I think as you grow up you find those mentors just next to you, may be your dad, neighbour or student as I have been dance instructor for about twelve years. At school, teachers like Madhuri ma’am, Mukta ma’am, Ajay sir and other teachers, would save me from going to the principal. In Mumbai I have two strong teachers one is Mr. Kavish Sinha, he is a casting director now but earlier he was into marketing. When I came to mumbai he guided me a lot and he was the one who sent me to Saurav Sachdeva. I am blessed to have my classes with Saurav sir and Prashant sir.

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Rohit Chaudhary

One true guru or mentor is who can recognise you and understand you, your ability, your hidden talent and what you want to achieve in life and who always pushes you, motivates you and guides you to achieve your goal. My mentor is my father who has shown me the right path. He has taught me to always to tell the truth. He taught me not to hurt anyone emotionally, financially and physically, he has taught me to be disciplined in life, he told me to be the man of words and make sure I fulfill all my commitments. I want my children to learn the same. I lost my mother at a very young age, so at school everyone used to have lunch during breaks, but I never carried one, then my teacher Mrs. Walia ma’am would share her tiffin with me. On teacher’s day I would like to remember goddess Saraswati and my father for guiding me. And I also remember Mrs. Walia.

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Shilpa Raizada

We should always have one guru or mentor in our life because he will always guide us to take the right path. In this field, my guru and mentor, whom I respect the most after my parents, is Ravi Williams sir. He is a director, writer, producer, he is a self-made man. I know him for the last 14 years and before coming to Mumbai I worked with him as an anchor. I always remember this one incident, and I forgot a line during anchoring as it was in pure Hindi and there were a huge number of people present and it was very embarrassing for me. I cried a lot and at that time sir told me that you have the ability to work hard and you will definitely grow. Due to this pandemic he always calls me and asks me to take care of myself as j have to do more work. We have a father-daughter kind of relationship. Even during school and college days, my teachers always motivated me.

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Angad Hasija

The person whom I call my guru, my mentor is my mother. I have learnt so many things from her. She taught me how to take a decision or how to handle a situation and how to be strong while facing any problem even though you have achieved everything. I remember something that she told me when ‘Sapna Baabul Ka… Bidaai’ became super hit. She said now you will become a star but always remember one thing that ‘jhukhe huye ped par hi phal lagte hain’. What she said has a very deep meaning, and I always follow it. I remember my school teachers loved me a lot and now they give my examples to other student and it is very big achievement.

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Rishina Kandhari

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People who teach me life lessons – good, bad or ugly, all are my mentors in a way. Whatever I am today or whatever status I’ve obtained in my life are all because of life’s learnings from various types of people. I call my self ‘Eklavya’ and every other person for me is ‘Dronacharya’. Currently, I’m doing a show for which I’ve to speak in a Rajasthani Marwadi dialect and my director Dharmendra Sharma and my co-actor Neelu Vaghela are teaching me how to speak in it. So for me, they are my gurus on the set.

Shashank Vyas

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Every teacher has played a marvelous role in my life, but my mother was the biggest teacher. She is the one who teaches you how to walk and walks along with you. She taught me how to read people. She is one who doesn’t discriminate between kids, whereas in schools teachers discriminate between kids. Once a teacher told my father that your son has no ambition, no goal in life, as I got very less marks in the exam. I feel teachers should give more attention and warmth to students who are weak in studies, it will help them more. Instead of numbers they should teach the kids how to deal with failure. It is a far more important thing to be taught.

Nishant Malkani

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I think a guru or mentor is somebody who stands by you wants to help you grow mentally, physically, emotionally in every possible way. They are someone who tells your mistake and criticises you when you are wrong. He always has your back to support you, protect you and guide you. I have many people who have been teaching me and helped me grow and I am lucky to have some very good mentor. But I think the best thing happened to when one of my mentors explained to me why I need to professionally learn the art of acting and that inspired me to go to an acting school. Honestly speaking that changed my life completely. I remember we went to Goa on a school trip, and on the way during the journey I started liking a girl and she also used to like me a lot, so we started spending time with each other on that trip which the teachers obviously did not like much. Ao one day all the teachers called me and I got a very good scolding for breaking the discipline and not being part of any activity on that trip. When everybody was scolding there was one particular teacher who was looking at me with motherly instincts in her eyes where she was feeling that I am being scolded for no reason. Later I tried to get guidance from her as I thought she will understand me and she did and also guided me towards the right path. I usually used to score 60 to 70 percent but just to make her proud as she became a very important part of my life, I studied so hard in my class 12th exams that I scored 92 percent. So mentors play a very important part your life if you are lucky to meet the right people.

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