The modern Dronacharya story
Dronacharya was a reputed teacher in the Hastinapur Institute of Technology. Despite being widely respected, and being responsible for shaping the youth of the province, he was rather underpaid. He did get a good teaching offer from the US, but the posting was in Pakistan, so Dronacharya politely declined, for he did not want a ‘Drone’ strike there.
To make ends meet, Dronacharya decided to make use of his spare time, and launched the ‘Ashwathama Coaching Center’ to conduct tuitions for interested students. Kauravas, Pandavas and other princes were the principal beneficiaries of these coaching classes. While all his students were good, Guru Drona’s favorite student Arjuna excelled in Archery. Arjuna had mugged the prescribed textbook ‘Bow and Arrow made Easy’ word by word, and was known to be unmatched in world.
Meanwhile, Eklavya, the son of a poor tribal Hiranyadhanuka, wished to join the Coaching Center, as ‘Magadha Sarkari College’ was not good enough. But he was denied admission as he could not afford Ashwathama Center’s high fees. Dejected but not defeated, Eklavya downloaded Dronacharya’s selfie from his Facebook page, framed it and hung on the wall of his room. He somehow procured the classroom notes of Drona’s sessions and got them Xeroxed. He began to mug furiously and soon gained excellence in all the subjects.
Soon, CAT or the Common Archery Test was upon them. Pandavas, Kauravas and various princes from across the land appeared in the Test. Everyone expected Arjuna to top it. When the results came, everyone was stunned to find out that Arjuna came second! The topper was Eklavya!
Impressed, Dronacharya, went to meet this boy and asked him who his teacher was. Eklavya, very respectfully, touched his feet and said, “Sir, you.” Stunned Dronacharya asked for his roll number. Eklavya shook his head, and instead showed Dronacharya the framed selfie on his wall and the photocopied notes.
The princes felt dejected that they are paying such high fees for Drona’s classes, but this new student free-rode to the top through photocopied notes. So Dronacharya asked his new student, “All this is fine, but if you consider me your teacher, you have to pay Gurudakshina. I demand your thumb.”
Eklavya nodded. Without a second’s hesitation, he placed his thumb at his guru’s feet by “Liking” Dronacharya’s page on Facebook.
Guru Drona was pleased. “This shall go in the newspapers tomorrow, that this year’s CAT topper is from Ashwathama Institute,” he said and patted Eklavya’s back.
Nowithstanding the mild dig at the commercialization of education, we salute the teachers who’re shaping the future of our country. Happy Teacher’s Day to our readers!
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