The Fruit Laden Tree

My sister often uses a beautiful metaphor to emphasize that with intellect comes the modesty. She says when a tree is laden with fruits; its branches bow down to touch the feet of mother Earth thus expressing the gratitude for Her gifts. What a beautiful and magnificent thought! Today I met a person who personifies the metaphor. Dr AR from a premier academic institute in India.
Past 3 days I was attending a workshop on Business Analysis and Forecasting at one of the premier management institute. The perfectionist that I am, and benchmark expectations that I have from everything in life, I was expecting the course to be immensely involving and interesting. However, it turned out that I was expecting too much. I wrote my expectations in the feedback form as well. Today one Dr AR was scheduled to conduct a class of Demand Forecasting from 9:30 onwards. And he did not turn up until 10. By then I had filled the feedback form with all my input and angry remarks. Somewhere the thought that 'I had chosen to continue to come to the workshop despite the workload in office and despite knowing the experience on the very first day of the workshop', was taking a form of mild guilt, which kept bothering me every now and then; all the more when Dr AR did not turn up until 10:15 in this morning.
Then came the Dr AR. He is a person with moderate build and average height, strikingly pleasant and gay smile on his face. Suddenly my mood was elevated looking at his simple personality even before he started speaking, even before the course coordinator could introduce him. He carried a handbag which I thought contained the course material. A typical Indian Teacher type personality that he was, the moment he started speaking, I was relieved thinking this is going to be an interesting session, and I am surely going to be attentive, without having bouts of big mouth yawns (which I could not avoid last 2 days in the morning sessions !) Anyways, so Dr starts talking - I never come across such a logically structured and clearly articulated citation that captivated everyone (Of course my Godfather is the first person I know who has this quality). So Dr starts talking - the objective of the course, the methodology we are going to use to understand the concepts, the scope of application given the limited time of the class, the outcome. He went onto to explaining each and every technical term he used without making us feel the burden of unfamiliarity of the words, making the sailing smooth for all of us. He even explained the difference between case method of teaching and case study method of teaching, because we were only studying a readymade case to understand how the techniques are applied to do the prediction, rather than taking an unsolved case and then analyse and synthesize that. He beautifully put in words the difference between Prediction and Forecasting - Prediction is Quantitative Forecasting and Forecasting is Qualitative Prediction and this explains it all.
The concepts unfolded themselves as he went on elaborating on the case study without us realizing how much we learnt in such a short time without taxing our brains.
Then came the analysis and synthesis of the case and understanding the nuances and subtleties of the topic. Dr started asking questions to each one of us turn by turn - participative learning. And dead brains that we executives are (the adaptability of the forming years is somewhere lost in the work-life!), and the superficial thought process of ours, the response were bound to lack the depth that he expected. However, the critical analysis that we executives are capable of doing he appreciated each one of us for bringing in new insight. The teaching approach was not only participative and stimulating, but it was thought provoking and enlightening.
What more to expect Dr promised to send us more questions and case studies as well.
During the small tea breaking I jumped onto to the opportunity to talk to the Dr. And one thing that naturally and rightfully happened was I automatically got up from the chair when I saw the Dr coming in my direction. The humility of the disciple comes automatically when the FRUIT LADEN TREE is in front of you - it not only teaches the class tutorial but profound dedication towards the subject and the profession of teaching.
At the close of Dr's lecture the course coordinator asked one of us to give a 'Vote of Thanks', and I jumped onto that opportunity as well before anyone could respond. And whatever little time I had to express my gratitude to this great teacher, I made the most of it.
And yes I made sure I could connect with Dr someday, some time. The world is small, but full of Fruit Laden Trees for all of us!
Oh God Thank you for blessing me this way.