Lucknow: On Teachers’Day every year, Sabiha Ahmed sends her former teacher Elizabeth Thomas a little piece of 1991—reminder of a classroom and lessons that stayed with her long after college ended.Ahmed completed BSc at Women’s College, AMU, where Thomas was her nutrition teacher. Alambagh resident Ahmed still seeks her advice on Whatsapp, continuing a relationship that grew beyond careers and years.“Whenever I feel stuck, I know I have Lizz Ma’am and even after 35 years, she helps me see the difference between right and wrong,” she says.Teacher’s Day ritual for some who left Lucknow, built lives elsewhere, married, travelled and settled abroad is to arrive at their teacher’s doors, or contact online to reiterate, ‘I still remember.’UP Police physical training instructor, currently posted in Kheri, Prachi Dwivedi pens a letter to her teachers at Nari Shiksha Niketan, where she completed her masters in 2016.Despite a demanding career, she makes time every year to write about the women who shaped her strength and a sense of self.“They taught me that womanhood is about courage to stand up and take others along,” she says.Smriti, Sudha and their batchmates who passed out in 2023 have kept a simple tradition alive of bringing every Sep 5, a cake for Rajesh Yadav, whose teaching extended far beyond books and exams.What stayed with them most was his warmth—he called his female students ‘bitiya’ and constantly reminded them of the power of educating women.Now married and living in Delhi, Azma Shareef, along with her cousin Armaan, always video-call Khurshid Ali, their BCom teacher.She fondly remembers how he would tease her whenever she took a Saturday-Sunday break, joking that the ‘week had ended already’.A strong candidate in practicals, she says he always made her feel more confident, correcting her gently, often with a touch of humour.
