A week ago, I was leading a walkthrough of the NGMA (National Gallery of Modern Art) in Delhi, on nation building and the Independence movement, when I realised that many of the artists I was referring to — Nandalal Bose, B.C. Sanyal, Pran Nath Mago, K.G. Subramanyan — were teachers. As were our most famous statesmen, including Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
It contrasted sharply with a story that Keira, a 16-year-old who recently moved to a school in the U.S., had told me, about how the students became disrespectful of a Spanish teacher after they found out from his social media account that he was a former waiter. Closer home, I was reminded of a former assistant professor of English in Kolkata who alleged last year that university authorities forced her to quit her job on the charges of posting ‘inappropriate’ photos of herself on her private Instagram account.
The pictures — of her in sportswear — were posted a few months before she took up the position, and despite them being on her profile for just a day (on Stories), they were allegedly found by a student. The authorities alleged that she had ‘besmirched the reputation of the university’, and when she sent them a legal notice for firing her, they sought an apology from her and compensation of ₹99 crore for ‘causing irreparable damage’ to the university’s ‘good name, fame, and goodwill’.
