When exhausted were we in heart, soul and all
And when in the abyss of disgust we were to fall
We prayed to see you, like the one in teens, beaming
And longed to see your bald head, in light beams, gleaming

Many would have been in your line
But none would, like you, ever shine
You are austere with undiminished, nay, ample brilliance
Like the sun, with his, out of stars in millions

We dare say, your loving heart sees none a foe
We wonder if we could reach the tip of your toe
What gave you this tremendous patience we cannot guess
That stood you, to the angels, only a bit less

Of all, you, with your temper, grew dearer
As if to exchange our thoughts clearer, we were coming nearer
But all of a sudden we were to have a terrific blow
A blow that carried us away from your loving glow

Of your departure, be consoled we may
Only brooding over the lines you say
“Sweet moments of life do not last forever
So to welcome everything is truly clever.”

So with tear shedding hearts we bid an affectionate adieu
To you sir.. who, showered love, like honey dew
To give our heart’s beat on your separations, words are few
But sir.. it’s true.. we certainly will miss you…..

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A bit of background into this:

I wrote this in my intermediate for my English lecturer. His name is Srinivasa Sharma. A retired headmaster of a government school, he was well over 60. But his enthusiasm belied his age. He was literally a 60 year young kid with an infectious smile plastered over his face.

He had a great way of teaching. I loved the way he taught poetry. Poetry never made any sense to me till the time he came along. The way he projected the vision of the poet on our minds’ screens made us wonder if the poet was capable of such beautiful imagination or is it our Sir’s own creativity kicking in. What ever it was, it was loads of fun. He is the sole reason for me to start showing interest in the language.

When he was going away after his classes for our batch were over, I wrote this poem and prepared a greeting of sorts with a quick sketch of his on top and presented it to him. He was touched and made me read it out to the class and I had my five minutes in the limelight.