I had been more of an empathizer as a teacher. However, the last two weeks showed me yet another reality check – I have now come to the other side. The other side of darkness, the other side of idealism, the other side of the adulthood – Why do we need rules, why do we need discipline, why do we actually need scheduling, why do we have ‘formalism’. As a part of my job, I designed the below for our institute’s 4th convocation. It took me hardly 30 minutes to draw this, and another 30 minutes for the scribbling of re-defining the acronym IISER and inventing an acronym for our town; however, the short journey from the art to the acronym and finally to the convocation today converted me to an ‘adult’ or better put as – made me realize how I have been converted to an ‘adult’ over the years. Being an empathiser and recently crossing the ‘other side’ of the adulthood, I would like to remind myself today that, I better have a healthy conversation with the kids before they are converted to adults instead of growing into adults.

It is going to be 20 years since my first degree and honestly I don’t remember the convocations I had attended. The fourth batch to adieu at my work and my brain as usual connects to only my past.

We were the fourth batch in my school and I remember awkwardly trying to imitate a teacher since the chit said so during our adieu party – Connecting it to the present where my kids cant come to terms of allotting chits for their hostel rooms, I should have better known the prison of emotions experiencing how terrible I was forced to imitate a teacher when I can hardly speak in public. 99% of our teachers are no longer associated to the school I graduated from – Forwarding it now, running into some of my previous students who are now a better matured person than I am, I realized I might no longer be associated to their future. Be it the school that I graduated in 2002 or the BSc or my masters in 2007 or MPhil or my most loveable journey PhD, the closeness to my batchmates mostly got better only from the conversations I had after graduation. While the closeness became tight, I wonder how matured are we or if we are now a healthy adult! While I am still in touch with some of my students, I wish I can keep learning from all my kids as I grow into my final days in future.

Some of my colleagues do not agree with me when I say “humans till (at least) their 24 year old cannot be called adults, and no not ‘young adults’ too”. Yet I found myself shout at kids “you are literally behaving like kids”. I have been lectured multiple times by my sister who is a Montessori trainer and a felicitator, that “Environment is the key”. I forget that very often when I address my kids and see them as “young adults” contradicting my own belief. It of course explains what do I mean by me being converted to an adult – the environment that I was given and how I was tuned. I wish to atone.

I would like to reverse the conversion of my adulthood and make a better environment to relearn becoming an adult, to grow into an adult and most importantly helping my kids grow into a healthy adulthood.

It was not a convocation day for me, but convercation day.