Who is a Teacher? Every good human being acting true to their conscience is a Teacher and every ardent seeker of truth is a student in themselves.
Doesn’t make sense? Well hold on there and listen to Mrs.Nila’s story and you’ll get why I’m prating there.
By the way a huge thanks to Ms.Akshaya Vijayakumar the founder of OhReally.in for introducing this self-made Artist/ Teacher/ Influencer, Mrs.Nila whose story made me take charge of my life.
Mrs.Nila is a student of Picasso, DaVinci, Angelo, and many such next-door artists of museums and libraries. Jokes aside what I meant is that Mrs.Nila is a self-made artist who learnt through old school methods of books and practice. She hooked herself to Artbooks of famous foreign painters and honed herself every day through practice. Not even YouTube tutorials when she started out, it was pure treasure hunt mind ya.
Her affair with Art started when she was a young school kid who sketched and painted every day, I wish to stretch my imagination here and picture Mrs.Nila painting or sketching to the music of her Maths Teacher just like how our friend-artists Akshaya Vijayakumar, Sonali (who also happens to be Mrs.Nila’s students) and Sunaesha did at school. Mrs.Nila submitted herself as a “shishya” to one of her seniors in the hostel who was as interested in art as her. From being a sidekick to becoming a renowned Art teacher Mrs.Nila has successfully brought life to her dream and passion through grit and determination.
At a time when people believed that marriage is the sunset of a woman’s career and desires Mrs.Nila debunked the myth and challenged herself and society. She grabbed a chai and made the best use of the marriage sunset by enrolling herself as a literature student through distant mode and went on to finish her Doctorate in it. Ph.D. is generally the goal for many graduates but not for our muse, to her this is just her respecting and being true to her choices in life. Ahem… so now you know why I said she made me reassess and take charge of my life. These are the days when even after going through years of formal college education one doesn’t know what to do in life but here is a person who started and learned everything on her own and wouldn’t stop there, for her there is no one big ultimate goal but the only accumulation of knowledge.
Isn’t she an Artist who paints, an Art Teacher? Yes! But she’s also someone with no limitations ha a fool we are if we try boxing her in one label. Cos she’s not just a teacher but a student, a dreamer, someone who realized her potential and knew that everything is possible if one has the desire and dream to make them happen. Marriage, Children, Responsibilities nothing stopped her from giving her best she rather drew support, comfort, and happiness from them, a rare blessing for some of us.
Once she realized she had the time and space for sharing her love for her vocation-her art- she started teaching in 2001. Knowing that Age is just a number and not a limitation she opened her classes for everyone interested in Art. So there grew a family of Artists who loved and looked out for each other. The bling excitement on her student’s face, when asked about her, is proof of that. When I asked Mrs.Nila what she loves about teaching she dolefully reminisces about her classes before COVID happened and said that she simply loved to be around curious children and with people who similar to her were interested and were seeking to improve their art. She says that there’s nothing she could keep from her students when it comes to Art. I think that’s one quality inherent in teachers who are passionate about their subject, they simply can’t keep their knowledge to themselves, It has to be shared(not me thinking of teachers who borrowed our P.E.T periods).
So coming to the part why I consider her to be a model student, from self-learning from books to hungrily attending workshops for learning and perfecting herself, she has been on a constant run to learn without minding much about credentials and degrees for namesake. Knowledge for the sake of it is the goal behind her search.
Above all her qualities what I loved the most about her was her simplicity, (I was dead when she said that, I’m “just” an English student who has a Doctorate and who paints the works of Angelo and Philippe de Champaigne) her gratitude towards everything and everyone, her family, friends, her helper, her students. And finally, her defiance to settle for mediocre and to aspire for the best, Ms.Nila aspires to take up a formal Art course, walk the streets of Paris and live there in the future. Maybe “Never Settle”, One plus’s tagline is her motto too.
And thus my friends we have a perfect example for my definition of a perfect teacher, a conscious seeker, and a giver of truth(individual and subjective). I hope my ramblings made sense.
So until next time, Take Care y’all.
This Teacher’s Day blog is dedicated to Mrs. Nila by her student Ms. Akshaya Vijayakumar (Founder, OhReally.in)
To know more about her art class, check out https://ohreally.in/listing/nilas-art-class/.
Explore your city, checkout https://ohreally.in/.
To know more amazing artists around you, check out https://ohreally.in/listing-category/arts/.
12 Comments
What all you have said about Ms Nila is true… Her aspiration for knowledge is great
God bless her abundantly that she may be able to realise her dreams in future
Nila Akka, is a born artist. 👍
Thanks
Last supper speaks..,
Thanks.
Nila anni , wow your painting are amazing. Awesome!
You are such a huge inspiration to all of us Nila athai ❤️- such a versatile person , truly life like paintings.
Thanks charu
Thanks ram.
Nice to hear the beautiful side of Nila. Keep up the passion for this wonderful art . I’m doubly proud, she being my cousin sister.
Hitler had a passion for Art, and was also an artist. He desperately wanted to go to art school in Vienna but could not get in, even after multiple tries..
When he ran out of money and was forced to stay in a homeless shelter, he made paintings on post cards and sold them for a living. Paintings were sought after and treasured equivalent to Gold.
Thank u Anna
I have no idea who she is, but damn.. she is talented