Today I was thinking about how I would enjoy my 47th birthday (June 19)? I don’t make much of a fuss or fuss about celebrating my birthday. Rather, I feel more comfortable in silence. But today’s perspective is completely different. The purpose of this writing is to express my love and gratitude to those who have brought me to this stage through the ups and downs of this long life. I would like to begin with the ancient philosophy of our Indian subcontinent, the Guru-Shishya tradition, which has its roots in 5000 BC and where the Guru is a teacher and the disciple is a student, which is as follows:

‘The guru orally transmitted knowledge to the student, a tradition known as the guru-shishya parampara. Over time, the relationship between the guru and the disciple developed and strengthened, and knowledge was passed from guru to disciple until the disciple mastered it. This knowledge was not only a formal education, but also a transmission of spiritual and cultural ethics, which was essential for empowerment.’ (Khosla and Joshi, 2021; Chandra, 2015)

Even though our education system is modern, we still morally and culturally cherish the Guru-Shishya tradition, except for some unexpected political disputes! When we were in school, we respected our teachers like gurus and they were also affectionate towards us. But since we had no formal education and practical framework of this tradition, we had no contact with our teachers after leaving school. After school and college, my thinking changed after I came to university, after meeting my highly respected teacher, Professor Dilip Kumar, probably in our first year in 1997.