The name invokes so many memories. After graduating & getting into a professional training school to become a teacher was a pleasant journey. The teachers excellent! One of them was Madam Sor. Very thin, fair & always clad in white khadi saree. Later I came to know that she would weave them herself & wear.
Brought up in the serene surroundings of the Ashram by Vinoba Bhave at Wardha, she led the same life here in Nasik. Her family was also very simple & virtuous. She was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. She would proudly tell us about her childhood. She had the opportunity to sit on the Mahatma’s lap when he had visited Wardha. As a child the disciple inculcated in her was useful in her later life as well.
She was very careful about the resources. Recycling & reuse was her motto. She was always years ahead than her peers. She was thin & frail but had a strong personality & a commanding voice. If she was sweet to her students , she was a stern teacher to the lazy ones.
I have been fortunate to hear her lectures & be on the campus then. The aura of such teachers made us what we believe in today. The principles upheld were unadulterated & very rigid.
She retired as the principal of the institute but devoted herself to social work till the very end. She dies on an auspicious day. At the ripe old age of 85, now nothing remains to be done. If she would have lived more, more people would have benefitted just by her presence.
What ‘Vasanti’ means is ‘Fragrant’… she has made our lives bloom like in “Basant” ie Spring & fragrant with her very presence. “Sor” means the energy of the Sun, which she embodied ! Making all of us “Soar” like the birds beyond the horizon.
I bow humbly before you & pray that all get to know teachers like you in their lifetime. Goodbye.
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