People are the pillars of the institution, its landscape and its foundation. The weather may change, but the landscape remains. Hence, the richest investment of a teacher is in influencing and transforming his/her students to bring out the best in them. One of the reasons for my joining the university is the opportunity to teach and inspire young minds. Since most of the students that I have taught so far are medical students, who have been described as the top students of their cohort coming into the university, they possess both the ability as well as the discipline for fairly independent learning by reading the books or published works for themselves. Hence, the role of the teacher goes beyond providing facts and information through didactic lectures. Instead, the teacher needs to help the students shift emphasis from knowledge acquired during lectures to data-evaluation and problem-solving. In the face of an ever increasing amount of medical knowledge, it is impossible for a teacher to have encyclopedic knowledge even in the area of expertise. Hence, the role of a teacher in the university is not to stay in control and ahead of the students at all times in terms of knowledge, but to stimulate curiosity and train students in critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

As a wise Chinese proverb goes, Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand. As a teacher, I hope to facilitate my students in becoming active learners. Instead of providing facts after facts, my role in lectures is to stimulate enough interest and curiosity about the topic so that students can go to the library after lecture and look for the important information. During tutorials, it is more satisfying for the students to find out the answers themselves through student-initiated and directed discussions rather than being the teacher who provides the correct answers all the time. Similarly, involving students and working closely with them in research projects provides the opportunity for them to experience the joy of research directly.

In order for me to achieve the above goals in my teaching, I seek to have the following traits as a teacher: 1. Be enthusiastic in my teaching: spread the joy of learning for the subject / topic / project 2. Be clear, specific and relevant in my teaching: my lecture should serve as a good introduction for the students to pick up additional knowledge by self-study 3. Be approachable: I do my best to be available for students either in person or by email correspondence, depending on what my students prefer and require 4. Be a friend to my students: I seek to know my students by name, work with them closely in projects, share meals with them, listen to their aspirations and provide personal advice about career choices and life in general. In a way, teaching what I like to learn has allowed me to explicitly re-experience the joy I experienced the first time I learnt something I loved. I hope, through my teaching and interaction with my students, I too can share this joy and help my students succeed in their endeavours and aspirations.