By Chandan Singh | Page 3 News Worldwide | New Delhi
New Delhi: Teacher’s Day at the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi, became a poignant celebration of gratitude, remembrance, values and the enduring bond between teachers, students and their academic institution.
Addressing the gathering, Professor K. P. Singh, Head of the Department, described the occasion as a confluence of gratitude, affection, remembrance and academic legacy. The programme was conceived, organised and conducted by the Department’s Ph.D. scholars as a heartfelt tribute to their teachers.
Professor Singh underlined that a teacher’s role goes far beyond transferring knowledge in a classroom. A teacher, he said, transforms a student by filling seven essential colours into their personality — Content, Communication, Confidence, Conduct, Character, Career and Culture.
These seven dimensions, he explained, help shape a complete individual — knowledgeable yet humble, confident yet disciplined, professionally capable yet culturally rooted, and successful yet socially responsible.
The occasion also paid homage to the Department’s distinguished intellectual heritage. The Department has been enriched by the contributions of four Padma awardees, the first National Professor, the first National Tagore Fellow and numerous Fulbright Scholars. Legendary librarian and scholar Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, regarded as the father of Library Science in India, was associated with the Department and received the Padma Shri as well as the distinction of National Professor.
Professor Singh remembered the department’s distinguished teachers, past and present, whose scholarship, dedication and discipline helped build its academic foundations. Among those recalled were Padma Shri Dr. S. R. Ranganathan; Prof. S. Das Gupta; Padma Shri Prof. S. Bashiruddin; Padma Shri Prof. P. N. Kaula; Prof. Shanti Sarup Saith, the first Director of the Institute of Library Science; Prof. B. V. R. Rao; Padma Shri Prof. B. S. Kesavan; Prof. George S. Bonn; Prof. Morris Arthur Gelfand; Prof. S. Parthasarathy; Shri M. M. Kashyap; Shri Narendra Datta; Mrs. V. K. Sundaram; Shri K. S. Dalal; Prof. D. S. Aggarwal; Prof. A. P. Srivastava; Prof. Krishan Kumar; Prof. J. L. Sardana; Mrs. Malti M. Kanbur; Prof. C. P. Vashishth; Prof. P. B. Mangla; Prof. Kamleshwar Nath Gupta; Dr. S. R. Gupta; Prof. (Mrs.) S. P. Singh; and Prof. Shailendra Kumar.
Highlighting his approach to academic leadership, Professor Singh said leadership should not mean standing above others but creating space for others to rise. Reflecting this philosophy, the Department has introduced a Teacher’s Day tradition in which the opportunity to address the gathering begins with the junior-most Assistant Professor, moves through senior faculty members and concludes with the Head of the Department.
The practice, he said, represents the principles of empowering, encouraging, recognising and nurturing the potential of others.
The central message of the celebration was that the finest tribute to a teacher is not a flower, speech or award, but the life of a student who carries forward the teacher’s values.
The Department’s enduring legacy, the programme emphasised, lives through generations of students, research, institutions and professional traditions — with teaching ultimately leaving behind seven colours of Content, Communication, Confidence, Conduct, Character, Career and Culture.
