Bidhu Bhusan Nanda with his students. Picture by Amit Datta

Once a teacher, always a teacher? Sixty years doing the same thing and just refusing to do anything else may sound kind of odd, but for Bidhu Bhusan Nanda his profession is his pursuit, the classroom his calling and the shaping of lives his life.

Bidhubabu, as he is referred to with fondness and fear among students past and present, started his career with Ramakrishna Mission Boys? Home, Rahara, in 1944. Twenty years after retirement, the 85-year-old man continues to divide his day ? after his morning prayers ? between school and hostel.

?I take Sanskrit and Indian culture classes in school, but in the hostel I help students with all subjects,? says the recipient of the Dr Mrs N.B.O?Brien Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award for a Teacher at The Telegraph School Awards For Excellence 2004 on Saturday.

?Teaching to me is like carrying on relief work. I have been doing this for so many years here. What else would I do?? demands the dedicated disciplinarian, who did his graduation in Sanskrit and mathematics from PK College in Contai.

?I didn?t go back to my village (Mughberia) after retirement and decided to stay back here. I am happy that the authorities also want me to continue,? smiles the old man in trademark dhoti-kurta.

Lounging on a wooden-chair in his 10 ft x 6 ft Vivekananda Chhatrabas room, brimful with books and a life-size portrait of his father, he recounts how life changed forever while working as a volunteer in flood-hit Midnapore, 1943.

?People lost everything in the calamity, but it was only the Ramakrishna Mission that carried out relief operations in the area. I decided to work for the Math and came to Belur.?

There, young Bidhu Bhusan Nanda was asked to help Swami Punyanandaji maharaj, who was busy setting up a school in Rahara, on the outskirts of the city, in North 24 Parganas.

From supervising construction of the buildings to steering the lives of thousands of students, Bidhubabu has been associated with all that has put the institute in the state?s top bracket.

If he is not with the students in class or hostel room, he is invariably in his room on campus, correcting copies or reading books. Bidhubabu doesn?t take off-days and leaves the campus only once a year, that too for just 15 days to visit his family in Mughberia.

?My mother once asked me whether I didn?t like going back to home. I told her it was difficult for me to tell the little orphan students, who had no one in their lives, that I was going to meet my family members. My mother never complained again and the family just got used to it,? says Bidhubabu, his eyes moist.

Try telling him about the so-called degeneration in the student community and Bidhubabu stands firm for his boys. ?The parents and the environment have changed and that at times gets reflected in student behaviour. But students still cry when I tell them the story of Dhrubo and Prahlad. Isn?t that proof that very little has changed in their minds and hearts?? asks the quintessential teacher, busying himself for his next class.