Her lessons come from the book called life

A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to light the way for others. This is Kalpana Gupte, a cancer survivor and teacher who taught her students the new meaning of life. Presently the deputy director of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Kalpana started her career as a teacher at Abasaheb Garware College. However, she didn’t restrict her work only to the educational field, but also devoted herself to social work. Be it forming of mohalla committee or spreading awareness about breast cancer, Kalpana has done it all.

Talking about her experience as a teacher at Anand Niketan in Anandwan, Chandrapur district, Kalpana said, “For the first time I saw rural life so closely. I used to work in the area of adult education, which again was a new thing for me. Establishing a rapport with them was the most difficult thing, education came much later.”

“Working with IGNOU in distance education was another challenge. Making people realise that education is a lifelong thing and there is no age bar to continue studies needed a lot of convincing,” she added.

Talking about her recovery from cancer, she said, “When I was detected with cancer, I knew absolutely nothing about the disease. When I started studying about the disease, I came across information regarding Astha, a support group that works to spread awareness about the disease. I joined the group after a few months of being discharge from the hospital. While working in this field, I realised that even rural women are at the risk of developing cancer. Every woman must be aware of it,” she said.