Equations to Empathy: Chitra Chowdhury’s Teaching Legacy by Banasmita Das

There are women who live quietly, yet leave behind echoes in every room they once walked. My grandmother, Chitra Chowdhury — to us she is always Junu Pehi — was such a woman. To her students at Tarini Choudhury (TC) Govt. Girls High School, she was Chitra Baidow: a firm mathematics teacher and later the Respected Principal. She was known for her crisp white Mekhela Saadors, strict eyes behind her spectacle, chalk-dusted fingers, precise explanations and a heart full of patience. But to us, her grandchildren, she was our lighthouse — our first storyteller and our silent, constant protector.

I still remember the scent of talcum powder mingling with the pages of her old textbooks and the warm, comforting aroma of freshly baked nankatta which she prepares for us. Her voice — clear and deliberate — held the kind of command that made you not just listen, but truly learn.

A Standard of Excellence

Chitra Baidow was not merely a teacher by profession; she was a teacher by nature. At TC School, where she taught for decades, she was more than an educator — a benchmark of discipline, intellect and unshakeable integrity. Her mathematics classes were never easy, but under her guidance, mathematics transformed from a subject many feared, into a puzzle to be solved — a language to be decoded and enjoyed. Students often say her classes were challenging, but deeply inspiring.

Even today, her former students speak of her with unhidden affection. Many have gone on to become teachers themselves, doctors, professionals or devoted homemakers — each shaped, in some way, by her influence. She touched lives with quiet, lasting grace. Even after retirement, students and colleagues alike would visit her, sending gifts, letters or messages. Some of her students brought their children to meet her, hoping they too could receive a glimmer of the wisdom she had once offered so generously.

The Heart of her Greatest Classroom

But her greatest classroom, I believe, was the home. We, her grandchildren, were perhaps her most devoted students. While she did taught us mathematics, but the most profound lessons were in the way she lived which was never written in any textbook.

She taught us through her actions: the power of selfless love and sacrifice, the quiet dignity of leading a disciplined life on one’s own terms, the importance of staying connected to our roots & culture and the simple art of giving without expecting anything in return.

Junu Pehi was a lady who was not loud with her love and affection, but silent, constant and unshakeable. Her way of showing it was through care and concern for every being. Her strength came not from grand gestures, but from the enduring silence of sacrifice — from always putting others before herself without a word of complaint.

Lessons to be learnt from her were everywhere, if you were paying attention.

Her Enduring Presence

Though she is no longer with us, Junu Pehi’s teachings are etched into every part of who we are — just like the accolades and honours that still hang proudly on the walls of her room. They remind us not only of her achievements, but of the values she lived by.

Former students continue to reach out to us. Some share how they chose to become educators because of her motivation. That, I believe, is the true legacy of a teacher: not only the knowledge imparted, but the belief planted in uncertain hearts. The quiet transformation of doubt into possibility.

A Legacy beyond Walls

They say great teachers never die — and I believe that with all my heart. I carry her with me still: in the way I envision life and its purpose, in the way I strive to take her legacy forward and in the way I search for meaning in small, quiet things.

Her classroom once had four walls. Now, it stretches across generations — living on in every life she touched, and in every lesson she whispered into the world.

Banasmita Das, a passionate writer and poet from Assam, whose work spans travel essays, literary articles, book reviews and Japanese tanka, featured in The Assam Tribune, Booknerdection, Spillwords and Coldmoon journal. She curates her writing on her blog Literary Voyage. Her acclaimed debut poetry collection, Gilded Verse, released in 2025.