Teaching Philosophy

Work as Play

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Work as Play .

**The Art of Authentic Teaching**

My approach to teaching is rooted in experience. My first lecture on digital photography only matured after a decade of successes and failures with various cameras. When I teach photography, I do more than instruct; I anticipate where students might struggle and guide them through those challenges.
Beyond technical skills, I immerse students in the broader visual arts—films, contemporary culture, art history, and creative discourse. I use parables, anecdotes, and the lives of trailblazing artists to show why creativity matters and why authentic expression is necessary.
Many students in creative fields hesitate to trust their intuition. I see it as my role to encourage them to do so.

My journey as an educator is shaped by pivotal moments—mentors who inspired me, classrooms that challenged me, and my own transition from India to Canada in 2018. As a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at the University of Windsor, I navigated cultural differences and the nuances of teaching in diverse classrooms. I soon realized that while North American universities are multicultural, film and media arts curricula often do not reflect that diversity. This realization pushed me to integrate Eastern and Western creative traditions into my teaching.

For example, I introduce students to artists across the globe whose work transcends borders. Since 2018, I have witnessed countless moments of authentic creative expression among my students, which have shaped my teaching strategies. I have been able to encourage international students to tap into their own knowing with various contemporary media. My classroom experiences interacting with domestic students from Lower Mainland-Fraser Valley to international ones from Punjabi-India (South Asian region), East Asia and Latin America have helped create a more comprehensive communication strategy — which I cherish — opening doors for me to find commonalities in creative courses I teach.

Teaching, like existentialism, is a continuous act of showing up. Some days are effortless, while others require navigating unspoken barriers. But I return to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, where “work” is seen as “play.” I embrace teaching as an act of joyful engagement—an extension of my identity as an artist, writer, and thinker. The best educators I have known were honest. Their wisdom stayed with me. Now, I strive to do the same for those I teach.