While reading Eye the Sunday booklet which comes along with Indian Express, I came across an article about convocations written by a teacher. She writes about her teacher, who came to her dorm and waved her Math paper saying "you are usually so bright, how do you explain turning in work like this?". Reading that brought a broad smile on my face and a slight tear in my eye. Teachers are perhaps the most overlooked bunch, especially if compared with the influence they have on your life.
I have recently realized that I am what I am today because of my teachers. So here goes a tribute to my teachers.
Aruna miss (2nd standard teacher) loved me like anything, even today will call me "Sattuuuu", to her I still might be 8 years old.
Romi miss, who was the most compassionate of the teachers in school.
Sumati miss, my Sanskrit teacher, who used to be exasperated and beam with pride at the same time!
Ganu ma'am, the elder Ganu ma'am s daughter-in-law, who I used to go to for private Sanskrit tuition in the 7th grade. I fondly remember her, for she always saw the spark in me in Sanskrit, and was a great (how do I stress this enough?) teacher. She developed my Sanskrit foundation that made it easy in the later 3 years. Though I am out of touch with Sanskrit today, I hope to relearn it some day.
Archana Tai, oh what to say about Archana Tai. She was the most selfless teacher, who took excruciating effort to reach her pupils, and always always had an eye for well-rounded personality development of her students, not just immediate success in exams. I was taught by this great teacher for 4 years, each of which won me laurels without exception. I still remember her rebuking me in the early days, for not having studied saying "Is this how they teach at St. Lawrence?". I still remember her asking me after 7th scholarship exam,"Will you make it through?" and she always reminds me with the same genuine surprise, about how nonchalant I was in my answer. I remember her incredulous look of surprise when I regaled a scholarship interview. I was being quizzed by the interviewer about which English newspaper I read, and I answered a couple of questions after which I ran out of steam. So the interviewer asked me since when are you reading this paper, I replied since a week. He says, "Only one week? Why did you start so late?", not knowing what to say, I replied "better late than never, Sir". To this day Tai fondly remembers that. She also reminds me that I used to have quite a temper. It is here, in her tuitions that I made some friendships, which endured, and will endure for a long, long time. We regularly meet Tai, we regularly have good chats, she remembers all of our quirks, God bless her. So much more could be written about Tai, but we move on. Oh, and did I miss this? She is the sole credit for laying the foundation for logical thinking, without which all my future endeavors would not have come to be. Tai's class, for me, was the school I never had.
Lakhakar Sir was my 12th grade Engineering Entrance exams teacher, and his coaching center is solely responsible for my excellent results in all entrance exams (which is pivotal to who and where I am today). He was exemplary in his combination of fun and learning. He took us to an almost-all-expenses paid trip to Goa for crying out loud! He would take us on impromptu treks, organize all-nighter marathon class, and worked really hard to get us ready for difficult exams. I met him at a petrol station one day, and I confessed to him that I am here today because of you.
Prof. S.S. Bhagwat, Chemical Engineering professor at UDCT. I learnt 4 subjects under him. Process Computations, Thermodynamics I & II, Interfacial Sciences. He called out after midsems and quizzes one day asking, who had not dropped a single mark till now. I was alone, and I was made to stand up while the rest of the class applauded. I was in for a full 100, but ended at an excellent 96. I supply that memory to my brain whenever I am excruciatingly low on confidence. He was for me, the epitome of Engineering professor. I remember when one day, he spent the whole 2 hour lecture explaining a particularly difficult problem. Not solving, just explaining what the problem statement was! That was the kind of dedication he had. He instilled that in us. As with Prof. Lakhakar, he mixed fun with learning. With him we went on a industrial visit, a Sulfuric Acid plant, a Bulk Pharmaceuticals plant. Sir took us to a trek to Karnala, Panvel, which still drenches my mind with the natural beauty and class bonding we experienced that day. Took us to Alibaug! Organized with our hostel mates a trek to Raj Machi in Sahyadris! He remains one of my favourite persons in addition to professor.
Prof. A.B. Pandit, one effortless teacher, was my B.Tech project guide, who turned my counsellor when I was faced with a dilemma.
Prof. G.A. Viswanathan, my Master's thesis advisor at IIT Bombay. In the course taught by him, I was astounded by the range of his knowledge, Reaction Engineering, Biology, Computing, Mathematics you name it! He would have research papers at the tip of his tongue on any topic! He did not teach through books, rather through research papers. That way, student developed an understanding of how research is to be approached. Through personal interaction, I saw the unwavering adherence to honesty in just about everything (a breath of fresh air in India where copying and plagiarism is rampant), his work ethic (I remember him chiding me when I was being evasive and giving flimsy excuses), his vision for research. He rarely praised anyone, so his grading my work at 10/10 was one of the highest personal honors. He is responsible for instilling character and research rigour in me. Not just a research advisor, he has on multiple occasions given me sound advice on my problems.
Prof. Anurag Mehra is a Mozart of teaching! He would link difficult concepts with mundane, daily experiences and make absolute perfect sense, so that I would never dream of forgetting the concept! Having such clarity and transferring it with such consummate ease is nothing short of a gift. His ready wit, coupled with such enjoyable (believe me, the effort required to make Multiphase Reaction Systems so enjoyable is by no means a simple task) lectures puts him right there at the top.
Prof. S.B. Noronha taught Multivariate Statistics, which would very well be called philosophy or poetry in motion! His lectures required extreme concentration, for his style was not outright slapstick, but rather extremely subtle. His sentence formulations were so long yet stylish, (I only survived through them with undivided attention because I am used to reading P.G. Wodehouse) that one would forget forever that Statistics was supposed to be tedious data handling. I am still using his excellent (self typeset in Latex) notes for concept clarification in my work.
Prof. Sachin Patwardhan took pains to clarify vector algebra, which sadly was made a mess of at UDCT. His love for Mathematics was apparent from his reverent description of Gauss as the Prince of Mathematics! I am starting to appreciate the beauty that Linear Algebra held, as he professed in classes.
Prof. V.A. Juvekar united all seemingly diverse Transport phenomena, and opened my eyes to the common concepts in all three. His lectures were easy to not pay attention to, often at a considerable personal loss. Complex systems were nothing to him! His notes, as well, are invaluable from the point of view of unification of concepts and clarity.
Prof. Soumyo Mukherjee, a Biomedical Engineering professor, had an unenviable job of giving a flavor of Biomed Engg to a diverse bunch of students from Comp Sci, Elec, Chem, Mech and what not. Needless to say, he carried it out with aplomb and left me wanting for more. It comes as little surprise since his favourite sentence was "science is a continuum".
So many more teachers there were, these are only a few that my painfully limited memory serves up at instant notice. Heartfelt thanks to all of these stellar people, I sincerely do hope I can pay you back in some way.
These are obviously the "teacher" teachers, and not inclusive of everyone who has taught me in the broader sense of the word. But here it is, a tribute to my teachers.
Thank you.
