Ten Mentors who changed my life

Nine years ago, I got to choose between IISER Pune and IIT Roorkee, I picked the former and the choice completely changed the way I looked at the word "teacher". Generally kids get homesick when they leave home for the first time, I was all excited, all excited! That was because I was told that all my teachers are some of the greatest scientists in India, I wanted to know how it'd feel, to stay along with great researchers.

I have chosen a very unconventional kind of a career, atleast that's what people tell me. I am an edumedia entrepreneur working towards getting the world's best education to everyone, where we move through knowledge to wisdom, from information to insights and from a teacher to a guru. I have had fantastic mentors all through my life who changed the way I looked at life and they made learning a way of life.

1. Amudha Madam, DAV Safilguda: A series of accidents ended up in getting Amudha madam to teach 7F (2003-2004). She would spend more time on challenging us with problems than on completing the syllabus. She asked us to calculate something like 64 to the power 1/4 and one of my classmates actually found it all by himself. This motivated us to discover math than just learn from the books. She teamed us all up into groups and conducted a quiz. She asked the team-leaders to help the other students, she'd add our exam marks to the quiz-tally. I still remember Akash, Afthab and Abhinav had come down to my place before the exams, so we could prepare together. She had gifted a book with Shakuntala Devi puzzles, with her personal money. She asked my father to enroll me into IITJEE coaching, although he thought it'd be pressure, she told him about my potential to crack the exam and you know the rest is history!
2. Srinivas Sir, Evens Classes: My email address is [email protected], Physics was the subject I loved all through my school life. The irony is that I developed this interest in an IITJEE Foundation Coaching institute. This was probably because Srinivas sir was so excited about the discipline and he'd transfer his insights and excitement all through the class. I had developed very different approach later, after going through rigorous courses at IISER, but then the inspiration stays with me all my life.
3. Janardhan Sir, FIITJEE: A 22 something youngster who lands up in a teaching job immediately after completing BTech from IIT Madras, former Hyderabad cricket team player (age group tournos) and somebody who'd discuss Dhoni, cricket and life in the class. I really liked how he'd relate Dhoni's captaincy with our exam preparation and how we should manage our preparation. We'd play cricket with him every two months. He was the rockstar for the all the students, he used to tell us to study just 6hrs per day and people would end up doing more!
4. Dr. Nilesh Joshi: Nilesh was pursuing his PhD when I was a 11th grader and I had met him on Orkut. He introduced me to Richard Feynman's books. We discussed lots of ideas regarding science and research. Later when I joined IISER, Nilesh was about to being his entrepreneurial journey and he switched from Feynman to Steve Jobs, I did too. Nilesh's email address says Richard Feynman Junior! He was and is a great influence on my life, I'd always bounce my ideas with him and he'd come up with great questions which would guide. So much that I plan to start a website which can connect kids with such mentors, so their life changes completely!
5. Prof. L.S.Shashidhara: I remember my first phone and my only phone call with Prof Shashidhara. I was at IIT Madras, attending counseling for admissions and my father got me to speak to me as I was very depressed. I didn't want to do engineering, I wanted to pursue research in pure sciences, my father had taken me to the counseling session against my wishes. He called up Prof Shashidhara through a colleague's reference and the call was a great experience. I was so happy to hear about the revolution IISER Pune was trying to create and that I can be a part of that journey. Where else will you find a Deputy Director come and tell the students - your exams are not going to be very heavy anyway, so focus on exploring what you like, we have a fantastic library, we have amazing faculty doing exciting research, work with them! Which Deputy Director would spend so much time to guide students on "petty things" like attending colloqia, listening to good professors, asking questions etc? If you saw the movie 3-Idiots and if you wondered what if Rancho was in Virus' place, well that's IISER Pune for you and that explains why IISER Pune has been, is and will be producing many more Ranchos!
6. Prof. Saurav Pal, world famous Quantum Chemist, was the director of NCL Pune when I was studying at IISER Pune. He told us why he loved taking the freshman courses, all his life, he said he likes the energy and curiosity, and more importantly why many faculty are intimated by freshman courses and why he feels so good. He used to talk about metaphysics in the classroom. We'd get to know how a world famous researcher, doesn't just look at the content, but also bodies of knowledge which help in interpreting the content very differently. His lectures inspired me to see the qualitative aspects of learning and what meta-questions actually mean, the role of Philosophy in Education!
7. Dr. Premnath Venugopalan: PhD from the MIT, researcher at NCL Venture Center, Founder of NCL Venture Center, a mentor to several core-tech entrepreneurs and more importantly a fantastic individual. I had attended a few of his sessions at NCL Venture Center, about entrepreneurship. I have attended many more lectures on startups, run by industry professionals, but no one can match his rigor. He makes entrepreneurship exciting not through motivation but through his questions and perspectives. I am indebted to him for showing me business as problem solving, at a depth which I could never acquire through passive book reading. Dr. Premnath motivated me to take off Sciensation immediately, otherwise my plan was to complete PhD and then start.
8. Prof. R.Ramanujam: The greatest teacher I have ever met in my life. Contrast my lectures with his and you'd see how much I am influenced by him. I had done my masters thesis with him, just so that I could spend a year's time with him. He shows the true beauty of Mathematics through deep rooted fundamental questions. He helps students in seeing the philosophical foundations of the subject and he transforms students into researchers. He gets students to see, very quickly, what he took a lot of time to figure- which is probably the hallmark of a legendary teacher. He is also a great mentor who warned me against the threats of capitalism and how capital can ruin the intensions, I promised him that I'd stay true to my values and never let money make anti-people decisions, especially with "I need to pay my employees salaries" excuse.
9. Mr. Joydip Bhattacharya: Joydip used to head the Marketing and Strategy of Zee News when I had met him, he was actually moving out, to startup "PeopleTech". I learnt to ask "can I" questions, so I could see new opportunities and the "maybe" questions for possibilities. Joydip loves problem solving and had told me he loves talking to me as I give him so many problems to solve and I ask him so many questions. Joydip connects the dots, sees new possibilities and is so excited about Business Strategy. Joydip would like to teach and mentor MBA students, he hasn't been getting much time, but I hope Sciensation can come in scale and goodness of this strategy genius!
10. Mr. Sudhir Rao Munagala: The person whom I respect to the most, the person to whom I owe my professional identity. Sudhir sir taught me how to run a business, how to manage funds carefully (by comparing water and farming to money/capital and product dev cycle), he taught me how to co-create with the customer, how the market will teach you the way of conducting business, he explained how one has to be so keen on understanding customer's aspirations, he redefined by understanding of customer delight and service mindset. I have never seen such a down to earth, humble person in my life. When I thank him for spending so much time with me, expecting nothing, he tells me - that's the bare minimum he can do for a passionate youngster. I still remember him telling me how happy he was when he met my father during Extrapolate. He said he loved seeing a happy father, a happy father who could see his son succeed!
11. Mr. Gopala Krishna Ayitam: My father, my first mentor, who kept telling me lots of stories all through my childhood. Who kept insisting that I read a lot, he taught me MS Office when I was in grade IV, so I could practice and master documentation skills. He used to take time off, to drop me in all sorts of classes, so he could tell me why they were important. He taught me the value of education and why one must study for the sake of learning and not for other perks/incentives. He would talk of C.K.Prahlad's core competence theory, research culture in Germany, JRD Tata's legacy, and these stories shaped the leader in me, as I had heard them all through my childhood. He pushed me, scolded me, made sure I was focused and he enjoyed my successes - Olympiad ranks, IITJEE admit, research projects! I keep telling this story to all parents of how to be a great parent mentor. He was never one who'd leave my studies to a teacher or a coaching center, he'd have so many questions, to understand my journey. He used to teach me until I was in 6th or 7th grade and since then he'd step back and mentor me. He delivers guest lectures at TISS Hyderabad, KIIT Bhubaneshwar and few more institutes on Agricultural Business, Rural Development, Financial Literacy and Cooperative Banking.

These people didn't just transfer content, what did they do? How do we school teachers to develop our next generation's human potential? Well, here is my question bucket!

1- Can teachers show the beauty of a subject? Can the teacher go beyond the superfluous notions and show the innate beauty of a subject which keeps researchers going?

2- Can teachers engage in big-picture story telling? Can teachers convey the legacy of great men and great institutions, with conviction, so kids can get pumped up? Can teacher go beyond the hares, tortoises and talk of real impact making?

3- Can teachers get kids to arrive at the idea, rather than just present it to the students? Can teachers figure out the problem along with the child?

4- Can teachers master multi-disciplines and experience of the joy of learning and leverage the infectious nature of this kind of enthusiasm?

5- Can the teacher guide and support the student while he/she embarks on an impossible journey? Can the life-skills be more implicitly developed?

6- Can the teacher set the right benchmarks for a student? They say that a PhD guide helps you in picking a problem which is hard enough to be relevant and easy enough to progress, can school teachers be able to do this?

7- Can teachers perform proper performance reviews? Can they rigorously grill the students so their thought process is shaken and so their decision making is more scientific?

8- Can teachers be more receptive, can they see the fundamental ideas/perspectives of students? Can they become beginners again? Can they look beyond mistakes and see why the child is doing whatever he/she is doing?

9- Can the teachers step out of the well, beyond basic inspiration/motivation and see how these legends - Socrates, Feynman, Rajiv Motwani mentored so many more legends?

10- Can the teacher be exposed to philosophical ideas, so they could get kids to meditate through thoughts of the planet's biggest geniuses and smallest observations alike?

Do follow Pedagogy Renaissance Dialogue on Sep 8th, to hopefully get some perspective around these questions!

PS: The Author Tarun runs Sciensation.tv which works towards scaling research culture (or way of life/learning) to school students and philosophy enthusiasts. Sciensation works on Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, to challenge assumptions/presuppositions and advance forward into new realms of learning.