Three Influential Teachers...

Dear Friends,

The year 2010, on my 27th birthday, I gave my first speech in my professional life. I'm sure it must have been the first speech in my whole life, as I had an extraordinary fear to address even a small gathering during my school and college days. Since it was my first speech I choose a topic that I was able to speak with utmost conviction and at the same time without much effort to remember. I chose to speak about three of my teachers. I, fortunately, have the transcript of the speech, which I would like to share on this auspicious occasion of Guru Poornima (13th July 2022). Here it goes:?

"Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to speak at GE-HTC Toastmaster. I would like to talk about three teachers whose approach to their profession and my interaction with them have played a significant role in shaping my thoughts over the years. Let me start in reverse chronology.

I had two advisors while I was doing my master's. One professor was more into physics and while the other was into Electronics. I had a massive attraction towards electronics, as I wanted to be a very good electronics engineer. Prof AM taught me electronics by not teaching in a conventional approach. He used to give me everyday assignments which would not just involve electronics engineering but a whole lot of things involving various fields of engineering and science. I was kind of lost most of the time doing those assignments. However, when he used to solve the problem in front of me he used to start from the first principles. After the whole thing, I used to feel so dumb. Though he did his PhD on something related to antennas and things related to electromagnetism, he opted to teach applied Mathematics at the Institute. The most important lesson I learnt under his guidance was to see a problem at hand with a free mind. Not classify whether I have the prerequisite knowledge or not. Under him, I realized that I am an Engineer, not an ‘Electronics’ Engineer.

During my engineering days, we had a very lean and sort of mild (not aggressive at any levels) professor in our department. He was addressed by his initials as RKB. Prof RKB was in the mid-60s and I guess I was 20 year old then. He nearly made the whole class sleep whenever he took a class. His teaching style was mostly disliked. His voice was hardly audible and with little or no modulation. He should have perhaps attended a Toastmasters session like this to gain some skills. However, I liked him as a teacher because he had the courage to say, “ I don’t know” infront of the whole class if he didn’t know something. I was very glad that he was made our guide for the project that we had to undertake during our pre-final year. We choose a trending technology topic, in which we had little or no idea. Whenever we approached him for guidance he used to listen to everything we said patiently, and gave his thought on the same after we finished talking. Most importantly he used to give a smile of assurance, which conveyed that he had high trust in us. He used to go through all the hand calculations and analytical equations related to the work and never undermined our effort. The greatest thing I learnt from him was that sense of “being there with you” and how much difference it can make when your fellow mate is facing the toughest of the toughest problems.

Back in my high school days, I took Sanskrit as my first language. All my friends near my home had joined a Sanskrit tuition. I also joined so that I wouldn’t feel left out. A teacher by the initials MGK use to take those classes. MGK was in his thirties, a simple person, who used to charge way too less compared to other tuitions in the city, and on top of that never meticulous collected the fees from the students. I will never forget some of his interpretations of Subhashithas – the moral poems. He wasn’t just trying to help us learn the language, he was himself enjoying translate those poems in depth. He for some reason emphasized two verses throughout the course, which I would like to recite now:

The first one is” Vidya dadati vinayam...”

This means “education brings humility in a person...”

The second one is “Dhairyam sarvatra sadhanam...”

This means “Courage is one tool which is considered everywhere..”

We could infer that he had a profound attitude towards his profession - He wouldn’t teach the Subashitas if he wasn’t himself believing those in totality. The greatest lesson I learnt from him is that we should work in our true interest to satisfy ourselves completely that we are doing a good job.

All The three teachers that I spoke, their attitude towards their profession has become pillars of my adult life. I could only aspire to live with the ideologies that I have learnt from these teachers. If I’m standing here then it's because of them. With these words, I’ll end my first Toastmasters speech. Thank you!