Some Points which I wish all my new and Prospective Students know

I am writing this in the last week of September 2013. My birthday is very near, soon I will turn 46 years old ( if I am alive for a few more days ) [ This page talks certain things at the EDGE. You will know if you read it completely ]

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My 1 st student is close to 43-44 years old today. Lots of prospective new-students ( of standard 11 or 12 ) who meet me for the first time do not understand or comprehend this easily. If I tell this to them, I have seen “ common stupid “ reaction of some …. “ Did you start teaching at age of 2 ? “
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Well not really !! 24 years back in 1989 I got my first student. That time the student was 20 years old, while I was 22. So now if I am 46 years, the student will be 44, the gap of 2 years will remain constant. In some random cases parents of my students are around this age !!!

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My 1 st student ( She was a Marathi Girl ) approached me for Mechanics, and then subsequently Physics ( all topics ) and also Mathematics. She was so happy learning from me, that she told her junior ( who was the City topper ) to come to me. Please notice I have forgotten all their names. That boy joined me for Physics, Maths, and became my First student of standard 11. September 1989 when all these started. I never knew this long road will lead where !

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By random Genetic causes I did not lose my hair ( meaning I did not become bald, though my father is bald headed ). Also my hairs did not gray. [ I can’t even claim my hair grayed by experience !!! ]

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( I got the above picture from Google Images. Some coaching institutes grabbed out this picture of mine from youtube videos 🙂 )

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Please observe a few things here. I do not remember 99.9% of the ex-students names, with each of whom I interacted so many hours. Humans remember incidences, feelings more, than names !!

[ http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/zeigarnik-effect-i-forget-names-of-most-students-but-i-remember-some/ ]

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Second point – These students came to me and was happy, when I did NOT have “ stories “ to impressed them. I did not have the “ fame “ of Physics Olympiad, nor world record of Videos, “ tough and rare problems solved in videos “ or “ check of Inorganic Chemistry ISc or CBSE in youtube and you see most videos in the 1 st page as mine “. When people want to believe , they will believe without stories. Apart from my own coaching, I taught in many other coaching Institutes, time to time as visiting faculty ( Such as Tamal’s Coaching ). I have taught in so many schools over so many years ( Kerala Samajam School Jamshedpur, DBMS ( Dakshin Bharat Mahila Samaj ) School, Deeksha Bangalore, BGS-NPS etc ). How can I remember names of all students ?

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This means that when a new prospective student is approaching me, and even if we study together, after 2-3 years I will most probably NOT remember the names. I know it is slightly painful to realize this. Just like we avoid talking about death, this point is conveniently avoided.

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Sourabh Saha was my first student to make it to IIT. Ms ( forgotten the name ) Agarwal was first student of Jamshedpur Convent school ( 1 st ISc batch) to join “ Engineering Physics “ IIT Pawai. She used to come to my classes driving a Yahama Motorcycle. She went to Bombay for the first time in life “ alone “ to take admission to IIT. I told her to join “ Engineering Physics “ which she listened. She had made it a point to solve all the exercises of ” Concepts of Physics by Prof. H C Verma ” and had asked me the doubts of her own. She used to say at 8.45 PM after my class , that till you solve and explain all my doubts , I will NOT allow you to go home. All these are “ stories “ of 90s.

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There was no internet before 1998. No Orkut or facebook before 2005-2006. Today it is much easier to remain connected ( by email , face book etc ). In some “ posh “ apartment complexes ( in Bangalore ) I have seen “ stupid Brats “ playing so called football holding an i-pad in hand. They want to showoff the latest i-pad model to their friend who is ‘inferior “ by 3-4 months older model. None realize that their grand children will not like to see these i-pads which they are holding while “ playing football “ !! May be it is confirmed that we are connected ( may be to internet ? always !! ) and thus KNOW EVERYTHING !!

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I am in touch with some of my ex-students ( of 1990s ) in facebook, such a Vinod Kartha. Vinod Kartha was son of Mrs. Kartha, principal of Kerala Samajam School Jamshedpur. As Vinod left “Vikas Tank’s prerana classes, ( just by attending 1 month ) and joined me realizing I am teaching much better, Vikas got very angry. Vikas called me up and started fighting with me. I had said, … I can’t help on this. Vikas and me were friends, also of same batch, he had joined IIT Mumbai. My father and Vikas Tank’s father are also batchmates. ( same batch Tatasteel GTs ) [ So was father of Madhavan. Madhavan the big Tamil movie hero was also our batchmate, his ( Madhvan’s ) father also was batchmate GT of my father and Vikas Tank’s Father ). Vikas Tank and me had also worked together in Automation Division, Tata Steel, so Vikas had enough friendship to fight with me ( on Vinod ) ? ]

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Remembering names is all about IMPACT. The idea of impact is learned from Desmond Morris ‘s work. People in media and marketing uses this a lot. Desmond conducted that 8 year long experiment in the London zoo, where children were asked to list 10 animals they liked, and some other day they were asked about 10 animals they did not like. 7 or 8 animals figured in BOTH the lists again and again. Like or dislike is as per your interpretation. You partially remember only those that “ impact “ you.

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1996 I came to know about Mathematics Olympiad, in Jamshedpur Book fair. This led to Indian participation at International Physics Olympiad http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/indian-participation-in-ipho-icho-ibo-and-astronomy-olympiad/

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I worked relentlessly to inform all kinds of people about Physics Olympiad.

I visited Homibhabha Center for Science Education ( HBCSE ), Mankhurd, Chembur, BARC campus, a few times to teach the top 35 guys of the country at National Physics Camp.

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Abhinav Kumar came IIT JEE -1 in 1998. He also got Gold representing India in IMO ( International Mathematics Olympiad ) couple of times. I gave him many books, and his father ( Mr. Arun Kumar ) was / is a close friend of mine. We went to Bhagalpur, together, as Abhinav was appearing for INMO ( Indian National Math Olympiad ). Abhinav scored 100 out of 100 in INMO. Even though just on Permutation Combination itself I gave Abhinav more than 20 books, these were not sufficient for him. He asked me about “ Ramsey Theorem “. Those were pre-internet days. Searching and appropriate books were not easy. I had no book which explained Ramsey theorem. My father was going to Delhi for some office work; I requested him to bring a particular book. My father helped us, He had hired a car to travel long distance in Delhi, to buy that book, which had “ Ramsey Theorem “. Much later both me and Abhinav realized that HBCSE library did not have any book which was explaining “ Ramsey theorem “.

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Abhinav did not join IIT but went to MIT instead. His Father once told me, “ he found the ideal way to bring up a child for good results “….. I disagreed. Abhinav had 2 ( two ) younger sisters. I did not teach any of them. They joined Engineering in some private college in Tamilnadu. They did not do well in competitive exams.

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It is an Utopian dream for me to imagine “ all new prospective students “ will meet me being aware of these. Most of my ex-students know that my world is slightly different from common people.

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I have stopped “ embarrassing “ new prospective students ( or very rarely talk of these ) by asking about Gertrude Elion, Dr. Harrison Schmitt, Emmy Noether, Kurt Godel, Desmond Morris, Alan Turing, Irena Sendler, Andreas Vesalius, Richard Stallman, Christopher Alexander, Carl Sagan, Perelman, Arno Penzias, Ilya Prigogyne,Nadia Comaneci, Marcel Marceau, Augusto Boal, Anthony nesty, Pele, Roger Milla etc.

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I also hardly ask my students about “ Field’s medal “. No Indian got a field’s medal till date ?

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I think I will also stop asking the TOUGH question “ How do you prove that day and night is happening due to rotation of Earth around it own axis in contrast to Sun is rotating around Earth “ ??? No student from Bangalore whom I met answered this.

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I did not talk much about Chemistry. Here there is a world record
http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/chemistry-inorganic-south-bangalore-skm-classes-for-iseet/

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http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/chemistry-organic-south-bangalore-skm-classes-for-iseet/

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http://zookeepersblog.wordpress.com/chemistry-physical-skm-classes-south-bangalore-iit-jee-iseet-aieee/

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In Jamshedpur Dr. Udpa ( from IIT Kanpur ) and Dr. Anup Sadhukhan ( from IIT Kharagpur ) were teaching Chemistry with me, in my coaching. I had 4 more chemistry teachers, 2 of them were PhDs. So I did not bug myself up too much on Chemistry.

He is heading the Chemical Labs. see http://in.linkedin.com/pub/dr-k-n-udpa/6/226/826

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Anup is Professor of Chemical Engineering at NIT Durgapur presently. But his homepage of IIT Kharagpur has nothing (http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/~asadhukhan/ ). Anup had a record CGPA score of 10 out of 10 at IIT Kharagpur