Tributes & Tributaries

======================================================

This is for those who benefited me academically.

Omissions are due to senility rather than irreverence.

Unfortunately, most names mentioned 'here' are 'elsewhere'. But that is no reason why I shouldn't mention them here before I join them there.

I choose to talk about their Teaching & Research prowess without drawing any conclusions.

My first teacher was my father, GRK, who taught English classes of around 40 in several High Schools of our District. He was known as the Best Teacher of English in our District. He taught me at home too and created a lasting love for English from my age 6. Before giving books he bought from School Funds to the Library he used to scatter them around in our home as surreptitious bait. Abridged Versions of Tom Brown's School Days, Lorna Doone, Tolstoy Stories, Hector and Achilles etc (with cute pictures). Luckily he happened to be at KGP the week before my Draft Ph D thesis was passed on to that tyrant SDM (who never read it, which is beside the point). GRK went through my 30-page Introduction and rapped my knuckles for wrong choice of about 10 prepositions, and won a handsome Acknowledgment. He wrote a couple of 'pieces' for our School Magazine (which I would have loved to edit!)

I then shifted to a College where my Uncle, GVS, was the Principal and our English teacher. He was the uncrowned 'Shakespeare' of the Region and students used to flock to his Classes. He did publish a couple of booklets of 'Devotional & Love Poetry' that were footed by wealthy Frontispiece Patrons of Literature to whom they were 'Dedicated' but who were otherwise innocent. Frankly he was influenced by Tagore. I have copies of these two booklets which he gifted to me. It is my fault that I happen to be allergic to Devotional & Love Poetry.

Like Business & Politics, Devotion & Love are to be 'done' than sung about (SC will kill me!)

In my University, where Raman worked for a while, there was a strong Spectroscopy group and a Radio Electronics group. I was too young to know much about their Research. Our Best Teacher was BRR, who built up a thriving Ionosphere Lab. He was a Great Teacher of small as well as big Classes. My own erstwhile Guide for a while, DPS, had some Formulas based on QM in Molecular Spectroscopy, which I have seen in Standard Text Books. He was too shy to be a Teacher of large Classes. The really good Teachers of our small Classes were BHK and VSR. Nothing much is known of their Research prowess. I benefited from their teaching.

There was this young and beautiful Lady Teacher of large Classes of English. I forget her name, but not her face. She was a Great Teacher and students who had no business to be there were attending her Classes.

I then shifted to IIT KGP.

HNB, our HoD for a decade and more did not have a Ph D, but built a large School of Luminescence. He was a truly Great Teacher and keen encourager of budding talent.

SDM of course qualifies as a Great Researcher, but the less said about his Class Room Teaching the better.

I heard that GBM had some Papers in X-Ray Line Profile Analysis that entered Text Books of repute. I don't think he was a great teacher of large Classes. I benefited from him contrariwise.

RGC, who quit Research after Ph D was loved by all students of large and small Classes. He learned and taught Electronics all by himself and was also a great First Year Teacher. He was a very popular JEE Coach in Cal after he quit KGP. I shared Office Space with him for 2 years and enjoyed his company.

MSS never completed his Ph D nor published anything. But he was not only a Great Teacher and Coach, but he was a Teacher of Teachers. I benefited from discussions with him immensely.

STA was the Role Model of a Professional Teacher. He never completed his Ph D.

AVK was very popular as a Teacher of small and large Classes. He published nothing after his Ph D. I shared a Bachelor's Flat with him and learned much.

DB published 2 papers or so in Particle Physics proper while doing his Ph D at Delhi, but was dissatisfied and turned to Math Physics. He continued his Group Theory publications at the rate of one Paper a year for 30 or more years, with SDM as well as on his own in JMP. Without doubt he was the Best Teacher of large and small Classes at IIT Phy Dept. I shared Office Space with him for 20 Golden Years. Learned much and enjoyed more.

RSS had a way with large Classes. He quit active Research in Physics after his Ph D. I chose him as my partner for the Jumbo Course and several publications as co-author, including a Lecture Notes of 250 odd pages.

Many of my M Sc Project Students worked with me willy-nilly. And a large number of other students (including my son) asked thought-provoking questions. All of them find mention in my articles as co-authors or in Acknowledgments. They were indispensable for my somewhat honorable survival at KGP.

Special mention is due for KK who took over from RSS as my co-teacher of Jumbo Course. A large number of highly talented youngsters helped me as Tutorial and Lab Teachers of this Course. They are all great Teachers and Researchers of the younger generation at KGP. I thank them all.

There was one BG who stayed in the Faculty Hostel for a couple of years in the early 1970s and was a Lecturer in English. He was no doubt the most popular English Teacher. I marveled at his proficiency, knowledge and sheer breadth of scholarship. He was asked to write just a 25 page 'Article' on any author of his choice to get a promotion. He never found the time or inclination for it. He left KGP and perhaps Academia as the rumor went. He was plainly one of those souls troubled by their vast knowledge, and inability to reach the goals they set for themselves.

My Fair Russian Lady, Scherbakova, was my Best Teacher of Foreign Languages.

Hawking chose Galileo, Newton and Einstein for special mention in his 'Brief History of Time'.

We all know that the one and only Feynman was also a Great Teacher by virtue of his Feynman Lectures. But I read that his Lecture Classes at Caltech were shepherded by Junior Teachers and Scholars to make up for the rapid evaporation of the intended Freshmen and Sophomores by and by. Feynman never knew that.

Whoever tried to teach from Feynman Lectures verbatim at KGP was a stupendous failure. His highly readable Lectures, in particular the QM of Volume 3, are meant to be read, chewed and digested but not vomited.

I owe Feynman Volumes much by way of pleasure and (mis)understanding.

===========================================================