Awesome Jawsome

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Words can instill more fear in tender hearts of students than swords.

Take for instance Wigner-Eckart Theorem. If you have not heard it from your Teacher in your Class Room you will live in perpetual fear (like me) of this combo whenever you hear it later. Or Ricci Tensor. Or even such a simple thing as Multivibrator.

The purpose of a Teacher is to remove this fear. He may or may not give you an understanding.That depends on his capability and your interest. But if you have heard such hi-fi jargon in the Class Room, you will recall it later and won't be afraid; say in an Interview or a Viva. Otherwise you will shrink like a jellyfish and retract like a poked snail whenever such terms are uttered and start developing a Complex.

Prof RGC was a good 15 years older to me. And he was one of the smartest teachers I ever met with. Like MSS. And we happened to share a Room for over an year. QM and GR and such stuff were not taught to him when he was a student at Allahabad Univ. He was a master of Classical Physics and Electronics. His Ph D was in Acoustics.

When he realized that I was teaching QM, he asked me if I can explain to him Dirac Delta Function in a few words. I got up at once and took a piece of chalk and was going to the blackboard in front of him. He suddenly got up and said:

"GP, let us go to the Canteen, have a cup of tea and come back refreshed"

And you know what happens after such Canteen Adjournments.

A month later he asked me if I can explain to him Dirac Delta Function in a few words. I got up at once and took a piece of chalk and was going to the blackboard in front of him. He suddenly got up and said:

"GP, let us go to the Canteen, have a cup of tea and come back refreshed"

And so on...

I have known many teachers avoid Cornu Spiral like the very plague just because they didn't hear of it in their student days. Also Localization of Fringes. Also Babinet Compensator.

I was lucky that we had terrific labs at our AU, Waltair (Vizagh). Then on I was never afraid of labs or such bread 'n' butter Physics. But I was shoot scared of Math of any description. Like Matrices, Tensors, CGC's and stuff.

SDM gave me my Ph D. Anyone else could have given it to me if I wanted one. But none could drive the fear of math from my heart as SDM did. That is what happens when you rub shoulders with an expert. He doesn't have to teach you formally. You learn by closely watching him do it.

The World's Best Teachers are of course Sage Uddalaka (Chandogya Upanishad), sage Yagnyavalkya (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad) and Jesus Christ (Sermon on the Mount) among many others.

Uddalaka sends his son, Svetaketu, to College for 12 years as an intern. And when he returns takes his Viva. And discovers that his teachers omitted the most important lesson of all. Svetaketu reasons that his teachers must have been ignorant of the subject's funda. And prays to his Father to please teach him.

That is the HOLY moment between a Teacher and his Student...when the pupil ardently desires to know something that his teacher knows like the back of his palm.

And Uddalaka begins with an example and Svetaketu says it is not very clear to him. And his dad gives another example. And the kid is not happy....it goes on nine times. And finally Uddalaka asks his son if the matter is very clear now. And Svetaketu nods his head and says:

"Crystal Clear, thanx!"

Understanding comes from examples and applications, not just by hi-fi Theory.

This is what I learned in my life, such as it is....


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