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Something similar, but less evil, happened to me during my early years at IIT KGP in 1966.
I was coming out of the Raman Auditorium after taking my first hour class for the first year B Techs. And on my way to my room contemplating a badly needed cup of tea, I found Professor X, much senior to me, walking to his class in the Bhatnagar Auditorium with his attendance register, pieces of chalks and a duster. On seeing me he stopped me and handed his paraphernalia and said:
"Hey Sastry! You are just the man I was looking for. I am busy with an important experiment in my research lab. Go, take my class, won't you please?"
"What class and what topic?"
"Second Year B Tech. Moment of Inertia"
"But I haven't prepared for it"
"No problem...just engage them"
I didn't know what to say. I was the junior-most Associate Lecturer and I thought it was an order. So I walked into the class room which was pellmell and they didn't recognize that I could be a teacher...I was so thin and young. Anyway, I mounted the podium and dawdled over the attendance as long as I could. And talked about Moment of Inertia all that I could muster extempore. And found that I had 'engaged' them for only 20 minutes. So I let them off amidst uproarious hilarity.
As I was walking out behind the students, my luck ran out and I found our HoD, HNB, halting and standing and watching the melee. And he noticed me lurking and asked:
"What happened? Why did you let off the class so early?"
"Sir, please sir, it was not my class but Prof X's, and he told me to engage the class at short notice, just a minute before the class was to start."
"Hmm! You don't have to take other teachers' classes if you are not prepared. You see, it will bring a bad name to our Department."
That wasn't a severe reprimand. But, after an hour, Prof X walked into my room red-faced and asked what happened...he must have had an earful from HNB.
But I learned my lesson that IIT is a different place and I don't have to obey the orders of any Tom, Dick, and Jack other than the HoD.
And I got the reputation of being 'hard as nails'.
Then there was this matter of roll call. I loved taking roll call for the M Sc classes since there were less than 20 students and I wanted to know who was who. And I could do this over a semester for B Tech classes of about 60 as well.
But during the last five years of my stay there I was asked to take B Tech classes of 150 and more. And I declined to take roll call since it was meaningless. The students were happy, naturally, but the colleagues from other departments and the Dean were not happy. Some of them were taking laborious roll calls, some others used to employ their Research Scholars to go round and take their signatures, and all of them used to take spot tests.
I refused to do any of these.
To cover up my lapse I used a gimmick. In the introductory first lecture, I used to uncover a transparency sheet with the lecture plan, tutorials, marks distribution etc and as the last item I used to project in bold letters:
Since the students knew what was up, there was first a trickle of laughter and then an uproar at the joke.
It became a slogan over the years.
Towards the end of my stay there, I was reading an ad in Telegraph newspaper inserted by the Students Gymkhana of IIT KGP announcing the date and time of a popular Panel Discussion during the Spring Festival. After giving the details of the names of the famous panelists and other info, there was this item in bold letters:
and the legend in small font explaining the asterisk *:
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...Soon I got into trouble with the headmaster. He sent me next to a fifth form to handle a physics class. When I pleaded that I was a history man, he brushed aside my objection and said that since the physics teacher was absent, I should take on his duties and keep the class engaged. It sounded silly to me, but I obeyed him. The fifth-form juniors were a more disorderly crowd than the sixth-form boys I had taught first. The boys kept pouncing on each other, grabbing, flinging their caps in the air, shouting challenges, and denouncing one another; it looked less like a class room, more like a festival crowd on rampage. I wondered if the physics teacher purposely kept away rather than deal with these young devils. I resented the headmaster's devilry in sending me into this confusion on my very first day....
...Next morning I was back trying to teach English to the sixth form again when a servant brought me a register to sign. I thought at first that it might be some routine office memo, but when I looked carefully, it said, "You are hereby warned that your letting off of the Fifth A was unauthorized and is likely to affect the discipline of the school. If there is a repetition of such an act, matter will be reported to the higher authorities. This is the first warning." It was signed by the headmaster....
....RKN in My Days
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Something similar, but less evil, happened to me during my early years at IIT KGP in 1966.
I was coming out of the Raman Auditorium after taking my first hour class for the first year B Techs. And on my way to my room contemplating a badly needed cup of tea, I found Professor X, much senior to me, walking to his class in the Bhatnagar Auditorium with his attendance register, pieces of chalks and a duster. On seeing me he stopped me and handed his paraphernalia and said:
"Hey Sastry! You are just the man I was looking for. I am busy with an important experiment in my research lab. Go, take my class, won't you please?"
"What class and what topic?"
"Second Year B Tech. Moment of Inertia"
"But I haven't prepared for it"
"No problem...just engage them"
I didn't know what to say. I was the junior-most Associate Lecturer and I thought it was an order. So I walked into the class room which was pellmell and they didn't recognize that I could be a teacher...I was so thin and young. Anyway, I mounted the podium and dawdled over the attendance as long as I could. And talked about Moment of Inertia all that I could muster extempore. And found that I had 'engaged' them for only 20 minutes. So I let them off amidst uproarious hilarity.
As I was walking out behind the students, my luck ran out and I found our HoD, HNB, halting and standing and watching the melee. And he noticed me lurking and asked:
"What happened? Why did you let off the class so early?"
"Sir, please sir, it was not my class but Prof X's, and he told me to engage the class at short notice, just a minute before the class was to start."
"Hmm! You don't have to take other teachers' classes if you are not prepared. You see, it will bring a bad name to our Department."
That wasn't a severe reprimand. But, after an hour, Prof X walked into my room red-faced and asked what happened...he must have had an earful from HNB.
But I learned my lesson that IIT is a different place and I don't have to obey the orders of any Tom, Dick, and Jack other than the HoD.
And I got the reputation of being 'hard as nails'.
Then there was this matter of roll call. I loved taking roll call for the M Sc classes since there were less than 20 students and I wanted to know who was who. And I could do this over a semester for B Tech classes of about 60 as well.
But during the last five years of my stay there I was asked to take B Tech classes of 150 and more. And I declined to take roll call since it was meaningless. The students were happy, naturally, but the colleagues from other departments and the Dean were not happy. Some of them were taking laborious roll calls, some others used to employ their Research Scholars to go round and take their signatures, and all of them used to take spot tests.
I refused to do any of these.
To cover up my lapse I used a gimmick. In the introductory first lecture, I used to uncover a transparency sheet with the lecture plan, tutorials, marks distribution etc and as the last item I used to project in bold letters:
"ATTENDANCE IS COMPULSORY'
It became a slogan over the years.
Towards the end of my stay there, I was reading an ad in Telegraph newspaper inserted by the Students Gymkhana of IIT KGP announcing the date and time of a popular Panel Discussion during the Spring Festival. After giving the details of the names of the famous panelists and other info, there was this item in bold letters:
All are invited*
*Attendance is compulsory!
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