First Class Encounter

Reproduced from KGPian, October 2007

Way back in 1965, when all my world was young and all my trees green, I joined the Physics Department at I.I.T. Kharagpur as an Associate Lecturer, which position is now as extinct as the Nair Canteen that sustained us then. At the beginning of the new session, I went to Professor H. N. Bose’s chamber to get the course allotted to me. He gazed at me from top to toe, shook his head, and declared that I was too young and puny to handle a Lecture Class. He told me to take a first year tutorial as a starter. I asked him what a tutorial was, hearing the name for the first time. He simply said that all I had to do was make students solve some problems. This was news to me, since we never solved any problem in Physics at our University, which doled out degrees, divisions and ranks depending on how efficient we were at text book absorption, retention and emission (much like phosphorescence). I walked into the imposing Library, took down some book on Mechanics and cleverly chose some half a dozen odd-numbered problems.

By some assiduous trial and error process overnight, I could solve all except one, for which I was getting a wrong answer (That problem involved multiple collisions with reflection and a coefficient of restitution.). Convinced that the book answer was wrong, I entered one of the tutorial rooms which now house the Deans Complex (There were no Deans then, nor their complexes.). It was an ECE class (no CSE then) with barely a dozen freshmen who were as sleepless and dazed as I was. It was scary. I dictated my problems one by one. One or the other of the students produced the right answers in a couple of minutes each. Time was fleeing. Then came the last problem which I was convinced would fox them. However, within minutes, a rather stout but gentle student cracked it and got the book answer. Somewhat contrite, I asked him to show the steps on the black board. Then, I realized where I was making the sign mistake. I lingered over the attendance. Still, the class was over in less than half an hour to the relief of one and all.

The walk to the canteen was thoughtful. I saw that I could learn from students here much faster than all by myself. I decided to stay put at KGP. Which I did for the next forty years, with many intoxicating happy hours in the class room.

To give the credit where it is due… the name of the stout but gentle youngster happens to be one Arjun Malhotra.