Reco Mela - 2

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For the first half of my life at KGP, I was innocent of recoism. I was mostly teaching B Tech students or Departmental students in their early years.

I was too junior.

My life was uncomplicated and blemishless.

When I was first asked to bestow my reco, which I did with great juvenile enthusiasm and unbridled pride, the mom of the student happened to meet my wife on the Gate Number 5 Road and apologized handsomely: "Senior log deney ki inkar kiye thaey, iseeliye aapka mister ko takleef denaa pada".

But word spread that gps is ok. And flood gates lifted overnight.

By then I got convinced that at the entry level, each student of IIT was better than I was at their age. And, they had the benefit of much better teachers than I ever had. And their training was much more rigorous and they were ever kept on their toes unlike us who had to pass only one Exam (of 6 papers and 4 labs) in Physics at the end of 4 years of B Sc (Hons). And they had to face dozens of vivas, grand slam and little slam (we didn't have even one). Their communication skills were vastly superior to mine at their age: we never spoke in English till we were forced to leave AP. They wrote English as well as I did, if not better. Their lab training was a little inferior to ours, but except one or two, they were no longer going to pursue Experimental Physics.

In short I always suffered from an Appreciation Complex.

So, I had no reason to find fault on any feature that I had to assess them.

So I ticked every entry in the top one or two categories. And I had no earthly reason to hide my recos from them. IIT KGP formally had a system where all students could demand to see their answer scripts and negotiate till they were convinced. Hiding behind secrecy clauses, in my opinion, was unfair; and futile. So, I asked the students to sit beside me and help me in my assessment. I saw nothing wrong in this then or even now.

As I rose to the ultimate eminence of Professorship, I was busy doing this task for days on end, morning and evening. I was more or less sure that these laurels and tributes of mine would neither be scrutinized with an STM nor taken seriously.

But I couldn't take chances. And I had to be honest.

I had never any reason to be upset with students at KGP. They behaved exquisitely inside and outside the Class Room. I did not care if they were honest or otherwise in their Assignments. They should have known that it would be self-defeating in the long run if they didn't exert. I had just 20% of marks for TA and half of this went to attendance (which was almost full in my Departmental Courses). The rest was needed to fine tune the Grade (so-called grace marks) because I didn't believe in a system in which I first give marks and then convert them into grades like an automaton.

If the grading system were to be meaningful, it had to be quite independent of marks. For this to be possible, the Class strength should not exceed about twenty. This was true during my M Sc teaching years there. I knew that a few students didn't bother to write theses in their theory papers: they were laconic and just highlighted the required answer. And in just half a page; while others took several loose sheets. Some couldn't fare well in the Viva: they again uttered just one or two very relevant words. A true Grading system should make allowances for this and give the teacher almost autocratic powers to upgrade; and trust that this wouldn't be misused.

In view of all these considerations, I appeared liberal. I would have been happy if the reco system was abolished and the powers that recruit just trust the grades I gave my students in addition to whatever additional tests like GRE & TOEFL they conduct.

I was never happy doing this job, but couldn't refuse to do it too.

Between the devil and the deep sea.

More than a decade ago, Kedar sent me a hilarious Java applet in which I was asked to click on either of two buttons: YES or NO.

The question I had to answer was supposed to be posed by President Clinton during his turmoil years with his intern:

"Should I resign or no?".

When I tried to click on the YES button, that button was forever slipping away migrating this way and that all over the place. It was absolutely impossible to click on YES even if one spent hours.

On the other hand the NO button stayed put like a sack of gold and was beaming a hearty welcome.

Likewise I would be very happy with a reco form in which I was asked only just the ultimate question eliminating all the intermediate hullabaloo, brouhaha and Jabberwocky:

"Do you recommend this student to our Graduate Program?", with just two buttons: YES and NO, the cursor chasing the slippery NO button all over the place while the YES button stays put welcoming.

I am that confident of who I recommend. They never failed me in acads wherever they went.

Reco Mela: One of the M Sc batches was about 20 strong. And 15 of them were top class and I could see that all of them would be applying abroad. If I agreed to give reco to one, there was no way I could decline the rest. And if I start giving recos to all, I would be busy morning and evening for months since they would be dropping in at all odd times convenient to each of them. It would be an impossible task.

So, I spread word that I wouldn't be giving any reco to anyone of that batch.

But a couple of days after this announcement, I was cornered in the corridor by a student who had never spoken in the class or outside to me (or perhaps to anyone else to my knowledge). But he was a near topper and definitely in the uppermost 5% of all students I taught at that level as the jargon went.

He simply asked me why I wouldn't be giving recos to him. I said I needed some rest. He then said that was unfair because I had taken two Theory Courses and two Lab courses and therefore blocked that many slots. Had I not done that he could have approached others. In short he convinced me that it would be wrong on my part to shirk this duty after agreeing to take that many courses to their batch.

I was impressed by his logic.

So, I announced that on the coming Saturday, whoever wanted recos should land up at my Qrs B-140 by 6 PM with their files. And bring their musical instruments to perform while the Reco Mela would be on. And My Fair Lady would take care of their grub for that evening.

As expected, 15 students landed up, each with 10 or more reco forms, and around 10 of them brought their harmonicas, flutes, and synthesizers while the rest brought sweets. They were all made to sit down and perform in the Drawing Room, amusing themselves and my wife and son; while I was sitting by the Dining Table calling one by one in the order they agreed between themselves, and do the Herculean job of filling and signing and sealing and signing on the seals of 150 envelopes enclosing their blessed reco forms with their help.

It was 1 AM by the time the mela was through. Phew!

Last Laugh: Among the scores of reco forms I had to fill, two were special: one was of MIT and the other a rather haughty desi place. They had one last item I had to fill in:

"Please write about your own credentials in as much detail as you can" (or some such thing).

This really meant that I had to pin a reco for myself either from my HoD or the Diro.

The MIT item posed me no difficulty. I just wrote: "Ask Edwin F Taylor".

The desi thing was always given to me and DB by the same student.

DB & I consulted each other what to do with this last item.

I said: You fill in: "Ask gps"; and I fill in: "Ask DB".

That reminded us of the famous Bertrand Russel conundrum where both sides of a post card has the same question followed by: "Turn over for the answer".

After some fun we decided to leave it blank. I don't know if both our recos were disqualified and dumped in the Great Basket.


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