viva la kgpia! - 2

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For me, my first Grand Viva as a Teacher was a heart-wrenching disaster:

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For the first three years at IIT (1965 - 68) I was given only First Year (B Tech & B Sc Hons) Classes to teach. In my fourth year I was asked to teach the 3rd Year B Sc (Hons) Class, mostly on the insistence of Seema Bose, HNB's daughter, who was previously in my First Year Class (God Bless Hers!).

That was an Outgoing Year, as some students like Dharam Vir and Subba Rao used to leave for other IITs, mostly Kanpur for their M Sc; and a few to Special B Tech (Post- B Sc- 3 Year) at KGP itself like Prof B of IEM who I talked about a couple of days ago.

There was no Semester System then and Courses used to run the whole Year, with a Half-Yearly Exam in December (80 marks) and Annual Exam in April (120 marks). Both the Exams used to have Grand Viva for 3rd Years.

I was asked to teach EM- 3, after EM- 1 in the First Year that I had taught earlier from Halliday & Resnick. I asked HNB what I should teach and he said with a smile: "Whatever you think is best for the Outgoing Students; and then give me the syllabus" (what a lovely privilege!).

In my li'l wisdom, that the students who left for Special B Tech appreciate...even now, I decided to teach AC Circuit Analysis and Electronics till the Half-Yearlies. For the next half of the year I taught EM Fields starting from Electrostatics till Maxwell Equations and the Field of a Uniformly Moving Charge in Vacuum, leaving the last 10 Lecture Hours shared among the 20 students where they could pick up any topic of their choice from Sommerfeld's Electrodynamics or Feynman Vol 2 (many of them did a better job than me). EM- 4 came in their 4th Year (I taught this till I retired almost).

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At the end of the Half-Yearlies I was asked to participate in the Grand Viva as one of the Teachers of the Class. I didn't know the System then.

As I entered C-229 I found a fat squat fair gray-eminence in the middle of the first row of chairs, accompanied by another Senior Professor, neither of whom taught this Batch any Course. I gathered that the fat chap was the Chairman of the Viva Board. The other six or so Class Teachers occupied the next row and I sat near the Exit in the last row, dying to participate wholeheartedly and get a feedback from a Class that remembers me to this day as one of them (I was young and leaner than the others):

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030322/windows/main3.htm

As the first student walked in, the fat chap in the front row opened a khata he brought and started bombarding questions that were jotted down in it (perhaps over 30 odd years). The questions were very cute and thought-provoking and I liked his compilation.

But he forgot that the time available for the Grand Viva was Finite; and had to be stopped by the Rest of the Teachers who also wanted to ask their quota of questions.

When at last I got my chance to ask a question, I picked up Hartley Oscillator and asked the Student to draw its Circuit Diagram and explain its Positive Feedback Element with phase inversions.

Half-way as the Student got going, the fat Chairman chap in the front row objected vehemently saying aloud:

"This is not Physics!"

Everyone turned back and looked at me as I was fuming with anger and embarrassment.

But I was the juniormost and youngest and it was my First Grand Viva and I was speechless and felt intimidated and fell silent and the student was asked to leave by the Chairman.

I quietly walked out and didn't return.

For the Annual Outgoing Grand Viva (120 marks), HNB himself was the Chairman by default and he made me feel much more at ease.

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Two years later when HNB ordered me to join a Famous Theoretician called SDM for my Ph D, I walked into his Office and found to my chagrin that this was the same fat guy who threw me and my Elecroincs questions out.

That Hair-Raising Encounter in SDM's Office can be found in:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2009/10/sdm-qualifiers.html

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There is a hilarious sequel to this too:
"SDM & Electronics"
which I will post tomorrow as:
viva la kgpia! - 3

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