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Whenever I talk about punishment postings I can't restrain myself from recounting this amusing anecdote from my days at IIT KGP:
As soon as the then HoD, Prof HNB, took me in as an Associate Lecturer in the Physics Department at the rather tender age of 21 in 1965, he asked me to take B Tech Lectures.
The new B Tech entrants were few then, unlike now. And they thought themselves to be the 'Cream of the Country' as someone coined that fancy phrase.
And they were pining to listen as soon as possible to the lectures in their departmental disciplines like ECE, ME, EE and such, and become certified B Techs trying to change the Engineering Culture of Free India. But they had to wait for all of 2 years during which time they had to listen to what they felt were useless subjects like Physics and Chemistry which they thought they had enough of in their schools and passed with flying colors in their JEE exams.
So they tended to be rather uppish and inattentive and often rowdy in their Physics classes.
That was not so with the dozen or so Physics MSc students...they knew they had to stick around in their science departments for all of 5 years and can't afford to antagonize their teachers from whom they had to wangle grades and recos in due time. So it was a breeze to teach the MSc classes and frighteningly challenging to handle B Tech classes.
And HNB was of the firm opinion that any new teacher he recruited must prove himself worthy of his appointment by blooding him into B Tech lecture classes from Day 1. And watch if he survives the ordeal or fails and is thrown out of the classroom with howls and horse laughs...he had his own spies in each class. And he used to praise successful BTech teachers and revert those not so equipped for it to solemn duties as research helpers...there was this other reason: the prestige of the Physics Department in that tiny campus depended on the feedback of the hundreds of B Tech students gossiping around the campus.
I was lucky that I had boyish looks and the B Tech students of my class were kind to me and in fact helped me understand physics by their shrewd questions. Indeed, they were very forgiving to any teacher who didn't have an attitude problem.
I continued teaching B Techs for all of a decade by when HNB thought it was time for me to take MSc classes in 1975.
And one day he summoned me to his office and asked me to take up the onerous duty of the departmental time table in-charge (TTI), a job that I had no stomach for. And I demurred saying that I was too junior for the job and would be a failure...seniors would take me to task for giving them odd hours like the first and last periods and courses they didn't like. But HNB insisted, and I asked him why he was forcing it on me when several others might like to take it up...there was this prevailing notion that whoever does the TTI job gets a promotion...one of those superstitions since it happened in the last two cases. And HNB smiled and said:
"Many came to me asking for the job but I wanted to give it to one who declines it"
"But I am too junior"
"Don't worry...I shall do the Course Allotment and all you have to do is to make the routine, and send anyone who has issues with it to me...I shall tackle them"
So I got the job and did it reasonably well during my first year of the default 3 year term.
Then a young man, Dr R, joined our department with a Ph D from Canada and post-doc in Japan. Being our age, he became fast friends with me and DB during the summer vacation. And he had a sumptuous CV except that he had no teaching experience.
And time came for me to prepare the Time Table for the next semester. And Dr R came to know that I was the TTI and thought I had the power to assign courses to one and all. And entered my office (which I shared with DB) and said:
"GPS! Listen! I can teach Quantum Field Theory, Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics, and Mathematical Methods of Physics at the Final Year and Pre-Final Year of MSc. So allot me any one of these courses you like"
"Oh, no! I don't allot courses...HNB does it. Please meet him and tell him your choices and then I will make your routine"
And Dr R went away and returned to me within 5 minutes saying:
"I talked to HNB just now and he said he would talk to you when the allotment is done tomorrow"
And he left our room very happy.
The next day I entered HNB's office with what was known as the Lal Khata that had all the info about all the courses that all the teachers took during the past decade. And I opened it asking him to please make the allotment. And he dictated offhand in the order of seniority:
HNB....MSc, Solid State Physics
GBM...MSc, X-Ray Crystallography
SDR...MSc, Modern Magnetism
STA...MSc, Nuclear Physics
....
....
DB...MSc, Particle Physics
GPS...MSc, Electrodynamics
...
...
And at the end I asked HNB what course is to be allotted to the newcomer, Dr R.
And HNB said without looking up:
Dr R...BTech II Year, Chemical Engineering
And I smirked...I couldn't help it.
HNB looked up and smiled a knowing smile that I can't forget even after 4 decades...
...Posted by Ishani
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...To Father it was a punishment posting...a veritable blooding as a new HM...till then he was an Assistant HM. The policy then was to post such aspiring and ambitious teachers to a remote village school and see if they can survive, or would like to revert back to civilization on what was called Reversion...an insult and a black-mark in their career...
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Whenever I talk about punishment postings I can't restrain myself from recounting this amusing anecdote from my days at IIT KGP:
As soon as the then HoD, Prof HNB, took me in as an Associate Lecturer in the Physics Department at the rather tender age of 21 in 1965, he asked me to take B Tech Lectures.
The new B Tech entrants were few then, unlike now. And they thought themselves to be the 'Cream of the Country' as someone coined that fancy phrase.
And they were pining to listen as soon as possible to the lectures in their departmental disciplines like ECE, ME, EE and such, and become certified B Techs trying to change the Engineering Culture of Free India. But they had to wait for all of 2 years during which time they had to listen to what they felt were useless subjects like Physics and Chemistry which they thought they had enough of in their schools and passed with flying colors in their JEE exams.
So they tended to be rather uppish and inattentive and often rowdy in their Physics classes.
That was not so with the dozen or so Physics MSc students...they knew they had to stick around in their science departments for all of 5 years and can't afford to antagonize their teachers from whom they had to wangle grades and recos in due time. So it was a breeze to teach the MSc classes and frighteningly challenging to handle B Tech classes.
And HNB was of the firm opinion that any new teacher he recruited must prove himself worthy of his appointment by blooding him into B Tech lecture classes from Day 1. And watch if he survives the ordeal or fails and is thrown out of the classroom with howls and horse laughs...he had his own spies in each class. And he used to praise successful BTech teachers and revert those not so equipped for it to solemn duties as research helpers...there was this other reason: the prestige of the Physics Department in that tiny campus depended on the feedback of the hundreds of B Tech students gossiping around the campus.
I was lucky that I had boyish looks and the B Tech students of my class were kind to me and in fact helped me understand physics by their shrewd questions. Indeed, they were very forgiving to any teacher who didn't have an attitude problem.
I continued teaching B Techs for all of a decade by when HNB thought it was time for me to take MSc classes in 1975.
And one day he summoned me to his office and asked me to take up the onerous duty of the departmental time table in-charge (TTI), a job that I had no stomach for. And I demurred saying that I was too junior for the job and would be a failure...seniors would take me to task for giving them odd hours like the first and last periods and courses they didn't like. But HNB insisted, and I asked him why he was forcing it on me when several others might like to take it up...there was this prevailing notion that whoever does the TTI job gets a promotion...one of those superstitions since it happened in the last two cases. And HNB smiled and said:
"Many came to me asking for the job but I wanted to give it to one who declines it"
"But I am too junior"
"Don't worry...I shall do the Course Allotment and all you have to do is to make the routine, and send anyone who has issues with it to me...I shall tackle them"
So I got the job and did it reasonably well during my first year of the default 3 year term.
Then a young man, Dr R, joined our department with a Ph D from Canada and post-doc in Japan. Being our age, he became fast friends with me and DB during the summer vacation. And he had a sumptuous CV except that he had no teaching experience.
And time came for me to prepare the Time Table for the next semester. And Dr R came to know that I was the TTI and thought I had the power to assign courses to one and all. And entered my office (which I shared with DB) and said:
"GPS! Listen! I can teach Quantum Field Theory, Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics, and Mathematical Methods of Physics at the Final Year and Pre-Final Year of MSc. So allot me any one of these courses you like"
"Oh, no! I don't allot courses...HNB does it. Please meet him and tell him your choices and then I will make your routine"
And Dr R went away and returned to me within 5 minutes saying:
"I talked to HNB just now and he said he would talk to you when the allotment is done tomorrow"
And he left our room very happy.
The next day I entered HNB's office with what was known as the Lal Khata that had all the info about all the courses that all the teachers took during the past decade. And I opened it asking him to please make the allotment. And he dictated offhand in the order of seniority:
HNB....MSc, Solid State Physics
GBM...MSc, X-Ray Crystallography
SDR...MSc, Modern Magnetism
STA...MSc, Nuclear Physics
....
....
DB...MSc, Particle Physics
GPS...MSc, Electrodynamics
...
...
And at the end I asked HNB what course is to be allotted to the newcomer, Dr R.
And HNB said without looking up:
Dr R...BTech II Year, Chemical Engineering
And I smirked...I couldn't help it.
HNB looked up and smiled a knowing smile that I can't forget even after 4 decades...
...Posted by Ishani
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