Based on the three ‘small’ incidents of my professional life which touched me personally. I do not want to hurt anyone’ sentiment so I changed the name of the characters by name of some of my friends, whom you may also know. Many things in these are imaginary and should be taken just as fictional stories.
Scene 1:
Gunjit was working with me for a long time, since his third
year of graduation. His extra ordinary talent of analyzing the problems and
solutions and programming flatten me up and many of his batch mates. He not only gave solutions to the problems I
gave to him, but also suggests the possible future directions and solution for
that. Long hours of discussions and interactions narrowed down the border
between a teacher and a student. As a teacher, I was happy that Gunjit never
asked for any un-due favor from me. Things were going right, until the campus
season started (early 7th semester). The rat races for getting
bigger packages were on and so the tensions were at the peak. One fine evening,
Gunjit called me.
Gunjit (G): Hello sir, I got a job in Google.
Me : Congrats!! Dekho bekaar ka tension le rahe the …. Sab
aacha ho gaya na!!
G: thanks sir… par
mein zyada khus nahin hun…woh yashpal ka job nahin lag pa raha hain…
Me: kaun Yashpal???????? Aacha wo .. roll no 420… tum kyon tension le rahe
ho…kahin ho hi jayega..
G: sir wo mera dost
hain aur mein chahata hun k aa usska recommendation IBM k liye kare. (I had some strong connections at IBM and
Gunjit knew that)
Me: mujhe nahin lagta yashpal itna talented hain k mein
usska recommendation dun, aur fir yeh mera personal relation hain ..jise
tumhare saath involve mat karo.
G. : aap mujhe ‘USE’
karte hain aur meine ek baat kahi woh aap nahin maan sakte hain.
Me: Ok I will try..
Call ended and so the relations. While giving the problems etc, I thought
Gunjit was really interested in all this, the real of you comes out in pressure
and that day I seen the other side of Gunjit which thought that I had ‘USED”
him. So I lied to him that my recommendation at IBM didn’t worked, but the
distrust already played its game. I am
too in some grey shade and some people cannot accept that. Gunjit never trusted
me anymore and left me in the mid of the session for ‘coolest’ teacher of the
department and done no work though out the session.
During projects and problem solving there may be some hidden
self-motivation remains there, but the student benefit remains always at the
priority. Mixing up the different issues causes relationships to break up. This
is one such example.
#the best part at of the scene 1#. I took the comprehensive viva
of yashpal and it seemed that he never anything about all this. After giving
an excellent viva, he was one of the few students you invited me for his place
of work. After few years, I gave a strong recommendation for his MS as well as for his IIM Bangalore.
Scene 2:
Time 8-8.30 PM, call from an unknown number
“Hello Sir, mein Abhay bol raha hun, hope u remember me “
“ohh yes, do remember u, how can I forget the student who
worked with me…..how r you?”
“Sir, I need a favour….” (These phone calls usually for
recommendations etc, and I thought no exception)
“Yes… tell me”
“Sir, Right now I am in Hyd, and my grandfather is serious
and admitted to a hospital in Banaras. For him, blood is required, and my
father and relatives cannot arrange the blood. Can you help me out?? Please….”
That time I was suffering from some disease and so, can’t
donate blood.
“hummm……… ok I will try, give an hour or so , let see what
can be done…… “
Then it was time to test the power of social media. I tweet
about the situation and appealed my people to help me and Abhay. 45 mins passed and no response came. Usually,
when u post a joke or any other stuff, comments-likes or discussions happen
within no time. No expectations should be there as it is virtual world, irony is
that it is made of up of real people.
All hope came down; there came a new tweet of hope from a student.
I’m ready for blood donation, pl give the details @ number
I called.
“Hello, …. Thanks for ur response, but I didn’t recognize u”
“Sir I am Ayush, 3rd yr, ….”
“Okk… thanks once again….. I will give number of Abhay and
he will contact u and give u the details”
Meanwhile, another response came with positive answer.
After 2 hrs. or so, abhay called me to say thanks. Next day, once again Abhay confirmed that his
grandfather received the blood and his condition is stable now. I personally thanked Ayush and his friend for
this great help. The negative thoughts
had to stop, there are some people in the real world, who exist in the virtual
world too, are driving this world. The shade of grey is not so dark, that I can
call that black.
What I gained? I earned a bit respect/love of atleast 2 people
who can give their blood on a single tweet. I gained the confidence of ‘hardly
remembered’ alumni, who believed that if he asks me something I will not deny
that. I still cherish these two shades
of grey which gives me life.
Scene 3:
Ayush (from scene 2) was working with me, I was maintaining a little bit distance, after scene 1.
Now I had been a teacher all the time. Ayush was another fantastic
student I had in my family. He worked very sincerely and with dedication. In other
words, all good things of Gunjit without any hidden conditions or expectations.
He completed his work setting a new standard in the course. All new ideas coming from him were believed by
me blindly. And I expect all my students to have that outlook and vision and
ideas.
After passing out, one fine morning, I got an email which
ended all good things about Ayush. All good things mean here professional
things. The email stated about how Ayush copied another’s idea as a way to his success. That was real heart breaking news for me. I
never had a doubt about his caliber and then the question there was why he
couldn’t trust his own capability? Still I have trust onto him but only personally.
Why? He said afterwards all these things
were unknown to him and it was intentional. I believe him. Afterwards, with help from one
of my friends from electronics engg and by the grace of my best guide, “Sankat-Mochan”,
I came out of this. But still this scene is an nightmare for me. After all
these years, I still feel there is a (communication) gap between students and
the teachers which may be the reason for this situation.
The world is not made of black, white and grey. The others colors are there which gives me and many others to survive. One such color that I liked very much is when the student from 2004 pass out (my first batch), 'Yatri', took off his cap as a mark of respect in front of his teacher. I still remember him as a friend of everyone, even to girl students, whom used to give him ride on their bicycles. When almost all in batch is against the faculty (faculties) of department, this 'Branch changer' along with the another "Branch Changer" came to me and asked "Sir, kal aap farewell party mein kyon nahin aaye... we were waiting for you". This scene was in front of VT and still cherish that words, Just to mention, that was the last 'official' farewell party of the department where students and faculty were involved. This guy with "no words" not only invited me for just a weekend at 1600kms away from Varanasi, but also given me 'royal' treatment. That warmth of heart of this guy given me new energy and shown me new color and shade.
