Remember the Teacher

I was reading my feeds when I came across –

A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash and Now THERE’s a Teacher

Takes you back to movies like To Sir, with Love, doesn’t it? Just that the students are not half that bad. What often moves or works against the teacher are the preconceived notions of the students. In our lifetimes as students hell bent to finish the term as soon as possible, we sometimes forget the main task at hand – knowledge and learning.

I remember one of my Services Marketing professors in this regard, Prof. Ram Kumar, who was the faculty at IIM-A. In the second lecture, he gave us senior students as quiz, one simple question – “What is services marketing?”

Having finished our preliminary year with a lot of poppycock, we had learned the management mantra and more than eager to try it out. At the end of the quiz, Ram Kumar made us write a textbook definition of the same, 20 times on the back side of the question paper. Honestly, I felt like a school kid. The only thought that was going through all our collective minds was – “This is what they do at IIM-A, huh?” or “All this effort for doing this?”. The rest of the course was awesome, with presentations and assignments which made us think … no, really think. Come out with ideas, collaborate, discuss the merits and demerits of different services, and most importantly, learn to ask the question Why?

At the end of the course, the last session had us sitting in the class, with one minor change. The class’ mike was attached to a mini stereo system. Our disastrous quiz papers were distributed amongst the class … I was staring at my bad handwriting and wondering, what am I to do with this paper? Ram Kumar, then hit the stereo’s play button … and asked us to tear up the quiz sheet where we had expressed our rote learning and throw them in the air. The background music was – Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.

Tearing up a piece of paper never felt that good.

You are what you listen

Do you identify with your genre of music?

What I mean to say is that when you are listening to a particular genre or an artiste, then do you feel the emotion of that song within you? Sometimes I think that most of the bands which have shot to fame are not simply because they write good melodies or great lyrics … its because their target group can identify with the emotion underneath the song.

Do you not want to listen to a specific genre depending on your emotion?

Think about it in this way … a fan of Marilyn Manson, would most likely be wearing gothic makeup, would have had a troubled teenage life, feels unduly wronged … a fan of DJ Tiesto or Paul Oakenfield would love to dance to a good tune and definitely loves a smooth life … Linkin Park listeners would have a pent up frustration within themselves, occassionally wanting to shout out against the system.

So whats your groove?

Inertia

What do you do when you seem to be cruising on a wide highway … and suddenly out of no-where a sharp corner comes into view? Well, you hit the brakes, slow down and turn with the curve.

Fair enough, you can drive. What would you do when the same analogy applies to your life?

Let me explain, what is a person supposed to do when he realizes that the nice and easy life is going to change (I never said end) … mostly for the better. But the lazy person that he is, is opposing the entire change, just because of its inherent nature … change. The person just like the car, lurches forward out of his rut and into the new direction given to his course. Heading for the unknown.

Faith

lights

Me and Amit have been having this debate since the past 2 and a half years now. It’s on the existence of god … I take the side of the theists and Sharma takes the side of the atheists. In fact he has gotten so good at that that by now he is a moderator in one of such inane communities. I just believe in god. I cant prove god’s existence, its a premise for me. And its blind acceptance to that fact.

This weekend, I had been to my family’s guru’s ashram. I was going there after an absence of 12 years (not that I missed not going there). Whilst on the way, I was questioning the many practices followed there … no leather items, lower castes may not enter certain areas, lower castes have to wait for the brahmins to finish their meals, et al. My mother seemed to take this to heart, the next day when we were having a discussion with the high priest over there, she asked him this question about why no leather … and the explanation he gave … or rather the answer he gave set me thinking.

The disciple does not have to look at question or logic for answers, he needs to look at his faith for those answers. The moment we start looking at other sources than our own faith, we have lost our faith in that particular thing. Be it god, be it science, be it the paranormal. Mulder had faith in aliens, Scully had faith in science, I have faith in god … what do you have faith in?

Nostalgia

It has been 2 years (and 2 days) since I have left the campus on the molehill. All the spirals are lying safely packed in my room, the strategies and ideas have given way to the practicalities of real life. Nonetheless, when I was reading Sumedh’s post on CounterStrike … a stream of memories rushed forth. Those hours of insane midnight gaming, those supercharged competitive section matches, those mid-game strategy sessions and counter-attack theories.

Sat today and played CS with a friend and some bots. It was not that great, but the nostalgic feeling is being rekindled with a fuzzy warm feeling about how we used to play CS in 2004-2006.

Sigh! Heres to days gone by.

Interviews

Have you ever been in an interview thinking “What am I doing here?” … its probably a good thing if you have not been in such a scenario. I have been unfortunate enough to be in such a situation while being on both sides of the table viz., interviewee and interviewer. Being the interviewer is much more fun and a lot more relaxing.

Some of the things to watch out for if you ever are stuck in such a situation –

  • Ask yourself this – Are you that desperate that you want to be in such a situation to filter out those maybes from the definitely nots? If yes, then please fire away
  • Look at the time, it is a precious commodity. If the person you are interviewing is tryign to mislead the interview, remember you decide when the interview stops, do not feel afraid of being too rude
  • Some candidates can really be upto-no-good, drop them at the first sight. Do not entertain such people further … its an injustice to them if they think that they are worthy of showing interest. I once ended up wasting a good hour trying to find out why did the candidate apply for what he did … answer was simple … employment
  • Have your HR/Recruitment guys screen them at the start itself, this eliminates all the definitely nots from the list
  • If that person has applied for a role in your department, ask a simple question to yourself … would you want to see this face daily? There is a lot more to face value than just the face

Will post more my experiences as soon as I manage to reconcile those resumes.

Juno


Have any of you watched the movie Kya Kehna – its the one in which Preity Zinta gets pregnant while still being an undergraduate. The entire movie is one sob story followed by next, how the society shuns her, how her college shuns her, how Preity’s character simply buckles under all the pressure … well, I have to confess that I could not stand to watch the entire movie. I had to switch the channel, I do not like to watch people roll about in their self-pity.

That is precisely the reason why I loved Juno. The outline of the plot is the same … Juno, the main character of the movie, finds out that she is pregnant. The first 30 minutes go about in how the news has impacted her and all her friends … her parents, and their reaction about the news. The fresh perspective comes now … her parents accept it naturally and extend her the much needed support. Her friend also helps her out in her own inane way … by finding out a surrogate family to whom Juno can donate the child to. Juno meets the loving family, and decides that her baby would be safe with this family. The baby’s father is Juno’s good friend Bleeker (played by Michael Cera from Superbad) who is completely unaware and not there during the entire pregnancy. The movie has its fair share of twists and turns … where we are forced to think about relationships as the plot unfolds.

Juno is shown as the unpredictable, cool chick who is simply not ready for this, and yet she takes this on and goes through it … without victimizing herself. Without feeling sorry for herself at any moment. And thats why I loved it so much. Definitely a 8.2