The “Mar Saala” experience…..yet again

Time   : 0915 hrs,

Date    : 08th January 2011

Venue : LC 1

And he enters, our beloved Professor. Before any of us could even react “Good to see you b*****ds again”. Though crude, but overflowing with affection, those words established the connection once again. First class after a month and a half and knowing that this experience would not last longer that an week or two, we all try to sink into the topic rather than dozing off or yawning away.

Is it something special that such Professors teach that they leave a mark on the mind of their students? The theory would have been the very same if some other person would have come to “act” as a professor. Is it the pedagogy or the voice quality? I feel it is the approach which matters and make them sweethearts.

The approach, many would wonder what the heck is different, is “Customer is the CEO and Customer pays our salary”. Customer focus makes them so special. In an institute the students are the customers and hence CEO as well. Customers are happy when the services, education in this case, are imparted to them in the best possible way that adds value to their personal self.

It is not always when you see students from diverse streams, smokers or non-smokers, flock around a simple man smoking his cigarette of the break to listen to “gyan” instead of pappu-shappus. I had a similar experience when I was at school. Our mathematics teacher Mr.S.K.Mondal used to teach the same topics as the others but something was different in him than others. And this difference made all the difference for all of us. Most of us still remember the Pythagoras Theorem, Trigonometry and the likes till date. No or little need was required to go back home and practice.

Today teaching remains just a profession, not a passion. The customer focus is gone and CEOs are getting much lesser ROIs as it used to in early days. Those days are long gone when students were known by names of their teachers and the days have arrived when you find most students are proclaimed to be self-made.

This is a tribute to the teachers who left a mark on our minds and more to say on our lives. These are the employees who are not Slaves.