are useless man! You cannot do anything
useful man!” I found that the moment I
become harsh, the entire class goes into a
subdued mode, and even an interested student does not react. So if a teacher is strict
in class, then it becomes counter-productive. So from next class onwards I started
using a pleasant tone. Even if I had to
shout, I shouted pleasantly [laughs]. With
regard to attendance, again I noticed that it
did not really make much of a difference.
I saw that students were still coming to my
class even if I did not take attendance. I
collect feedback from my class very regularly, and analyze it. In the beginning we
have an “Expectation Questionnaire” and
after mid-sem we take feedback regarding
the exam. I discuss with my class about my
understanding of the feedback. When I
take 6th semester, the same students who
gave feedback in 3rd semester will be there,
no? In the first class I will bring up the
feedback they gave me and tell them few
things that I will try to change, see even
I am a human being, I cannot change 180
degrees, no?
You are also well known for your
active support of extra-curricular
student activities. How did the first
BAJA team form, and what was
your involvement in it?
BAJA started out of the need to do some
hands-on work. One of the difficulties we
became aware of was that we were not
able to challenge the young crowd here. If
I only take textbook classes and give you
textbook problems, I cannot challenge
you. Fortunately, a set of students came up
and asked if they could try to create a vehicle. I talked to some other faculty members
and said I wanted to put together a team
that would build a car. Everybody laughed.
“NITK students building a car? Running
it?”. If your idea is laughable to someone
– that means the idea is something to work
on. We derived a lot of energy from their
laughter. We proved them wrong. I insisted
that we take two students from each year –
from first year to final year. And the team
had to be pan-India – not just Jayanagar
3rd block [laughs] – there had to be no
nepotism: no getting in neighbours, or
cousins. That was how BAJA was formed.
We wanted the activities to be out of classroom, with no credits awarded and no
compulsion of faring well in exams. Just
work, demonstrate, and learn.
Engineer was formally created in
2003. How did that happen?
2003 was the beginning of large amount of
student activity. Engineer began as Tech-
Splash. At that time we had IE conducting
TechKREC; IE was an active group. IEEE
was conducting som RV