Acharya Devo Bhava!

Honesty is an important word. Be honest to God and be honest to yourself.

I have always been a good student. Regular and obedient. I am the kind of student who thinks Acharya Devo Bhava (A teacher is equivalent to God). But of late i dont feel the same.
This is because the lecturers are no more honest to their profession. They just see it as an extension of college life.

Usually colleges employ students who are just out of college. The students themselves would not have understood the subject and they are made to teach them. Such lecturers end up being trapped in a profession they hardly like and dont even care about. When students ask them doubts they feel insulted and try to take revenge on them or start buttering the students so that they wont ask any more doubts(sic!). The teaching profession has become a joke due to these kind of lecturers.

Then in my second semester I went for CAD tuition. Shankar Sir taught us CAD. He was such a committed and student friendly lecturer. He would take continuous classes. He called the 9 to 12 pm batch the devils batch! :) He would not mind repeating a solution or concept any number of times. He was very patient. I remember calling him at 6:00 in the morning, on the day of my CAD exam, and he answers my call and clears my doubt just like in class without a hint of irritation in his voice. No wonder he got so many awards. What a brilliant lecturer he was!

Next, I have to talk about Manjunath Aradhya Sir. I have attended his classes for quite a few subjects like Data Structures, Electronic Circuits, OOPS, Microprocessors and now Java. But the man just amazes me with his understanding of each subject. Honestly he doesnt teach according to our syllabus and his classes may not help us for our internals or exams. But he sets a firm foundation and prepares us for our career ahead.

I have seen many lecturers who just mug up lines from the text book and blurt it in front of us. But Aradhya sir teaches us the concepts. Every line he says has to be clear and rational.
For eg, many lecturers just tell us Java doesnt support pointers. But Aradhya Sir explains that pointers are supported in Java but they cannot be explicitly created by programmers because they might use those pointers to access private data thus hampering data security. I know it may not be clear from my words but Sir can convince anyone!

Every class i attend makes me think he is so knowledgeable. He knows so much. He could have easily joined an MNC and made lots of money. Instead he chose to impart his knowledge to thousands of students who can share it with so many others. His honesty and dedication to his profession increases the respect in me for him.

I have heard many mechanical engineering students saying Shankar Sir is nothing less than God for them. The computer science and information science students echo the same for Aradhya Sir. They have communities dedicated for them on orkut! I ll always remember them for being the two lecturers who rekindled the lost respect for lecturers in me.