A small tribute to Prof. V.M. Gadre
Prof. V. M. Gadre
Though no amount of space will be enough for me to write about the person I am writing, but also, no language has words to express my gratitude for him (some apart from English, Hindi, Haryanvi, Sanskrit may have, I don't know others [:P]). From the very childhood of mine, I was imbibed with a teaching that teachers are a bit more than Gods, and I truly believed in it. I always experienced it, I didn't believe it simply because someone said so. I feel privileged to have been taught by some of the best teachers on this planet, and I attribute almost whole of my success to them (a part left for blessings of my parents, friends and other close ones [:)].) I never feel far from my teachers, and I always felt honored to be very close to everyone of my teachers. I left Halwasiya Vidya Vihar, Bhiwani after studying there for 11 long years. It was another family of mine. Similarly, 2 years at The Air Force School, New Delhi reserved a special place for it in me. After coming to IIT Bombay back in 2002, I felt that the above saying was true only for the case of teachers, not professors. The feeling was diminishing in magnitude and somewhere, I felt sad, but couldn't help it. And then, God realized that the importance of this saying is degrading, and so, I was made to meet Prof. V.M. Gadre, as a messenger of his. (He/she is somewhere, I am damn sure.)
He gave a course "Signals and Systems" in our second year, and one of the best ones I had in my whole curriculum. No doubt, he got "Teaching in Excellence" award many a times. This award is given to a faculty member teaching a course, and the importance attached to it increases manifold as it is decided by the students. Also, a person winning this award once is not eligible for the next year, and I understood the reason behind this after having taught by him.
The biggest incident occurred like this. After mid-semester examination of the course, when he distributed marks, he announced in the class, "You can come to me if you have any sort of problems, not necessarily in the course." Though I never went to any professor for discussing anything outside the scope of academics, this time was the first one. The course was over, and I did well there, with a special award for doing challenging problems. But, the bonding with him grew.
He was the Coordinator, NSS, IIT Bombay. And I was involved in GRA (Group of Rural Activities) at that time. And someone proposed an idea of combining various such activities under one umbrella. The organization was named Unnati, and I was appointed one of the 10 Teaching Associates. I worked with him in organization of 'Navchetna Shivirs', initally for mess workers of different hostels, then for students as well. These were, 5 day, one hour daily, shivirs for teaching basic Pranayama techniques. That also was a pleasant experience. The best decision by me at IIT, now I am sure I can say this, was when I chose him to guide me for my DDP (Dual Degre Project). I talked to him about this at the start of third year, around a year in advance as compared to other students. I got a nice internship also, courtesy Prof. Gadre.
The best part of my DDP (and for every student with him) is, he'll get work done from you and you won't know it [:)]. Yeah!! believe me, it's true. I can informally say that I didn't do anything in my project and if you believe me, I can change my statement and show you enough results to justify my grades. But the whole credit goes to this person. How many times I have met him just to say, "Sir! I didn't do anything." And I always wondered how can a person (specially guide!) always encouraged even in that situation. I have seen people with various problems (academic/non-academic) taking help from him. And even if you make him angry once (though you have to work really hard for this), he doesn't let that anger come in between your future interactions. He always start afresh, I simply was amazed by this quality. Almost all of us have a lot of prejudices and keep consistently making them. I have learnt many a things from him. Some gross things are: time management (you won't believe that he has a diary with all the appointments, lying always in his pocket), power of language and words, politeness and many more subtle things. Though I admit, I only have seen them and appreciated, but I wasn't able to incorporate many of them in me.
I'll be leaving this place in a few days and don't know when will I be back here, and seeing past memories, I am feeling very sad. I guess this is the first time, I am feeling so in my life. I hadn't this feeling to such an extent even when I left my home in 2002 for coming here. It must be quite similar to the one just before death, if there is any at that moment [:)]. I know that the time is very powerful and makes us adapt to all the situations, but i am sure, time, this time, has a difficult challenge ahead [:)].
A bit about myself and friends know better: I am a very critical person, and doesn't appreciate something very easily. And in the wake of this, the above said words gain more importance. I'll put a limit to my words now for the sake of readers.. There is a saying, "Iski jitni taarif karo, utni hi kam hai". I am sure that was made for people like him. My sincere warm regards for my true Guru, Prof. V.M. Gadre.
He gave a course "Signals and Systems" in our second year, and one of the best ones I had in my whole curriculum. No doubt, he got "Teaching in Excellence" award many a times. This award is given to a faculty member teaching a course, and the importance attached to it increases manifold as it is decided by the students. Also, a person winning this award once is not eligible for the next year, and I understood the reason behind this after having taught by him.
The biggest incident occurred like this. After mid-semester examination of the course, when he distributed marks, he announced in the class, "You can come to me if you have any sort of problems, not necessarily in the course." Though I never went to any professor for discussing anything outside the scope of academics, this time was the first one. The course was over, and I did well there, with a special award for doing challenging problems. But, the bonding with him grew.
He was the Coordinator, NSS, IIT Bombay. And I was involved in GRA (Group of Rural Activities) at that time. And someone proposed an idea of combining various such activities under one umbrella. The organization was named Unnati, and I was appointed one of the 10 Teaching Associates. I worked with him in organization of 'Navchetna Shivirs', initally for mess workers of different hostels, then for students as well. These were, 5 day, one hour daily, shivirs for teaching basic Pranayama techniques. That also was a pleasant experience. The best decision by me at IIT, now I am sure I can say this, was when I chose him to guide me for my DDP (Dual Degre Project). I talked to him about this at the start of third year, around a year in advance as compared to other students. I got a nice internship also, courtesy Prof. Gadre.
The best part of my DDP (and for every student with him) is, he'll get work done from you and you won't know it [:)]. Yeah!! believe me, it's true. I can informally say that I didn't do anything in my project and if you believe me, I can change my statement and show you enough results to justify my grades. But the whole credit goes to this person. How many times I have met him just to say, "Sir! I didn't do anything." And I always wondered how can a person (specially guide!) always encouraged even in that situation. I have seen people with various problems (academic/non-academic) taking help from him. And even if you make him angry once (though you have to work really hard for this), he doesn't let that anger come in between your future interactions. He always start afresh, I simply was amazed by this quality. Almost all of us have a lot of prejudices and keep consistently making them. I have learnt many a things from him. Some gross things are: time management (you won't believe that he has a diary with all the appointments, lying always in his pocket), power of language and words, politeness and many more subtle things. Though I admit, I only have seen them and appreciated, but I wasn't able to incorporate many of them in me.
I'll be leaving this place in a few days and don't know when will I be back here, and seeing past memories, I am feeling very sad. I guess this is the first time, I am feeling so in my life. I hadn't this feeling to such an extent even when I left my home in 2002 for coming here. It must be quite similar to the one just before death, if there is any at that moment [:)]. I know that the time is very powerful and makes us adapt to all the situations, but i am sure, time, this time, has a difficult challenge ahead [:)].
A bit about myself and friends know better: I am a very critical person, and doesn't appreciate something very easily. And in the wake of this, the above said words gain more importance. I'll put a limit to my words now for the sake of readers.. There is a saying, "Iski jitni taarif karo, utni hi kam hai". I am sure that was made for people like him. My sincere warm regards for my true Guru, Prof. V.M. Gadre.
posted by Udham Singh at
2:55 AM
2 Comments:
Nice writing. I have heard of Prof Gadre and have even met him once. Great teachers are role models.
R.Padmanabhan
he is teaching me signals and systems these days....Awesome
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home