Flashback (Part -3)  

Posted by Divya A L in

The saga of wierdos continue and as usual, they rule. Well, unveiling the TIAians finally!!!


I am sure most of you would have learnt math in a classical way of practising problems esp when it came to proofs and other stuff!! However we, the TIAians were highly privileged to have a professor by name RRM whose superior quality of teaching put every other math teacher to shame. His teachings have left us with the rare talent of pin pointing the celestial objects and their positioning in the night sky with such a stunning accuracy you wouldn't believe. Well, it isn't rocket science after all but ya hard in the beginning.

His teachings and preachings and our learnings:
He taught us analytical geometry. The only guy alive on the planet who never used a chalk in his lifetime for teaching MATH!! As soon as he came, he used to lift his left hand high up in the air. (First time i thought he was a drill master and wondered if TIA offered this course free of cost!!) Then he used to keenly look at his finger tips cuddled together(as though imagining Aishwarya Rai dancing on them) and said that was a 3D point in space which he usually named as "P"(P for pretty Preity). Next in action was his right hand pointing to another corner of the room and he named it as "S"(S for super sushmi). Similarly there were many more actresses floating and dancing in air. Though he saw them individually, what he expected out of us is to watch them dance together. After 45 min of lecture, he used to ask us questions as simple as "who is dancing where"!! And if you answer "where" and you feel happy about getting your answer right, then you are mistaken. He promptly used to say - "Haven't your parents given you names just like how i have named these points"! The "who" was very crucial for the answers and if you by chance misplaced the names, then you are as good as dead. His reaction used to be (esp for guys) - "You like to be called a 'girl', don't you???" If all these were his teachings, there's more about his preachings - "It hurts when you -1>forget your dear dancer's names 2> interchanging the names(ego problems you see) and 3> interchanging the gender.(Well, can't say what problem!!) " And our learnings - "Practise watching stars in the sky at night. Know stars, know points; no stars, no points!!(oh ya, you only see point Os) "


There were rumours that he was a lawyer too who defended the case against him (college planned to terminate him since long but in vain) all by himself.

His criteria for allotting marks to students - "Give him your previous semester marks and he has a formula to calculate your current sem score. The formula involved variable components like, the 'day' when you submit your prev sem marks, how many correct guesses of who is where were made, the best dancer etc etc..." He finally managed to lose on the lawyer front and got suspended from the college. His famous catchline - "Can 1 sit over infinity?? (meaning, if 1/infinity is valid)" The first time we heard that dialogue, many people had comprehended it in several different ways. He then answered his own Q - "Noooooottttttttttttttttttttt!!!!". And we were like "why not???" and looked at each other so seriously as if we wanted to say "lets make it happen!!"


This is another guy called SR. He had a very scary appearance and he handled computer organisation. His tantra totem- "Screw someone as soon as you enter the class, send out one or two students which builds a strict environment and begin your lecture that goes off smooth without students troubling you with doubts".

His lecture on the first day - "What is a computer? Computer is a device used for computing is what i am going to be called it as "computer". Who is the father of the computer? Does anybody tell who your father was?? (We wondered why he wanted our father's name) He is none other than whom i am going to be name it as 'Charles Babbage' (Felt as though he was naming him for the first time with so much ease as one would name a cabbage!!!)"

Gradually people stopped listening and i too turned into an occassional listener. On one such "occassion" he was explaining data repository. Everyone were busy preparing for CAT, GATE etc and i was the lone listener. What he said was breathtaking - "What is Data repository? It is simple. It is a place for storing data. " I understood. He found my neighbour couldn't get what was being told and rephrased the sentence like this - "Data repository is a place for data where i am going to be stored!!!!" I was the only receptor of that and couldn't control my laughter. Had to give excuse of a puking sensation and had walked out of the class for ROTFLing.


More to come....

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29, 2009 at Friday, May 29, 2009 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

6 comments

My God.. what an awesome post Divya.. u've made it as riotous as sitting through the classes!! Celestial geometry was frustrating in the beginning, then learnt to laugh at the "astronomer"..

I haven't stopped laughing yet.. what a superb post!! waiting for the next installment eagerly.. :D

May 30, 2009 at 1:19 AM

@Sreejith: Arre yaaarrr... Hum hi tho hein woh astronomers(down the line) !! So laughing at ourselves huh???

I have just started laughing the 2nd installment after seeing your comment. Will tel you once i stop :P :D ;)

May 30, 2009 at 1:23 AM

You had wonderful professors or rather I must say the scary types. I used to run at the sight of such professors. In college we had a professor who used to throw us out if we didn't answer her questions. I was so scared of her that I used to try to bunk as many lectures of her.
But I must say making actress's dance on his fingers was hilarious :D. I kept laughing throughout :D

June 3, 2009 at 7:40 PM

@Sleeping Devil: Yesss... In fact its coz of them, that brings back a smile on face everytime i remember them!! I don't mean to hurt anybody's sentiments here but ya, at the same time, they are facts that can't be overseen :) :)

June 3, 2009 at 10:55 PM

I remember Mr. SR very well. :) I will try and write a post sometime myself. But for now I can recall a couple of things. Him drawing an elephant comprised of 5 ovals. I also remember putting tally marks on my notebook, counting the number of times he said "Isn't it" in the 1 hour class. He had reached a maximum of 83 in one hour. Amazing achievement given that there are only 60 minutes to the hour. I'm sure I don't use so many "Isn't it"s in an entire week.

December 8, 2009 at 9:17 AM

@Juni: EEEEAAGEERRRLLYYYY awaiting to read your version ;) "Isn't it" "isn't it not" "wht i'm going to be called it as" are his signature phrases!! And 83 is indeed an achievement! No wonder he got promoted ;) Had you stayed for his lectures another 2-3 years, I'm sure your count would improve n may even beat his' ;)

December 11, 2009 at 8:18 AM

Post a Comment