Hardly a summer ago, in 2010, i was toiling, to get the best out of my graduate project work. Working in India's premier Metallurgy Lab was not easy by any standard. The quality had to be befitting it fame, and thanks to my Thesis Guide - Dr. NS, a PhD from IISc and gem of a kind of a person, we were the best in our Defence and Viva Voce.
Last December, one fine morning i got a surprise call from my Prof at the College. He wanted me to accommodate a few students at my R&D Facility for their B.Tech project work. Though determined to help, i did not know how.
Back then i was not sure, how to go about, and who would guide them and facilitate. As things went by, and mails exchanged, approvals for them to work in the factory premises was obtained, on one condition, i was to take care of them completely, and not to bother any of the already busy managers and engineers ( as if i were free) . All formalities done, it all upon me now, to assign them work, getting the activities done, help them write their reports, correct them and facilitate the certification.
I talked to my manager and decided to assign them three projects, one each, in line with the R&D corporate requirements. All of them of high importance to the company, and a high quality work was obviously expected ( from me , not them mind you.)
Three boys had come on the said day. I was wondering how destiny had put me in the shoes of their "Guide" for their B.Tech project. i decided to stay upright and never be their College senior, but strictly their thesis guide and company employee.
Once, we were having lunch, Hyderabadi Biryani, Chole and Bature at Kamath Restaurent in Nampally, and during the conversation, I mentioned to my friend, that i wished to join the academia after my career in the industry, and it was my sincere desire to share my vast experience and knowledge treasure that i was so beautifully blessed by my Professors and Preceptors. He exclaimed " You and Teaching?" . I said Yes, to which he replied, it requires a lot of patience, believe me.
Here I was to live it all. The coming days were a literal test to the varying degrees of patience and being kind to the young fellas. It was a challenging task, making them come in shoes, as a company policy. Arriving late was another issue. I had to answer the security incharge and the HR manager, for their late arrival, what ever the reason, I was responsible, as they were my college students ( !!?? ) . It was OK on their part, they were just doing their project and were not employees, yet discipline doesn't discriminate. It took two weeks time, and a few shopfloor entrance prohibition slips to set them right.
The real challenge for me was to digest the fact they learnt very little in the four year course. It was terribly irritating to receive wrong answers from "to be Metallurgists". Well, they are almost professionals, they are just awaiting the final sem exams and beyond which they will be into the job market, and were so poorly educated. Utterly wrong answers to simple practical aspects pissed me off, enraged , filled me with disgust. Some how, EVERY TIME i managed not to vent my true feelings and hurt them.
Getting them do their Literature survey was a 'next to impossible' task. It was only when i understood that they were the ones from the less fortunate batch of ignored intelligent students, the approach changed. I understood that they were here not to deliver for their projects but to 'bridge the gap'.
In the morning they had to work for their experimental and invariably we would have technical discussions. I would teach them the concepts to advanced metallurgy ( bulk metallic glasses, artificial neural networks, blast furnace calculations, steel making intricacies, banding and segregation in steel teeming and effects of rolling on final products, thermomechanical working and a list of other topics) starting from the atomic structure and crystal bonding, often with mundane and day-to-day examples like bread and butter, cycle balls, and razor blades and rasna ice cream.
We touched upon each and every subject that was a part of their curriculum. At the end of every session I would ask them to summarize the things that they learnt, which they did, reflecting their technical elevation.
These were undoubtedly the precious moments that were gifted to me, revisiting text books, ASM handbooks and like. Teaching indeed gave me deeper and better understanding of the already well versed concepts.
Weeks passed by and so their projects progressed (??) . Never had they in their career so far written anything on their own. This was particularly trying because i was loaded with my tight schedules, and I had to motivate them to write what ever they could.
Real test of patience was during this time. They would simply not write a page, because they believed they could not. Particularly one fellow, despite clear instructions, would invariably mess up the entire thing. He would get so confused that he would answer three different values, for the same question, three different times, during the same discussion. Phewww... i would fume with anger - how can you forget the results of your own hand performed experiment???, YET NOT YELL UPON HIM. I would Lovingly ask him to be more careful in future, as could be a problem in long run.
All this demanded a lot of quality time, with mind open to think peacefull, parallely analyse results and properly frame technical english.
Well, it was the brilliance of my teachers that was manifesting in all these activities of composing their thesis and getting the experimental results and analysing them. Metallurgy is not as simple as it appears. It is actually simpler than that. Proper approach is all that is required.
Fortunately enough, one great thing that happened was, we rarely had to repeat any experiment, for doubt of the accuracy of results. My concept of the experiment clicked almost every time and they had to be just documented and interpreted properly. It was that simple for them.
Towards the completion of the thesis, four months after they started their works, today they are well off technically, able to write and structure their reports and best of all, I just talked to their Head of the Department, who happily said that he was very pleased with work and the work should get published. I was also (unofficially) told they would get very good marks.
Looking back, these students who were not the best of the lot, who couldnt make it to the Top Labs and companies. These were intelligent boys with potential, but were not properly groomed through their entire graduation. For that matter, every individual has that potential, it is the efficiency of the teacher to tap it properly. It was my fortune, do it in few months, what so many of their teachers could not do over years
I take pride in stating this.
