After facing the ravages of the Department of Agricultural and Food engineering for over 3 and a half years, of being threatened by professors, being de-registered and re-registered, of reporting to the HoD with a seemingly sorry face, of watching batchmates being flunked to maintain the pulse of the faculty's ego, I did the brave thing. I took both my courses outside the department (I still have to face the Grand viva and the Project eval). Both these courses are in the School of Management, in fields in which I want to build my forte in the future. Its not that such aspirations have made me attend more classes or take them more seriously or anything....
Today evening (5.30-7.30 pm) we had the class for Engineering Entrepreneurship.The professor is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of IIT, Kharagpur. Yes, yes... we have one... I too found out only recently.Today the class was surprisingly full ( I assume if I could be there, anybody could) and a tad unruly. As the classroom lost all interest as the clock neared 7:30, the poor guy was trying hard to explain his slides (ironically, on motivation).
Finally after warning for a couple of times, he gets exasperated. Says: "Please behave yourself, and understand that this is the first time I am taking a course in India. I have previously taken many courses in Sweden, Taiwan and the US. This is the first time I am taking a course here, please behave yourself". At this point the students look at him incredulity of his statement and after it sinks in to them what he actually said, they don't even bother to understand it and start guffawing loudly. The poor man is hassled but still tudges on with his slides. And in one of the most ironical moments I have seen in classroom for any professor, the power goes out (later realised it went out in the whole campus).
Hahahaha... poor guy. Standing there... was just talking about India. And the wily one that she is, she gave him the taste of India. Thank goodness it was very dark, else one could've seen the redness in his cheeks as the students hooted and just left the class.
It'was soooo much fun!
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As I was writing all this, wishing to potray initially how "It happens only in India" jingle still holds, C-125 sent me this article link. I am just copying the introductory paragraph:
"On your left is the stuffed specimen of Engineerias IITius. He (99% of the time, the specimen is male) mostly sleeps on whatever surface he finds, and can also go without food and sleep for extended periods of time when they spot Pandas with bamboos in their paws. Their pet fear is failure"
"On your right is Bloodsuckerus Netais. A species which thrives on other subordinate species. Mostly sports white colour garments, is led by a foreign bred species and finds indigenous uses for fodder and guns. Some large specimens has a fetish for shoes and may possess upto 600 pairs of various types."
"Next up is Cricketix Inditeamus. Clad in blue, these are amongst the most thriving of the species and is known throughout India's 1 billion fauna. A good number genetically advanced specimens of the Cricketix genus are from this country. In a recent experiment by Moronus Bccis (pronounced as: mOrOnus bitches), mixing up the team with a senior specimen from Cricketix Ausiteamus caused the latter to injure a finger in its paw."
Seriously, I really don't see what I can learn about other cultures from such classes. I am sure the grey hairs at Harvard would have their reasons. But I sure want to see the recording of such a class.
Why recording, you ask?? Why attend an extra class? :D
Mera Bharat mahaaan!
P.S.Damn! I wanted to make this a serious post about India and its perceptions.... but what the heck!
.
Today evening (5.30-7.30 pm) we had the class for Engineering Entrepreneurship.The professor is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of IIT, Kharagpur. Yes, yes... we have one... I too found out only recently.Today the class was surprisingly full ( I assume if I could be there, anybody could) and a tad unruly. As the classroom lost all interest as the clock neared 7:30, the poor guy was trying hard to explain his slides (ironically, on motivation).
Finally after warning for a couple of times, he gets exasperated. Says: "Please behave yourself, and understand that this is the first time I am taking a course in India. I have previously taken many courses in Sweden, Taiwan and the US. This is the first time I am taking a course here, please behave yourself". At this point the students look at him incredulity of his statement and after it sinks in to them what he actually said, they don't even bother to understand it and start guffawing loudly. The poor man is hassled but still tudges on with his slides. And in one of the most ironical moments I have seen in classroom for any professor, the power goes out (later realised it went out in the whole campus).
Hahahaha... poor guy. Standing there... was just talking about India. And the wily one that she is, she gave him the taste of India. Thank goodness it was very dark, else one could've seen the redness in his cheeks as the students hooted and just left the class.
It'was soooo much fun!
----------------******---------******----------******---------******---------------------
As I was writing all this, wishing to potray initially how "It happens only in India" jingle still holds, C-125 sent me this article link. I am just copying the introductory paragraph:
This sets me off laughing. Imagine the hallowed classrooms of the illustrious institution. In the darkened classrooms, the glow of the projector falls on the audience. They are being shown 'India' in a nice capsulated form. By the some of the shining sons and daughters of the nation. I wonder what they would learn... What would the lab be like? Would they have specimens?
America’s oldest institution of higher learning, Harvard University, will soon have India as a subject. And teachers will include visiting faculty members like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Gardiner professor of history at Harvard Sugata Bose and Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna.
"On your left is the stuffed specimen of Engineerias IITius. He (99% of the time, the specimen is male) mostly sleeps on whatever surface he finds, and can also go without food and sleep for extended periods of time when they spot Pandas with bamboos in their paws. Their pet fear is failure"
"On your right is Bloodsuckerus Netais. A species which thrives on other subordinate species. Mostly sports white colour garments, is led by a foreign bred species and finds indigenous uses for fodder and guns. Some large specimens has a fetish for shoes and may possess upto 600 pairs of various types."
"Next up is Cricketix Inditeamus. Clad in blue, these are amongst the most thriving of the species and is known throughout India's 1 billion fauna. A good number genetically advanced specimens of the Cricketix genus are from this country. In a recent experiment by Moronus Bccis (pronounced as: mOrOnus bitches), mixing up the team with a senior specimen from Cricketix Ausiteamus caused the latter to injure a finger in its paw."
Seriously, I really don't see what I can learn about other cultures from such classes. I am sure the grey hairs at Harvard would have their reasons. But I sure want to see the recording of such a class.
Why recording, you ask?? Why attend an extra class? :D
Mera Bharat mahaaan!
P.S.Damn! I wanted to make this a serious post about India and its perceptions.... but what the heck!
.
10 comments:
Wow, this is the first time I have ever heard of a professor cracking up. Are we so bad in classes. BTW, that powercut must've seemed like a sweet revenge against someone who just kinda insulted the motherland.
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and can also go without food and sleep for extended periods of time when they spot Pandas with bamboos in their paws
Do you mean what I think you mean???
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Good post, and the serious thought that prompted this is kinda visible behind the layer of humor that it possesses.
Jai Hind.
Yeah even I couldn't believe my ears when he said its his first class in India. And I had almost fell asleep right under his nose when the power goes 'phut'! As if adding to his list of "firsts in India": first class, first powercut, first hooting..........
It was fun again today, especially when he tried to continue depending on the UPS. Alas! power came back soon.
Their pet fear is failure. classic.
ahh lovely for the prof, sitting in Sweden, Taiwan and the US classrooms, while the swades song plays in his head.when in India the beautiful reality. but profs are schmucks, i always fantasize about the sadistic methods possible in india related to student torture, the possibilities are endless.
hehe :))
Ha ha ha... We call that proffie Halwaii for the sheer size of his stomach. We could call him Stomachus Humungus, or some thing of that sort ;)
studying culture eh?someone shud go for an EP course:P
Pray, which prof was that?!
And btw... they might also find bloggerus timepassus [:D]
@Psycho: hehe
@Sonik: Its become a habit. Power cut during my presentation too! :((
@Sudhir/Aashwit/Drumster: :)
@Ramesh: truly endless. That should be a dissertation in itself.
@Sunny: That species makes a constant buzzing sound. :D
Good post...nice to find you at blogger...bye
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