What I learnt from my father

I learnt a lot from my father. Some things he taught me consciously, some he taught me by example which he didn't know he was teaching me and some he taught me that even I didn't know I was learning!

But learn I did!

My father was a simple man! If I have to define him in one word it would be that. He had no pretensions, no delusions that he was a very wise man with a lot to teach, no, nothing like that. He simply was!

Much of his life was spent in earning a livelihood for himself and then later in life for his family. This he did with remarkable success. I say remarkable not because he left us a business empire but because of the distance he covered in his life. He started as modestly as anyone could, at the age of 10. And he learnt and improved himself and made a life for himself. And for us - me, my mother and my siblings.

I will try to keep this brief as I have so much I can put in here that it will become a book. In fact, I did at one time decide to write a book about him. I was not diligent enough. Even before that, when I was just a boy I had started collecting quotes, things that he just said, but sounded like pearls of wisdom to me.

They still hold true today.

Simplicity is very powerful. This I learnt from his example. My life and desires are not as simple as he kept his but nevertheless the learning is there, rooted deep in my mind. Simple, is beautiful!

I can describe his life philosophy in this couplet from poet Rahimdas.

रहिमन इतना दीजिये जामें कुटुंब समाय
मैं भी भूखा न रहूँ साधू न भूखा जाय

[God, give me as much in which my family should be covered.
May I not stay hungry, and may I not need to turn away hungry a beggar (saadhu, fakir, saint, sanyasi) who comes to my door.]


I learnt from him the strength of truth. No matter how poor or weak a man may be, if he has truth on his side nobody can touch him.

That was his word and that was his life. I have seen him turn down material temptations that any other man would jump at, with no effort, without even considering them as temptations.

I learnt that money has a purpose. I always saw him care about money only insomuch as it was his livelihood and the daily bread for his family. He never ran after money, never compromised his principles, never compromised his family life for money.

Quality is important in everything you do. That lesson he taught me without saying anything. But everything he did, he put all of himself into it. Anything less than perfect quality was never even a consideration for him. It was always achieved by the sweat of his brow but he did the hard work as a matter of course, nary a complaint on his lips. Ever.

There are many, many other things that I learnt from him.

To this day, I often pause and think "What would dad think if I did this?" and it guides my choice.


It has been 6 years. Today.

The best teacher award

..and..the best teacher of 2016 is....

The crowd goes wild. Applause! Cheers! Whistles!

Wait!

What year is this?

What country is this?

What UNIVERSE is this?

Because in our universe, in our world, teachers are not celebrated. It's the filmstars and sports personalities that are celebrated and applauded.

A teacher can literally change your life. Yes, literally. Our teachers have great influence on our life choices, our confidence, the skills we acquire and the way we approach the world. I can still track in my character which traits were influenced by which teachers in my childhood. And later when I learnt computers.

In contrast, actors and directors, provide you entertainment but mostly what you see is fake. Fake on the screen, fake in the press and fake on the stage. We even know this.

Mind you, I am not saying that the film celebrities don't work hard or what they do is not important to society. They do. It is. Hard work should be rewarded and recognised in every field.

But that's it. In EVERY field!

That doesn't happen. In reality, making a film makes you a star with billions of people shouting your name, and changing lives on a daily basis condemns you to a life of meagre and ignoble existence.

We live in a world where teachers and scientists live and die with hardly ever a mention and filmstars and singers are celebrated like they invented the sunshine.

In Jubal Early's style...Does that seem fair to you?

My Teachers: Gaurav Sir

I haven't posted in this series for a while. But it's Teachers Day, at least in India, so let me talk about another one of my great teachers today.

Gaurav Sir joined my computer institute when we needed somebody to teach us 'C'. Considering that the institute was small and restricted in budget, it could have been a terrible shortcoming, but in my case it turned out to be a great advantage. For example, when Chauhan sir came to teach us "COBOL" he was the best teacher for it, as well as for PLT. Similarly Gaurav Sir joined at a time when we needed a teacher for Unix and C and he was the best, bar none, who could have taught us those subjects.

Well, maybe Tenenbaum knew a little bit more about Unix than Gaurav sir, but not much, and I don't know if he was any good at teaching. :)

Why I say this about these teachers that they were great teachers, not because they knew their subject matter or because they knew how to impart the knowledge, no, that would not make them great teachers, that would make them adequate teachers.

What made them great was that they were geniuses in their own right and they could not help inspiring you if they tried. Gaurav sir was another such genius and you could feel that in talking to him though he NEVER, EVER, boasted or bragged about his prowess or even his experience.

For Gaurav sir, everything was casual, no big deal, even things that'd make me and my fellow students go wide-eyed , "You really did that, Sir?" :O

There's a whole lot I can say about Gaurav sir without covering the matter fully so let me say just a few important things and leave it at that.

Gaurav sir could not help challenge our minds. For example, the first time he took our class, he started talking about how to swap two variables without using a third variable. Even though he didn't ask us to try it, I just had to because I had never heard anything like this before. I showed it to him in a few minutes and he agreed that the solution would look something like that.That was always the way with him. He inspired me just by talking to him!

I don't remember exactly how it happened but he gave me his home address and I visited him there. He used to live in another part of the same city, Delhi, and I used to go to the public library near there. Then I made a practice of it, visiting him every 2-3 weeks at his home, on the weekend, even after he stopped teaching at the institute.

He himself was quite a scholar where computers were concerned. Every time I visited him I was awed by his book collection. He used to spend his money in buying the US editions of super-expensive computer books that were not available in India. Even though I was stupid in computers, I was smart enough never to ask to borrow a book. It's just something you don't do. Still, he lent me his notes and stuff more than once when I most needed it.

Later I followed in his footsteps, joining the same company where he used to work, etc. etc.

One of his peculiar (or maybe just enviable) habits was his love for certification exams. I remember very well how hard I had to study to pass my MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) exams. 4 long, tough question papers. But Gaurav sir, had done that already, and done the 2 extra optional exams, plus gone in for MCSE certification, plus a few more certifications, plus he used to take the newly-launched papers as a test subject. My God!

It is a proud privilege for me that I am still in touch with him and I am always pleased to see that he's still doing amazingly well on his career path and still the same old certification-gobbling genius that he was. His email signature looks like a phonebook of doctors the way those abbreviations are lined up after his name.

To come back to my self-centred world, I would not be what I am and where I am today without Gaurav Sir's patient and selfless guidance and his continuous support. He is still a source of inspiration for me. And he doesn't have to do anything for it. I just think of him and it inspires me to do better and greater things in my life!

I wish him a long, successful, happy life!

My teachers: Mr. Chauhan

Teachers come in a variety of types, some who would rather be left alone, others who like to take control and drive things. And there are a few, extremely few who actually like to provide intellectual stimulation and make their students really think for themselves.

Mr. Chauhan was one such teacher. When I was doing my computer course we had a situation when we lost our teacher to another job. This, I should clarify, was a very small institute, owned by one person and usually staffed by one teacher. I was hardly in a position to criticise as the fee was very low and even then we had the option to pay in monthly instalments. If I told you how much it was, you wouldn't believe it, it was so low.

So, we had our computer teacher and suddenly he got another job and decided to leave the institute. The owner/manager of the institute, who also taught some classes, got Mr. Chauhan to fill in. We were learning PLT at the time (short for Programming Logic Techniques). Mr. Chauhan came in, and asked us some questions on what we had learnt so far in computers and in PLT. And he had this infuriating habit of saying "Why?" after every answer we gave him. His contention was that you should know the reason why something was so, not just say "That's what we've been told." This did annoy me because at some point that's what you have to say. No, not really. Now, I understand that the chain of answers should stop not at "So we've been told." but at "It's a fact provable by experiment." But we didn't get into that then.

Next we started on PLT. He started to quiz us first.

Mr. Chauhan: What do you need to write a program?
Class: Computer.
Mr. Chauhan: Wrong!

Oh, God!

But that's the sign of great teachers - their words can change your life, and you NEVER forget those words. He told us the "A program is written on paper, not on computer." This might seem blatantly obvious or even flippant but any computer programmer worth his salt would know exactly what it means. When you start writing programs on computer, you do shoddy work and make more mistakes. When you write a program on paper, you do your best work, and that way lies excellence.

He told us that the best paying job in computers (at the time at least) was a Systems Analyst and he hardly ever needs to go near a computer.

In that same class, he asked us more about programs and I was giving an answer when he stopped me and said, "No, not a program, algorithm." Arrgh! That almost sent me into a rage! They were the SAME thing! No, they are not!

Years later he told me that after the class he told our centre manager to keep an eye on me and forget the rest. Hehe, yes, I am proud of that. No way I am NOT going to mention that! But that day I was pissed off with him. But that was always his style, he never believed in spoonfeeding his students. I did very well in PLT, so what did he do? He didn't praise me or anything, he just gave me MORE problems to solve than other students in the class. The result is that I have very strong PLT skills and love to debate with people on the merits of "OR" and "AND" in a line of code.

After PLT he taught us COBOL. Yes, it was that long back. COBOL was on its way out even then but this was before the year 2000 so it was not completely out yet and did make some programmers rich when the Y2K work came. Alas, I was not one of them. Still, I did very well in COBOL and got 93% in the test,  which was not only the highest in the class, it was my highest score in any computer subject.  A year later the centre owner asked me to teach a batch there and guess what subject he asked me to teach - COBOL.

Then there was the incident when Chauhan Sir taught me MS-Office in 5 minutes.

This was a couple of years later, I was a software faculty by now and was teaching in a small institute other than the one I studied in. I was teaching DOS, Windows and a few other things, but not MS-Office. That was new at that time. It was version 4.3 I still remember very vividly. The nice lady I worked for wanted me to learn MS-Office so I could teach it as well. She and Chauhan sir were friends so I could go and learn with him at his institute which was in the same city.

I remember it like yesterday. I went to the pay phone near the institute and called Ds (that’s my code for him) to arrange for classes. He was in office and we talked. I explained what I needed. Here’s how the conversation went:

Ds: Toh MS-Office seekhna hai? (You want to learn MS-Office?)
Me: Yes, sir.
Ds: Kya karoge seekh ke? (What would you do with it?)
Me: Sir yahan padhaoonga. (I will teach it here).
Ds: Wordstar aata hai? (You know Word Star?) (Word Star was an older word processing software, DOS-based, and quite popular before MS-Word came along.
Me: Aata hai, sir. (I know it, sir.) (I was very confident, I was very good in WS).
Ds: Phir? (Then?)
Me: Sir, MS-Office nahin aata na. (I don’t know MS-Office).
Ds: To MS-Office seekhoge. (So you will learn MS-Office.)
Me: Yes, sir. (I was getting a bit annoyed by now.)
Ds: Phir? Naya aa jayega phir woh seekhoge? Kitne word processor seekhoge? (Then, when the new one comes out you’ll learn that? How many word processors will you learn?).
That shut me up and made me think.
Ds: Usko khol lo, help file kholo saath mein, aur karo. (Open it, and open the Help file, and use it.)

The whole conversation took less than 5 minutes, but he taught me MS-Office in 5 minutes. Alongwith that he taught me all other word processors and all programming languages without a computer in sight! Never felt the need to go for a class to learn a new application after that. And I ended up learning many other software and programming languages after that. I started teaching MS-Office later that week and have taught all versions. I pride myself on my Word and Excel skills and even though they are not my primary tools the knowledge has been extremely useful to me in my career.

That’s the kind of teacher Ds was and is. He knows how to kindle the spark and let the student learn instead of crippling him with spoonfeeding.

I am still in close touch with him. Whenever I go to India half of my vacation time is spent with him, either visiting his business or home, or debating something in technology or society.

One thing I really hate  is that he never taught me Chess. He was a state champion in his time and I really wanted to learn to play better Chess from him. But the only time we played together it was like him playing with only 10% of his mind on the game and he beat me, no, actually crushed me without even bothering to “play”. I hated that. But I haven’t given up, some day I’ll trap him into teaching me. ;)

There was a great time, a wonderful period of my life when I was working in his own company. Even when I had a problem in a technology or language that he didn’t know, I would still go to Ds for solutions. And he would sort me out. Without knowing the language and without learning! His logic is just so strong that he always knows what questions to ask.

He had written books on COBOL that were used in schools as textbooks, but he never mentioned it to brag. I found out just by chance. Same thing about his Chess skills. He never brags, never needs to. But anyone who meets him, cannot forget him. I am very proud and privileged that I met him and that he is still in my life as a guiding spirit.

My dream is to one day collaborate with him on a project! Amen!

My Teachers: Kaushik Sir

I have this great way of starting new series and then abandoning them. So, let's start another one - my teachers. May be 3 days late after Teacher's Day but better late than never.

I think you'd agree that teachers play a defining role in our life. I have been blessed with some great teachers in my life. Actually most of them were great for one reason or another, but some were outstanding! When I decided to write about Kaushik Sir, I thought why just him, I have had some other teachers as well that I would never forget, so why not make it a series? And so, here we start another series, My Teachers, with the first instalment as Kaushik Sir.

He was my English teacher. I had him in more than one classes but the most memorable was the period of 11th and 12th standard. During these 2 years most of my classmates who were serious about school were focusing their energies on Physics or Maths and the interest in English was quite low. It was stupid of them, no matter whether you go for engineering or medical, you still needed to pass English and get good marks in it. I saw several of them suffer because of this shortsightedness when the results were out.

But the low attendance didn't bother Kaushik Sir. He loved to teach and he taught with the same enthusiasm if the number of students was 4 or 40. His period was 4th, the last one before recess and by 11th class the fear of teachers and school discipline kind of wanes. We think of ourselves as almost-college students, not school students. So people used to feel quite free to leave before the 4th period started.

However, Kaushik Sir never missed a class, even if there were 2 students in the class he would teach. I know this from experience. There was one time when only I and another student were there in the class but Kaushik Sir didn't even raise the question of "Should we continue the class?" He just took out the book and started teaching with a smile.

That was another thing - his equanimity. Never a shout, never a temper tantrum, and never a harsh word. Always a smile on his face and always a dedication to doing his best in making us learn.

His teaching style was simple and effective. He always went beyond mere translation of the lesson and question-answer. By that time I was good enough in English that I used to read all the stories in the text books in the summer vacation itself and then enjoy them immensely when they were taught in class one by one.

For me, after wading through Physics, Chemistry and Maths, English was like a picnic! It was a reward! It was a joy! So, I never missed a single class.

I don't want to keep repeating that Kaushik Sir was an amazing teacher and a great person so let me illustrate with a couple of examples.

We were studying this story called "The Coin Diver" which is a great story. I still think of it as one of the best stories we read in school. In the story, there is scene where the 3 main characters of the story, Diamond Jim, Nancy and Charlie (names from memory) are on a single path and their placement relative to each other was important to the story.

When Kaushik Sir started explaining that passage he changed their positions from where they were in the story. I interrupted and called him on it immediately. When the discussion started, another student, the other guy who never missed a class, also supported my view.

Kaushik Sir said he would get back to us tomorrow.

Now here's the beauty part. He didn't forget, and he didn't try to roll past it. The next day, right as rain, he just ambled into class, opened the book and in front of a full class (about a dozen or so students) admittedthat we were right and he was wrong! I mean who does that? What teacher sets aside his ego like that and just concedes so openly? He told us that he had read the book last year and was thinking he didn't need to again this year to teach.

More than The Coin Diver, that was the lesson I learnt, be willing to admit your mistakes and don't get bogged down in ego!

Next instance was also during the same story. In the last passage the author used the word "breast" for the male character. That confused me. So I asked Kaushik Sir and he told me that sometimes the author goes by the quality of the person's body as in, it is a female quality to be able to love so much, and here Charlie has shown that quality so the author used the feminine word for his body. I accepted that.

He repeated that with slightly different words that gave me enough of the clue that I realized the difference later. (In both males and female the bone structure etc. is called chest and the flesh part on top is called breast). It was not him bullshitting me, it was just him stepping around a sticky topic, but not at the cost of leaving me in the dark. That was another lesson I learnt from him, though later, honesty in a difficult situation!

My memories of Kaushik Sir are like that, a man with immense knowledge, a really mature character and a great teacher!

If this reminds you of your teachers or a particular teacher, feel free to share with us in comments.