Tribute to a Remarkable Teacher

What can be a better occasion to pay tribute to a remarkable teacher than 5th September, the Teacher’s Day? We, students of Mechanical Engineering at I.T.BHU (Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University) were really fortunate to have a great teacher and a great human being in late Prof B.H.Rao. The special bond that existed between the students and the teacher is described in the passages below.


Remarkable Teacher

“Friends, gentlemen, any questions?”, he asked. No, no plagiarising from the famous Julius Caesar as one may find the lines sounding similar to Mark Anthony’s address to his country men, as “Friends, Romans and Countrymen” in his speech after Julius Caesar’s assassination.

Professor B Hargopal Rao was no Mark Anthony. He was no politician. He was a simple man, humble and modest. His lecture classes on Internal Combustion Engines (in second year in I.T.B.H.U) used to start with the same opening address every day, i.e. “Friends, gentlemen, any questions?”. Generally teachers teach first, then invite questions from the students to clarify doubts. But, here was this Professor who was asking his students if they had any question, even before he began to teach the lesson. Prof. B.H.Rao, as he was more popularly known, believed more in practicality than in theory. Students were free to ask any question relevant to the subject. Questions could be purely theoretical or the student might ask for a theoretical explanation for certain practical applications.

After listening to the question, Prof B.H.Rao would turn to the students, call their attention and repeat the question for every body’s sake. And then he would proceed to answer the question with gestures with his hands, explaining the most complex theories with practical analogies. He never used chalk piece or board. Those days LCD projectors were not there. While explaining, he would pause and tell us, “You need not take notes, every thing is there in the book. You can read later. Now just listen to me carefully, you will understand.” Once, while explaining some theory, he suddenly stopped and looking at a student who was sleeping, said , “Our friend there seems to have had a late night”, and asked the student sitting next to him to wake him up. The boy was given a good shake and was woken up. We all waited with bated breath, expecting some severe punishment and caustic remarks. Prof. B.H. Rao watched our body language with silence, looked at the delinquent with pity and asked him to return after washing his face. Prof. B.H.Rao did not say any thing till the boy returned. We thought that now he would pronounce his judgement which he did, but not the way we expected. Instead of punishing the student for his dereliction, he sought to create confidence in the students. He did not want to impose his authority but wanted to win over the students. He wanted to correct the erring student, but not banish him. He wanted the student to understand his mistake and not to repeat it. He turned to the students and said, “ Friends, you can come to my class any time and go at any time. If you don’t want to attend the class also, there is no problem. You can ask your friends regarding the missed lessons. If they can not help you, you can come to me in my room any time. I will clear your doubts”. We all felt embarrassed and our hearts melted. That very instant an inseparable bond got created between the Guru and us shishyas. After that no one bunked his class, we all listened to him with rapt attention – not out of fear of authority, but out of affection and reverence. Further he had this uncanny knack of making any subject interesting.

Once campaigns for student leaders’ election were going on in BHU. These campaigns, for all their pomp and magnitude, were no less than the campaigns for Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. One of the candidates with his party members entered our class with permission from Prof. B.H.Rao and solicited our votes. After the candidate and his coterie left, Prof B.H.Rao turned to us and quipped, “Friends, in life this will teach you more than what I teach”, there by alluding to the need to be practical in life.

Prof B.H.Rao was good at sensing the mood of the students. Students used to feel home sick and restless during the days preceding the festival holidays. Also every year in BHU, we used to celebrate our annual festival called “Kashi Yatra”. As the count down began for Kashi Yatra, the students used to become restless and were less attentive to lectures. Prof B.H.Rao understood the mood of the students. During these times, he used to keep his lectures as light as possible. He could get the students into splits (of laughter) by his well timed jokes and kept his sessions as lively as ever.

It is the law of nature and the travesty of justice in the court of the God that things too good do not last long. So it happened with us. It seems that the God too was bowled over by Prof B.H.Rao’s charms as a teacher and he could not resist his temptation too long to embrace this great son. Prof B.H.Rao left for the heavenly abode after contracting meningitis during his visit to New Delhi to attend a seminar. During the last days, when he was waging a lost battle in the hospital, the Mechanical Engineering Department of I.T.B.H.U was closed. The students and the faculty were by his bed. All were ready to donate their blood if need arose. As his body was shaking vigorously, students were holding his hands and legs round the clock in turns lest the glucose drips should get disturbed. Our combined will could not extricate him from the jaws of death against the God’s decree, Prof B.H.Rao breathed his last. It was, I vaguely remember, was in January, 1985.

Though he has departed, he lives in our hearts. Prof Rao, we love you, we wish to be your pupils in the next birth too.


- Suby

 

Dear Andal,

You will not believe. Entire Mechanical Engineering Department was closed. All of us were in hospital. I had the fortune of holding his feet which was shaking vigourously. We were there 24 x 7 but could not save him, each one was ready to donate blood.

--suby

 

Dear Mahrokh,

He was a great teacher, was kind and humble. It was sad that we lost him.

Thanks for the nice words.

-suby

 

Dear vidyavisu,

Thanx for the comments. Really he was a great teacher and a great human being.

-suby