Teacher

Many people from all over India had come to Pune to attend the funeral of Mr. Vikas Shinde. Vikas was a much loved professor of a reputed Engineering College in Pune. He had taught the subject of Integrated Circuits (IC) in the E&TC Department for almost 30 years.

His students were not only spread all over India, but in fact, they were all over the world. After he passed away, one of his students posted it on Facebook and the news spread like wildfire.

And today all of them were here.

To say one final goodbye.

After the funeral, all of them had gathered together on the college ground for a little ceremony. Later everyone sat down and started telling their best experiences with their dear professor. Soon it turned into a competition. One story after another.

Ashutosh Kumar had been sitting quietly listening to all the stories. After listening to many interesting ones, he raised his hand, got up and announced, “I have the best Vikas Sir story. I am sure of it.”

The crowd was silent and also interested.

“Please tell us”, said one of them.

“This story took place when I was in my final year. Final exams were going on. It was the night before my IC paper.”

***

After having a nice dinner, I returned to my room to start studying for the IC paper which was scheduled the next day. It was 9 pm and the paper was at 8 am the next day so I had around 11 hours and I was sure I would be able to study enough to pass.

I opened the text book for the first time that semester. I had attended hardly 3 or 4 of his lectures in the entire semester. So basically I didn’t know anything about IC.

Twenty minutes later, I knew this was going to be impossible. There was no way I would be able to do one unit, let alone all 6! My room-mate Anurag, doing mechanical engineering, had an easy paper the next day so he was pouring himself a drink. Rum and coke.

“Have one and then start again”, he told me.

I sat and drank with him and together we abused our teachers.

After that drink, I got back to studying. 15 minutes later, I lost it.

“Do you still have the PDF document that contains the information of all the teachers?” I asked Anurag.

Anurag had found it on one of the PCs in a lab and had taken it on his pen-drive in case we ever need it someday.

Like today.

“Yup. I do”, he said.

“Give me Vikas Sir’s number. Now!” I said.

All that alcohol and frustration and tension had got to me. I dialled his number at 11 at night, woke him up from his sleep and abused him a lot. Almost every slang word that I knew. And then I cut the phone before he could say anything. I regret that incident till today. I was an idiot.

Anurag meanwhile had admiration in his eyes for me. He got up and started clapping.

“Feeling better? Now get back to your studies” he smiled. “Damn! I should have recorded it!”

We laughed and I got back to my book trying to understand a derivation. However most of my mind was thinking about what I had just done.

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. I figured it must be one of the guys from the neighbouring flat to borrow my roomie’s notes or a smoke or something.

I opened the door. Vikas Sir!

I almost had a heart attack.

He came in and took off his jacket.

“Are you really that dumb? I have the entire database of all the students. And yes, that does include your mobile number and local address”, said Vikas Sir.

“I am so…so sorry Sir”, I just about managed to say.

“Forget that. Tell me what’s the problem and what are you drinking.” He smiled.

“Sir, I am unable to understand even one bit of IC!”

“I am not surprised because I saw you for only one bit of the semester”, he said. Even Anurag started laughing at this comment.

“Sir, I am really sorry for everything! Not attending, phone call and everything! If I fail tomorrow, it will be because I deserve it!”

“Save all this drama for the scenario where you do actually fail. I am here to guide you to different scenario. I am here to help you study.”

“What?!”

“Yes. I am going to sit with you and we’ll do IC for the next 4-5 hours. Worst case scenario, if you still don’t understand the concepts, I’ll mail you the question paper because I have only set it. Just pass and get out of here!”

“Thank you so much Sir!”

“Don’t thank me yet!”

Vikas Sir took the IC book in his hand.

“Okay, here’s what we will do. I will mail you the paper right now itself, because I might forget later, while you pour me a drink.”

“What Sir?!”

“Yes and pour one for yourself too!”

I poured one for each of us while Vikas Sir sent the email via his phone. Anurag had completely stopped studying by this point. He was just watching us.

“Done. Mailed it. Now I will teach you most of the concepts and numericals that have been asked again and again. If you understand those, you should not only pass, but get around 70-75 marks.”

“Okay Sir.”

“Now to motivate you to study and make this interesting. Once I am done teaching one concept, I will ask you to repeat the whole thing. If you do it properly, we will move on to the next concept. Every time you don’t understand it, I will finish my entire drink and you pour me another one.”

“Okay, but shouldn’t I get to drink every time I am correct?” I asked. I was surprised I asked this. But Vikas Sir was like that. You would always end up thinking of him like he is your friend.

“No. Because you will keep getting more and more drunk and it will be harder for me to teach you. You will just be having that one drink through the night. Maybe not even that. And you have to concentrate and ensure I don’t drink too much!”

“Good point Sir”. I laughed.

“Okay let’s start with the first concept.”

Vikas Sir raced through it in around 8 minutes. When I tried to explain it to him, I just went blank. Frankly I hadn’t understood anything. I just kept nodding the entire time he spoke.

Vikas Sir gulped down the drink.

I am guessing at this point, he realised my basics were really weak and this was going to be much harder than he thought.

He started the first concept again. This time explaining all the basic terms along the way. 15 minutes later, he asked me to explain. I did it perfectly. Anurag clapped his hands and smiled.

Vikas Sir raised his hand and said, “This is just the opening scene. Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost!”

Soon we were doing concepts after concepts. I was starting to enjoy it.

At one point when I made a mistake, Anurag shouted, “You idiot! It’s because the source and drain of a MOSFET are equally doped!” Both Vikas Sir and I looked at Anurag and all three of us started laughing.

In the next few hours till around 5 am, we were done with most of the frequently asked University questions and I don’t think Vikas Sir had more than three glasses.

“I think I will leave now. We have covered up almost everything. I have to freshen up too before coming to college. Just revise everything once or twice”, said Vikas Sir.

“Yes Sir.”

“Best of luck Ashutosh. I am sure you are going to do great”

“Thank you Sir.” I smiled.

I don’t know what happened in my head but I went and hugged Vikas Sir. I guess I felt really thankful at that point and bad for the phone call and I started crying and apologising again.

“It’s okay Ashutosh. You are a good kid. You were just not thinking straight. Forget it now and study. Okay?” said Vikas Sir.

“Yes Sir.”

“Bye Anurag. All the best! And thanks for the rum!” said Sir.

Anurag smiled and waved.

“Bye”, he said one last time. The wave turned into a thumbs-up and he was gone.

***

“I went and wrote one of the best papers of my life that day. When the results came out and I had scored the highest marks in IC, I wasn’t surprised”, Ashutosh said.

“Obviously. You still had three hours and the question paper. You were definitely going to top”, said a teacher from the current batch.

“That’s the best part. There was no attachment in the email. It just said ‘I hope these next 4-5 hours do help you pass the paper. You didn’t really think I’ll give you the paper, did you? All the best!’”