A Roundabout Lesson

By Keshav P Koirala
Saturday Blog

Intro: Giving up the career of a journalist at a leading daily, I have returned to the world of academics again since January. When I determinedly pushed resignation stating that I was quitting the job to pursue further studies, on the day of farewell, the editor of the daily- also my immediate boss- earnestly asked me if that was the motive behind the leaving.

The septuagenarian would have asked me the question because he could not believe me deciding to go to the university that, as a journalist, more particularly during the brainstorming before manufacturing editorial pieces, I always used to criticise for its mismanagement and its infradig scholars.

Nothing was to screen, so I told him why the very university! (I said something about the course that I was going to do and apropos my future plans.)

All the same, facing the insipidity of the administration and the mortifying intellect of teachers, I wish I animadverted on the university again.

Following is a piece that I had written some months ago to the very paper for which I worked for about two years. For some reasons unspecified, as I have been told so, however, this could not come to the print. Nonetheless, I would like to share this with you all!

A Roundabout Lesson
I happened upon him at the Uni three months ago. When Herr Yot â�� a young gentleman at his late-twenties â�� first got into the lecture room as a faculty, I was really enthralled by his berth. “Had I come to this world on time, indubitably, I too would be on the place,” I rued.

Fascinated by his achievements, the green-eyed monster within me started planning for the future. “After completing this course, I also will teach at a university,” I thought. Teaching has been line of work for my family for generations and contemplating pursuing the profession is not aberrant to me. It’s in my genes!

All are not born to the purple. To excel in life, everybody has to struggle. Dead reckoning that he, an Arcadian, has toiled a lot to be a success story in this wonderland, I grasped that it would not be easy for me to bring home the bacon. Why would I worry? I would learn to make it from him!

It was my fourth day at the Uni. I was busy on taking pleasure in the vista of the snow-clad mountains in the purlieus of the vale from the foot of the Mondeberg where my Uni is situated at. When I saw my peers coming galumphing into the lecture hall like a herd of elephants, I understood that it was time for another lecture. And it was my hero�s class again.

When he was asked a simple but grand question regarding the alternative structure of an organic compound, Herr Yot took to his an age-old notebook. But his riposte was not satisfactory. He was very supercilious towards another gentleman who put forward an extra query. All the same, I took that all for his unique way of teaching � motivating �tyros� like us to study by ourselves. Domineering students is also an art. �I too need to learn this,� I agnised.

For now, his classes have turned out to be mind-numbing. Besides ingeminating some clichés on the topic what the pompous guru knows only to do perfectly is dodging our queries. But if the power is off for minutes or the OHP doesn’t function, his pedagogy conks out. Surprisingly, he doesn’t care a fig what others think of him. He pretends to be cool and reiterates if his pupils followed his footsteps, they would certainly score high marks.

Once he arrogantly cast about for comments regarding his teaching technique. Looking for a needle in a haystack, I responded that it would be better not to waste time in all that gaff. What I saw was an enraged Yot mumbling how I dared naming his style rigmarole. These days, he doesn’t teach much, but grins barefacedly in every lecture that is full of bathos. Now, I have forlorn hope that if I stick to his guidelines, I would succeed fulfilling my dream.

Amid the global phenomenon of nepotism, wondering how the poor fish like him gets such a big break would be awry. However, I wish all teachers who abide by the Parkinson�s Law only understood teaching is much more than it. Resting on one�s laurels and teaching no more than for the sake of recompense may not garner reverence. Teachers too need to gear up themselves to be able to do with their pupils. By the bye, my guru has given me a good lesson. Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, now, I have decided not to go for teaching- unless I become competent.

2 Responses to “A Roundabout Lesson”

1. Aparajit Says:
July 30th, 2005 at 4:24 pm

Oh! A good piece…..
Besides politics, if this sort of articles too are given chance to be blogged, it would certainly be good.

By the way, where is Mr Koirala studying?

Mondeberg?? Germany?
Herr Yot? A German?

Or, the name of places have been Germanised?

Adios

2. Whosyourdaddy Says:
July 31st, 2005 at 4:05 am

at least you can be a true blogger and write biased reports and whatever come to your mind 🙂 good on your bro… … unlike your friends (the journalist one) who have no knowledge of the journalism ethics and produce so much shit here …. shame shame shame .. get him fired too .. so that you can both be good blogger