Conversation with Prof. Gautam Saha

Original Post: https://ramaguru.blogspot.com/2010/08/conversation-with-prof-gautam-saha.html

Hi, happy to back with a post about my favorite person. This is a mail from my brother,S.Sriram  and his conversation with his Professor. Gautam Saha. Sriram is  currently a Civil Engineering student in IIT Kharagpur. I am proud that we have one IIT from our school. Also i am happy to say, he is the only state board student in IIT with self preparation. The Conversation is in regard with NSS Activity.

Sir, 

I have an idea, that can possibly be implemented for the betterment of the society.

NSS already has a literacy campaign, which gives basic education to children. However, in my opinion, a greater level of formal education to the children might leave a much more positive impact on them. By this I mean, let us take a group of students in say, class 10. We will give them career guidance. Career guidance in the sense that, we help them to understand the concepts taught in class 11 and 12 better. Also, something more. Many people, don't choose the right college or course just because the people in rural areas do not know about the openings available as much as the urban people do. We will tell them about the openings available like say,

--> Preparing for IIT/AIEEE/VIT-EEE/BITSAT and similar colleges

-->Training them for "Merchant Navy", a govt of india organisation, which is high paying but very few know about

-->Educating people that science is not the only way of life. People in humanities group also have many many options

-->People with average marks/grades but with good communicative skills for jobs which will require that skill...

We really don't know what talent is hiding where,sir... I believe, we can explore lots and lots of talents in these children sir. We students, who will move away in two years, can do the teaching work which is easy. But it will be great if the professor in charge, gets to know each of the few children we take care of, know his or her mental attitude, their skills, the professor can guide us in the right direction of what to teach, how to teach etc. 

And I honestly say, this is not my idea. This is not impossible either. Because, i am student, who is now into IIT by the grace of one of the social workers of the kind I mentioned above   sir. I would like to mention about him to you sir, at this point of time.

He, Mr. Somasekharan Nair, is an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, from the E&ECE Department. He finished his under-graduation here and did his MBA in IIM Calcutta. He was also the General Manager - Sales and Marketing in Escorts Inc. Now he is over 60 and has retired. He has now come to my home town, "Mettupalayam", in Tamil Nadu. Mettupalayam is a small town just like Kharagpur, and I knew very little about something known as "IIT" before Nair sir came... So now, he himself lives in a house which is as big as two of our hostel rooms put together. He is now teaching English in our school, and he is spending a large part of his earning in paying fees for the children. He also has helped me to get into IIT. He trained me day in and day out for three years. I did not attend any other coaching class. And this sir also refused to get a penny from me. I have now got into IIT purely because of his efforts. Besides me, he has trained one of my friends, who is now in NIT-Trichy. He has also sent many people into this "Merchant Navy". I saw the of happiness in the eyes of a poor father, whose son has now started earning around Rs.80,000 per month, having joined in the Merchant Navy purely because of Nair sir's grace. And all he has asked us in return is, when we have holidays, we will go to his house, and help the children there. So during my summer vacation, all that I was doing was teaching the kids over there, some elementary algebra and Geometry and Physics. 

All of us, who are benefited by him, truly regard him as our God. I will be happy to see a similar activity taking place in and around Kharagpur.

Thank you sir,

Yours sincerely,

Sriram Sankaranarayanan,

Sophomore year,

Department of Civil Engineering,

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

The reply from the Prof. is 

Dear Sriram,

It is truly inspiring. For such people the world is beautiful, we can smell fragrance of love in air. We definitely will work out this idea. For this we need to sit with you and make a plan. We may not have one single highly dedicated individual here. But can we compensate that by more no. of moderately dedicated individuals - professors and students, if they all work together.

I need to sit with you. Also someday we may visit your native place, see the work and gain some experience. We would like to have an NSS meet in near future, may be a one-day workshop/symposium. We would like to invite Sri Nair here. Can you tell which year he graduated from here?

Pls. meet me at your convenience. Le us work out a plan adapted to IITKGP condition. Usually I am available in my office at E&ECE, R.N. R 111, G-Floor, after 5 p.m. I have not seen 'God'. It will be great to see someone who has.

Thanks. With warm wishes to you
Gautam Saha.

               When i read this mail, I got two drops of tears in my Eyes. The reason is know only to me, Sriram can understand because we were with him from the time he came to Mettupalaym. I ( we) are lucky to have such a person as my(our) teacher,mentor. I take this opportunity to thank him, because if  today i am in a good position its because of him. He has helped,is helping and will help the student with good skills and other to inculcate the skills. Sir one day we will make you proud!!!!