Story from Dr. R W. Khare

I first met Prof. Rama Rao fifty years ago. He taught us physical metallurgy then. Fifty years down the lane and I am still his student, and there has been immense pleasure in being his student all these years and pride in saying that he is my teacher..

When I think of him, the first thing that comes to mind is his passion for teaching. What was carried by his words along with the subject matter was his passion and his desire that we learn. We went our ways and not everyone deals in metallurgy; but 50 years down the lane, everyone still carries the memories of his passion lingering in our minds which left indelible impression.

The most beautiful outcome of his passion can be seen in the passion he lit in one of his finest students that I know closely. He is the director of an IIT, and when he speaks, one can see the same passion in his speech, thoughts and actions. He became a teacher because Prof Rama Rao was his inspiration and role model; he even dedicated his doctoral thesis to Prof Rao. Such is his passion that he would reach IIT Madras after a hectic nation wide tour at 10 in night, schedule his class between 11.00 pm and 1.00 am and yet there would be 100% attendance. This is perhaps the best example I know of “As one lamp lights another”.

When I had to prepare a series of lectures on “Passion in Teaching, Learning and Research,” – a difficult subject; what helped me was the example of Prof Rama Rao, which I could analyze and learn from. His example made me categorize teachers. For example; restricting analysis to only the finest teachers, there are broadly two categories. First category teachers says “I am what I am and I do what I do – get from me what you can depending on your capability”. This category is what I call elitist teachers as there are few to very few who can be benefitted; But they were ecstatic learning from such teachers. Second category teachers say “I try my best but what students can take is up to them”. Prof Rao goes way beyond and always said “I try and continue to strive to take the learning to the weakest student in my class and still keep it fascinating for the entire class” and fascinated we remained. He lived up to this and weakest students also could gather courage to talk to him and ask for his help in resolving their doubts. Teaching has been his Sadhana and Tapascharya; and yet the humility can be seen clearly. When I asked him how one cultivates patience that is needed for teaching the weakest students; he said it helps you grow and develop clarity for yourself. As you go out and try to reach out to weaker and weaker students; it brings better clarity and understanding for yourself. For the first couple of years greater effort is required to teach them; then you know where the correction should start and rest becomes comparatively easy. Still a fair amount of effort is required; but that is Tapas. It was enlightening to discuss this topic of passion in teaching with him.

Most teachers are quite diffident about being able to solve industrial problems. This is why lot of talent remains under utilized in colleges and many problems remain unsolved in industry; and thus performance of “Industry Institute Interaction Cells”- mandatory in most colleges; remains dismal. But those teachers who are 1) very sound and clear in basic concepts 2) very sure about capability to learn additional aspects needed to bridge the gaps, find that there are no problems that they can not solve. Prof Rama Rao was one such teacher who actually solved many industrial problems and became a part of the industry after his retirement. He became a part of Diffusion Engineers, Nagpur, a company specializing in wear solutions with a turn over of over 100 crores. I had the good fortune of being a part of his team in this company where we could prove some very innovative ideas. VNIT should emulate his example and bring about a quantum leap in the industry interactions.

Interesting part about him is that a metallurgist of such capabilities actually wanted to study literature as he was inspired by the life and work of the legendary Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh alias DINKAR.