I had converyed my interest in working as a lecturer in my brothers college, i mean I had taken the plunge. But the actual "test" was yet to begin. And the demo class would be the most testing part of the "test", I thought. I had a few edited replays of the scene in my mind, but i had not done any hardcore preparation for the same. So on this fine day I plan to go and meat the dean of the college. I went to my brother's college and sat in the staff room. The Dean was having a discussion with one of the staff members. I felt so becuase the body language of the the person standing there was too obedient and he was full of respect for the man in charge. Once the Dean was done with the discussion he turned towards me and got to know from the clerk that I was the one who had come for the new Computer Science Lecturer Post. He was trying to behave very casual and he was successful till the moment I mentioned that I was from R.V.College of Engineering. "You are from R.V.College ? Our students will have lot to learn from you", the Dean Said. The change in his behaviour the moment he heard the name of my college, made me feel proud that I was an alumnus of the R.V.College of Engineering.
Whoever said "What is there in a name ?", I am sorry Sir, but the name has everything in it. The name of the College I came from gave me an instant identity that i was not able to create in the 5 mins of interaction I had with him prior to that. He listenened with attention to whatever I said after that. At the end of the converstion "You can have a demo class, and we will discuss the further course of action later", he said.
So I was there at the college. And I had less than five minutes for my first interaction with the students. I was suppose to introduce myself to the students and gather some information regarding the their syllabus and their knowledge level so that I could have a demo class for them. That should be a cake walk I thought. But it was not going to be so. I entered the class that seemed to me like a asylum full of refugees(No offence to the students or the college, but I genuinely felt so may be because the class was crammed with almost 50 students. I think there should be a standard set like X area/student below which schools should not be permitted to conduct the classes). The class was noisy and students were casually uninterested in me as I was just another new lecturer who had come for a demo class. (I always pat my back when I remember the and compare the first day and last day I spent in the college.) It is one thing to speak to a group of people who know what you are, what your capabilities are and an entirely different thing to speak to a group of new aquintances who dont care about who you are. And if those aquintances happen to be in intermediates(also called as in-term-idiots, by those who dont understand them) you are surely at the recieving end. And I knew for sure that I was at the recieving end. After all I had brought it upon myself.
I started introducing myself as the noise continued. I said my college name and the noise reduced. A few faces showed interest. I told my CET rank and few more faces responded. But the noise levels in the class were no where close to silence. I had never longed more for silence and attention than at that moment in the class. Since the noise levels had come down, I tried to strike a conversation with the few of the students whose faces had showed soem interest. I asked a student to stand and questioned him regarding the syllabus. "I dont know Sir", came the instant reply. There was not even a hint of regret on his face when he said that. I was naturally surprised and tried asking another student. When I got the same reply, it only added to my confusion and surprise. And when the next student said the same, my patience had reached the limit and the noise levels had crossed the limit. I had to raise my voice and admonish the students. "Do you guys want me to send some of you out in my first class itself..? I definitely don't want to", I said. Finally there was some impact and the noise levels died down. But I had reached nowhere regarding geeting an idea of the syllabus and what I had to teach in case i was selected. I was about to give up my hopes. Three students in a row saying that they didint know the syllabus was too much to take. But i thought of giving one more(may be the last one ) push and the door opened. There stood my angel, at the other end of the door. He gave me a list of lessons that were already completed. Content that my first interaction was not a failure, I walked out of the class. The peon who was waiting near the door for me to finish came to me and said that I did pretty well as that was one of the most difficult classes to handle. It was through him that I got to know that class had both Biolgy and Computer Science students and there were hardly 10 students who belonged to Computer Science in the class. It was only then that the picture became clear and I realised why the first three students did not know the syllabus. But what I didnt understand was that why didt they tell that they were not from Computer Science. Whatelse could be the reason other than scare a new teacher who has come for a demo class.
To be continued....
Next - The demo class
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