Answer added to topic Indian Institutes of Technology.
Rukmini Bhaya Nair, one of India's most renowned poets and linguists, erstwhile HOD of Humanities Department, Visiting Faculty at Stanford University, Lexicographer. Ph.D from Cambridge.
Well, Ma'am's impeccable credentials and her inimitable charisma don't make her the best professor; but her wit, amiability and humility, which never allowed us to realize that the person teaching us was an international public figure, being good friends with the likes of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Gulzar.
I was fortunate to undertake the course titled 'Workshop in Creative Writing' by her and it was the only lecture, which was held at 8 o' clock in the morning, where I never missed a class.
For me, the most important virtue of any teacher is that the teacher should take keen interest in one's students' thinking process and should not consider them inferior to him/her. Nair Ma'am has been one such exceptional teacher, who listened to our thoughts with non-judgmental stance, read all our writings with immense interest as well as acceptance, and was considerate enough to acknowledge writings/arguments that were even moderately good. Despite the fact that she began the course with the first sentence, 'writing cannot be taught, but caught', she taught us writing better than whatever we had caught from all our past readings.
Some unique experiences:
Though now I wish that I had interacted more with her during my time at IIT, I can at least recommend anyone with a creative bent of mind to attend her course. You would learn a lot and realize that yes, there are amazing, though rare, professors in the campus who would shoo away every speck of sleep even if the class is at 8 am. FROM QUORA
Well, Ma'am's impeccable credentials and her inimitable charisma don't make her the best professor; but her wit, amiability and humility, which never allowed us to realize that the person teaching us was an international public figure, being good friends with the likes of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Gulzar.
I was fortunate to undertake the course titled 'Workshop in Creative Writing' by her and it was the only lecture, which was held at 8 o' clock in the morning, where I never missed a class.
For me, the most important virtue of any teacher is that the teacher should take keen interest in one's students' thinking process and should not consider them inferior to him/her. Nair Ma'am has been one such exceptional teacher, who listened to our thoughts with non-judgmental stance, read all our writings with immense interest as well as acceptance, and was considerate enough to acknowledge writings/arguments that were even moderately good. Despite the fact that she began the course with the first sentence, 'writing cannot be taught, but caught', she taught us writing better than whatever we had caught from all our past readings.
Some unique experiences:
- I remember the most unique exam that I had ever taken: where we were handed wooden elephant toys, all distinct, which we had to describe in words - so detailed that Ma'am should be able to identify which elephant out of those 60 we were talking about.
- Madam was very open to class participation, in truly international feel. While discussing poetry, a student suggested her to dissect a rock song. The next day, she brings forth and discusses a heavy metal song in the class.
- Our class projects, the assignment, that had 35% weightage had to be a long creative writing piece delving into a genre chosen from among 60 different kind of emotions like jealousy, love, anger, greed etc. that she had enlisted. It was one of the best exercises to polish writing skills, as it forced us to observe a particular emotion very keenly and bring that observation in practice.
- She made me understand the difference between sadism and schadenfreude. If you get robbed and I enjoy, it's not sadistic pleasure. It's schadenfreude. If I rob you and I enjoy, it's sadistic pleasure.
- Unlike other elite literary (pseudo-)intellectuals, Madam never took a cynical stand towards Chetan Bhagat, instead asked for our opinions, which quadrupled my respect for her. She presented us with a balanced view that Chetan Bhagat, despite not being a very brilliant writer, deserves great credit for evoking the reading spirit among youth and striking a chord with them with his simple language, which many brilliant writers couldn't.
- She had called her friends for a special lecture in our class. You know who her friends were: Sir Mark Tully, the eminent journalist; Ritu Menon, award winning publisher and Keki Daruwala, the well-known poet. She was also planning to call Gulzar Saheb into our early morning lecture, but unfortunately dates couldn't be finalized.
- I used to send her my stories every now and then, which she used to read and critique. I remember one of her suggestions, when I had sent her two of the love stories that I had written - one humorous (which I considered to be my best one) and another philosophical (which I thought was a little boring). She had liked the philosophical one more, saying that a good story is the one which makes one think, rather than laugh or cry.
- I remember during the course, my first novel had gotten published. Madam somehow had got to know about it; she summoned me and asked for my book. Fearing that she wouldn't be able to relate to it as it was a comedy of errors in the life of a student, I shyly said, "Ma'am, you wouldn't like it," to which she had replied, "You, being a writer, should never underestimate your own work". It was an uplifting feedback which has been etched in my memory ever since. I'm still to give her the book though. :P
Though now I wish that I had interacted more with her during my time at IIT, I can at least recommend anyone with a creative bent of mind to attend her course. You would learn a lot and realize that yes, there are amazing, though rare, professors in the campus who would shoo away every speck of sleep even if the class is at 8 am. FROM QUORA
