Dr. R. Balasubramanian

“I was a notorious student during my school and college days. Till 12th I didn’t know what IIT was….never thought I would become a Professor at IIT. though I always wanted to become a school teacher when I was young, since my father was also a teacher.

So I completed my BSc, undertook my masters and finally went to IIT Madras to get my PhD. This was when I came to know about IIT and ended up being a Professor at IIT Roorkee. This journey has been a great one for me. I see my reflection in many students I teach. I really like answering their questions and I get to learn a lot of new things as I teach. I remember the mistakes I make while I teach so my learning is continuous. Now I have spent 17 years teaching at IITR, with ups and downs, lots of learning, mistakes and many great experiences.

Apart from teaching, I manage to give half of my time to my personal life. I believe work is important but everything needs to be balanced, so that everything is parallel.

As I said earlier, I was very mischievous in my school days. I still remember that incident from my school days around 30 years ago. When I was in 12th class, I used to mimic my chemistry teacher and amazingly enough, my handwriting and voice exactly matched his.It was after a half-yearly examination that he distributed the answer sheets and told us all to count the total. My friends, a gang of four, asked me to change the marks by adding +2 or +3 in almost all the questions and the total went +30. But the ghissus had a doubt on us and reported. I got caught red-handed. My teacher didn’t punish me, I still remember his advice. He is a real gentleman. I am confessing this after 30 years!

I feel connected to students. Many of my previous students are still in touch with me and talking to them brings a lot of nostalgia. I have been involved in memes lately and I think they are merely for fun. I really enjoy the hubbub around it and shouldn’t be meant to offend someone.

In this online sem, we are missing the student teacher relationship, Cognizance and Thomso. I really hope covid ends and you all come back to campus soon.

The campus feels empty without you all.” — Professor Balasubramanian Raman