The biggest influence.
“Hello, I am Ravi Shankar. I understand that your primary motivation for participation in this class is to crack the JEE. Mine is to teach physics. Not the way TRS teaches Maths — with a zillion formulae to memorise — but the way I learnt from mine, Prof. Ananthakrishnan. Anyone disinterested can feel free to approach me at the end of the lecture to collect reimbursement.”
The class went into stunned silence, awaiting with bated breath, for him to shatter the awkwardness that engulfed us. When he finally spoke, we listened rapturous, marvelling at the man who — contrary to all intuition — made a three hour lecture seem like it lasted a half hour.Three hours a day, two days a week through grades 11 and 12. Never did I miss a single lecture.
There really isn’t any point in elucidating the way he conducted his classes because they weren’t just lectures but a collective discovery of the various principles of physics, with him probing, pushing, enlightening. Words, however eloquent, probably wouldn’t do any justice to the person who has been the biggest influence in my life.
