Sept 5th is Dr. Radhakrishnan, our former president’s birthday. This day is also called the ‘teachers day’ as Dr Radhakrishnan wished it to be. On this day I thought I would express my gratitude and share my memories of KRM sir who taught math to us.
An ideal teacher to me is one who is dedicated not just to his work or the subject, but also to his students. Oftentimes this is contested and dubbed by the community around and even present-day teachers as an “Ideal personality”.
In today’s world, anything that is ideally good is impractical and virtually non-existent. But we find those who cross this barrier tend to become heroes.
One such hero is KR Munkundan of Mahajana College, Mysore. He was fondly called KRM sir, by his students and colleagues. KRM taught us math during the 1980s when we were his students in pre-university (11th and 12th std in today’s system).
KRM did not just lecture math but also sparked an interest in the subject— especially trigonometry — He also gave me a chance to believe that ideal teachers are not mere fragments of imagination and truly exist. Grateful for both.
What makes KRM so special and remembered even after decades? the answer is his understanding of math as a subject, his high degree of preparation, and his involvement in teaching.
When he started at the blackboard, he would not just not address the first and middle benches but also reach out to the last benches equally well. This way he made sure the last benchers were no laggers in math!
KRM’s uniqueness lay in the fact that he used to “make us see” those formulas and numbers.
The introductory class of trigonometry began with the definition of trigonometry. First time we used to hear a voice so beaming and convincing.
“Remember trigonometry has these qualities,” he would start and continue, “Try — Go — No — Metry which means Try as a first step — Go (ing) further to explore more — Feels like oh No — Then it reaches your Metry (neck in Kannada). Then the obstacle for learning flows out ( of your neck)”
The concept in that context was well understood by those students of the time.
When it came to remembering the concepts and definitions of Sine, Cos, and Tan the explanation would carry a story.
On the 3 sides of a right-angle triangle, the 3 guys are standing by names — opp, adj, and hypotenuse are standing in their positions with a dagger in their hands.
When opp shows a dagger to Hyp, Hyp will kneel down under Sine and this position is called Sine. Thus sine is Opp / Hyp. When Adj shows a dagger to Hyp, Hyp again will kneel down under Cos and thus Cos becomes Adj / Hyp and finally Opp side shows the dagger to the Adj side. Now the Adj side kneels down and thus Tan becomes Opp / Adj.The number story moves on
KRM was absolutely keen that every student in the class, no matter what their level of IQ was, would receive what he taught.
He used to reach the whole classroom of 70-odd people with his blistering voice and his large writings on the blackboard.
This way we were spot on with his audio and video impact!
He had developed a very effective teaching tool — a pocket diary! He would pull out the tool in between his teaching to refer to proudly , “I can teach BSc math from this book…” by which we assume it had formulas, a teaching schedule, and other valuable notes.
Indeed, it was as effective as he claimed
Given the age of his students — who were mostly in their late teens — not all could focus. To wake up unattentive guys,betweenthe lecture he would throw a question and point at them to answer, knowing fully well they couldn’t.
When he found there was no response from the students, he would restart the teaching again. For those who already knew, it would be a double whammy! Never did he make a student feel embarrassed for not understanding a math concept.
The 80s and 90s were those days when students and parents felt that not attending a tuition class would mean a sin and the cost of this sin was rejection of admission to engineering colleges.
Every teacher was compelled to offer the tuition classes. The better ones had houses full. Needless to say, KRM’s class was house full, some of them willing to stand beyond the door and listen to his teaching.
KRM would start his day by 4 in the morning and close the day a little beyond 11 at night with the constant inflow of students at home for tuition and college for regular classes. His teaching presence remained at top quality the whole day. Be it tuition or college.
Many times he would not even ask for his fees and would say, “Do well in exams, that’s enough..”.That was his dedication!
Students probably never felt at ease with any other math teacher than with KRM.
He used to observe the student’s faces as he explained and if he saw a bewilderment in them, he was quick to know what they really were wondering and restart teaching the concept. This time with another approach.
When explaining the trigonometry equations sin2 Ɵ + Cos2 Ɵ =1, (Read sine squared and cos squared …couldn’t write the superscript) he used to observe the student’s faces. Some of us used to wonder where and why it’s equal to 1. He would be quick to respond to our confusion — even without anyone asking for it.If you are wondering where and why the 1, is just start this as an ‘assumption’ and you can always find answers to it later as you learn more..
He would further continue — “Look, I can assume this chalk in my hand is equal to Chamundi hill” — a hill lock in Mysore, visible from our classroom window — and later learn how to find an answer for it. This would put us at ease and back on the learning track. Surely yes, we now know the answers for many of them.
If teaching is all about inspiring minds, touching hearts, and changing lives, our KRM has done it all. He has in me, remained an ideal teacher!
Time consumes everyone on this earth and it did the same to our beloved K R Mukudan years ago. Nevertheless, today KRM sir continues to live in the hearts of many students who are doing extremely well from rocket scientists to business bigwigs.
Decades later, today his math teaching has been very much alive in me. Still wanting to go back to his class, he remained an ideal teacher!
May his tribe grow!
अज्ञान तिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जन शलाकया।चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः॥
Regards to the Guru who opened the eyes of people blinded by the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge.
