Mysorean

As a tribute to my teachers, I had written this about Mr. Suryanarayana, my mathematics teacher during Intermediate days at Hyderabad:

"There was one Mr. Suryanarayana who was a Don in the World of Calculus. His style of teaching was so simple and clear that I became a fan of Calculus. He used to be called M1 at college. [It was a system to label teachers as M1, M2, so on in SRM Junior college/ Special Coaching Centre]"

In response to this, I have received a connect from one Mr. Vidyanath saying Mr. Suryanarayana is no more. He passed away 4 years back.

During our Intermediate days, professor was not keeping very well. He would come whenever his health permitted him to. We would wait with great excitement for his arrival. Because once he came, the class would be a roller-coaster ride. Nobody would believe it was a mathematics class. He would stand on the dais for a mere 15 minutes; explain the concept that he would be handling during the next two hours. Then, he would walk around between the benches clarifying doubts of students with amazing patience.

Subjects like Calculus, co-ordinate geometry and others were just made to sound so simple. It was Mr. Suryanarayana Rao who drove the fear of mathematics away from us. Instead he made it our most favourite subject. I know of atleast 80 people (my intermediate class) who just adored him. Some of us would call him “Thatha” not out of ridicule but affection.

Even today if I am faced with a problem of mathematics, I won’t run away saying that I have forgotten all this. Instead I will try approaching it from first principles. The fundamentals which the Great professor has so superbly taught us. It is now fun to do mathematics.

Thanks to you Sir. Thanks! If I say you were God to me, I don’t think I would be off the mark. Guru devo bhava. Now that you are with God, please tell God to send more people like you to make more students understand the fun behind every subject. You know the best as to how learning can be made effortless.

In the form of your death, special coaching center has lost its best professor. The students are never going to realize what they have lost. The student community, who has learnt from you, will know what a great loss it is. For me, it’s a great personal loss. I have lost my Guru. And I guess I had done something really bad not to know about the loss for 4 years. I will miss you Sir!

Also, thanks to Mr. Vidyanath for updating me. Please keep in touch.