These days the attitude and relationship between a tutor and a student has become so mercenary that sometimes the tutor forgets the real reason why he/she is there in the first place. Have times changed that much? Today tutors largely are disappointing and the relationship they have with the student is based on money and time, unfortunately not primarily knowledge.
It was not another lifetime when I was in school. After my 10th standard Board exams, I decided to quit Mathematics in 11th grade. I thought I had enough of studying and wanted to enjoy turning 16. Over the year, I met someone who influenced me about the subject and made me understand its importance. “It’s not just the knowledge of numbers,” he said, “it is about logic and the challenge to solve a problem. It makes you brave and more capable of dealing with the unknown.”
I did not quite understand what exactly he meant by this but I convinced myself to take up Maths once again. My headmistress, Ms Parambi, was not quite excited about this as she felt that I may not be able to cope with 12th grade Mathematics not having studied it in 11th. And furthermore, it was a question of performance in the Board exams. Unsure about what I was doing, I convinced her I would make up for the lost time in my summer holiday.
At that time walked in Mr Bhatia. The man was not just a teacher but he carried with him the quality of faith — faith that he could make his student love his subject.
“Once you love something, you do it well,” he would tell me. He taught me logic like a story with a beginning and an end. Teaching the subject, that most students are frightened of, got me engrossed till we proved the theorem.
Timing was never an issue. Sometimes he would sit for hours without charging me, concerned whether I had understood the topic or not. He changed my perception of maths. I started loving the subject and studied maths upto a Masters level, and I owe every bit to him.
During college, I would go for help to a professor called Pradip Narain. He spoke about the subject with a kind of passion I have not known in academics. His love for the subject was clear when he would become emotional about the wondrous ways of proving a formula. I could not stop loving the subject.
I had a similar experience with a Hindi teacher called Mr Tiwari, as he taught Hindi like poetry.
Today tutors are unlike the earlier teachers. They first ask for a crazy amount as advance for the year. And then if the child does not get the subject, they blame the child’s lack of attention. What the tutors fail to understand is that the reason they are employed is to create an understanding of the subject in the child, as the child is weak in it. The fact that extra help is needed is because they don’t have the attention they need in school. They are not there to clock in the time, set the work and blame the child. The schoolteachers are doing that anyway as they have limited time to follow a system.
I see my son struggle and so do his tutors. There are no likes of Mr Bhatia, Mr Narain or Mr Tiwari. They in fact criticise constantly, draining the child off their confidence. They have to first allow the child to understand the subject and develop a 3-way relationship with the student and the subject.
In this jingle, I see only a Mr Tripathi who has actually inculcated a sense of understanding of Hindi within my son as I dread his forthcoming 10th board exams!!

This jewellery designer provides a ringside view into the complex lives and challenges of achievers.