When I was a child, I used to love playing the teacher-student game so much that I made my mother buy a blackboard, duster and a bunch of white and other coloured chalks. I had probably imbibed this from my mother who used to tutor kindergarten and primary school children despite not having pursued her higher education.
I saw her nurturing these little minds in all possible ways throughout my childhood and that developed a love towards teaching. I did my graduation in Computer Science from Wilson College and decided not to take up any placements and instead go for post-graduation. I faced the same confusion that most of the students come across and that was selecting between M.Sc., MCA and MBA. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had my career decision made and hence chose M.Sc. IT over all the other options. I started taking tuitions while I was pursuing my post-graduation. This gave me confidence to get into the teaching field. Finally, after many years of waiting, I began my career as an Assistant Professor at Wilson College, where I worked for two years. Along with being a full-time professor in Wilson College, I was also taking visiting lectures at colleges like Lala Lajpat Rai, K.P.B Hinduja and Siddharth. I joined Vidyalankar School of Information Technology in the year 2015 and since then I've learned that being a teacher is not only about knowing your subject but also about a versatile improvisation of oneself.
My current designation is Assistant Professor, but along with this I’m also the Convener of Corporate Communication Committee which handles our website and different mediums of LMS provided by our institute. I’m also the Branch Mentor of IEEE – VSIT Student Branch through which we organise various activities, sessions, workshops etc. One most important activity that we conducted through IEEE was the “Digital Literacy Program”, where we collaborated with Angel Express Foundation NGO and taught the kids registered with them the Basics of Computers. This activity had given us a deep sense of understanding that why and how should we be selfless for our society.
The next most important role according to me is being a “Mentor”. I remember when I was in college, a lot of students including me used to come across different problems. The problems could be as small as having a fight with a friend to as big as not being able to adjust to the college environment. We never had anyone to go to and discuss these problems and calm ourselves down. With VSIT, we teachers have been given this opportunity to mentor students so that they don’t really get stuck and feel clueless about what to do next.
Since the time I’ve joined Vidyalankar, I have been able to groom myself in various ways by taking up different types of roles and responsibilities. I’ve learnt quite a lot on the professional front which has changed my notion towards being a responsible teacher and I am looking forward to learning more in future too!
