NRB
Nagendra Revanasiddappa Beloor or NRB was our class teacher in 9th Standard. Beloor Master, from a traditional Lingayat family of Shahabad, was, to the best of my knowledge, born and brought up and educated in Shahabad and so he stayed in his own house in the Bajaar area. Their family owned a shop there too. He was a B.Sc from the Margol College, also in Shahabad, in what was called CBZ (Chemistry, Botany and Zoology). Owing to his Shahabad bringing up, he knew Hindi but to the best of my knowledge, he had not learnt Hindi as a subject formally. Beloor Master taught us Biology, Chemistry and Hindi.
He was thin and wiry, angular faced, with a thin black long moustache and rode a bicycle from his house to the school. He was considered to be an extremely strict taskmaster. But the standards he set for himself were far higher than the one he set for us. When he said that the “cell was the structural and functional unit of a living organism” we UNDERSTOOD it. That was that. No further explanations needed.
In the recent movie “Omkaara”, a western UP adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy Othello, by Vishaal Bharadwaj, there is a scene where Dolly’s (Desdemona’s) father beckons Omi Shukla (Othello, the Moor) and tells him, “Bahubali, Aurat ke daria charitra ko mat bhoolna. Jo ladki apne baap ko thug sakti hai, who kisi aur ki sagi kya hogi?”. This is where the seeds of suspicion that metamorphosised into a death warrant for Dolly were sown in Omkara Shukla’s mind. I suggest you all read Othello and then watch Omkaara. It is an enriching experience to say the least.
Why I digressed was, to say that it was when Beloor Master taught one of his classes, or gave us one of his definitions, like that of a cell cited above, were the seeds of a deep and abiding love for science planted in me. It was sometime then, that I decided that I wanted to teach Science to the world, and not become an engineer or a doctor or anything else. I wanted to be a science teacher! Following that call, I reached where I am today, a non formal science educator.
Beloor Master was also a master story teller. He used to skip classes sometimes and tell us stories. One particularly interesting one was “God Sees the Truth but Waits” by Lev Tolstoy. It is still one of my favorite stories and a phrase which keeps me afloat during difficult times. NRB steered us through 9th standard into 10th where we were handed over to MSD or Mysore S Devaraj, who was a study in contrast to NRB but an equally great teacher. In the meanwhile Sr. Angel Mary retired and Sr. Angelita, a very tough nut, took over as headmistress of the MCC. NRB and MSD both had disagreements with Sr. Angelita but it only added to the wealth of knowledge that we received from all three. More later.
He was thin and wiry, angular faced, with a thin black long moustache and rode a bicycle from his house to the school. He was considered to be an extremely strict taskmaster. But the standards he set for himself were far higher than the one he set for us. When he said that the “cell was the structural and functional unit of a living organism” we UNDERSTOOD it. That was that. No further explanations needed.
In the recent movie “Omkaara”, a western UP adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy Othello, by Vishaal Bharadwaj, there is a scene where Dolly’s (Desdemona’s) father beckons Omi Shukla (Othello, the Moor) and tells him, “Bahubali, Aurat ke daria charitra ko mat bhoolna. Jo ladki apne baap ko thug sakti hai, who kisi aur ki sagi kya hogi?”. This is where the seeds of suspicion that metamorphosised into a death warrant for Dolly were sown in Omkara Shukla’s mind. I suggest you all read Othello and then watch Omkaara. It is an enriching experience to say the least.
Why I digressed was, to say that it was when Beloor Master taught one of his classes, or gave us one of his definitions, like that of a cell cited above, were the seeds of a deep and abiding love for science planted in me. It was sometime then, that I decided that I wanted to teach Science to the world, and not become an engineer or a doctor or anything else. I wanted to be a science teacher! Following that call, I reached where I am today, a non formal science educator.
Beloor Master was also a master story teller. He used to skip classes sometimes and tell us stories. One particularly interesting one was “God Sees the Truth but Waits” by Lev Tolstoy. It is still one of my favorite stories and a phrase which keeps me afloat during difficult times. NRB steered us through 9th standard into 10th where we were handed over to MSD or Mysore S Devaraj, who was a study in contrast to NRB but an equally great teacher. In the meanwhile Sr. Angel Mary retired and Sr. Angelita, a very tough nut, took over as headmistress of the MCC. NRB and MSD both had disagreements with Sr. Angelita but it only added to the wealth of knowledge that we received from all three. More later.
posted by Ramdas Iyer at 9:01 PM
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