Loonville

Four years back, when i walked into Loyola, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I was waitlisted at AIIMS, messed up my JEE Mains and swore never to get anywhere near the engineers again.The first half of the year was dull. I hadn’t met Sid G and Teebz. I was a pompous ass. Classes were insipid. If you didn’t know, there is absolutely no interaction between the seniors and the juniors at the department, so no ragging and the likes.It was BORING .Second half wasn’t too bad. I got into the core co-ord team for the culturals, did some emcee-ing and that’s when I met some of my seniors. That’s when I first heard of “The Ravi sir.”

S.Ravichandran M.Sc. He turned sixty this year and he’s retiring, atleast as a full-time member of the faculty. Senior most amongst the staff, a whole generation of students have come to love and respect this man. He served as the HOD for a short while, a vice-principal, been on the election committee and has done it all at Loyola. Yet he has always been approachable and amiable. No, I’m not going to do a glittering write up for him. This is about what Ravi sir has meant to me.

The department has always had a lot of bickering among the staff, a high handed condescending attitude and even a step-motherly treatment to the university stream. And Ravi’s handling of the final year undergrad students came under some fire thanks to some annoying pests in the department. So I had no chance in hell to study directly under him, not even at the JAM classes. Two years went by, me and Teebz were hoping Ravi sir comes back with his Electricity and Magnetism lectures. Quite a few eyebrows were raised when we asked for him. And it never happened.

Physica-2006. The first time the autonomous and university streams came together for the inter-dept fest. Dr.Joe gives us a free rein; that means the slaves (read autonomus students) shut up and listen to us . The showcase event, the Levitae quiz lands up with yours truly. Five days before the event, a Kirankumar comes looking for me.
me : “Kiran who ?” (Kiran now happens to be a good friend)
Kiran:”Ravichandran wants to meet you. He is the faculty incharge for the quiz”

Finally, I get a one-on-one meeting with this demi-god I have heard so much about. He turned out to be an absolute stud and I had so much fun working with him. The quiz was okay ( I still rate the one at KFI to be my best) It was one of my ordinary days but it was certainly a Kodak moment when Ravi sir came over and said “well done” Ever since, we have been quick to bug him left, right and center for the most trivial stuff. He went out of his way to help us out with our lab exams and trust me, we were one pain in the ass. I realised one needed to bring along a certain amount of intelligence and preparedness to a Ravichandran lecture, else you were all at sea. Bull headed concentration is the key. When he once remarked ” you guys should have come straight to me earlier”, I was kicking myself. We all remained Ekalavyas. Some lucky buggers from other colleges got to attend his JAM classes..grrr..

Was he a great guy? I don’t know, I have never solved problems with him. But if there was one prof whose approval I cared for, it would be Ravi. I can still remember the day when Dr.NLN from MCC was waxing eloquent about me to Ravi sir and I was literally a proud puppy wagging his tail. So again, is Mr.Ravichandran the best teacher I have known? No, I think that will go to Ganesan sir who taught me my quadratic equations. The friendly prof ? That should be Rajesh and Joe. The sharpest one ? Dr.Ramanand is pretty high up there. I will always remember Ravi sir for his quiet dignity and his immaculate ability to challenge and bring the best out of you. At this level, I guess that is all that matters. Good luck to you sir and you will always be ‘the one’ to beat. I really really hope it is only semi-retirement and he stops wasting time with the dumb M.Sc. students and reaches out to the kids right out of school.