1/20/2006

Vitto

Well, there are four broad circumstances I write under. One, when I'm happy. Two, when I'm sad. Three, when I'm excited about something. Fourth, when I'm pissed off with something.
(The fifth might come up, when I start getting sloshed..)

I'm writing this, coz I'm happy. The reason pretty small, possibly inane. We have this course called 'Electrical sciences', mainly analog circuits, taken by a prof called by those magical letters.

Vitto.

Man, he's GOD.

He's unarguably the best in analog circuits in IITM, pretty vastly experienced, and his teaching, I feel is surpassed by a few(read none). To begin with, I'll let some of you guys help me find out his psychology. In the first class, he just amazed me again with some of the most contradicting sentences I've ever heard in my life. I cease to find out what kinda person he is, coz he's confused me so much, that I just cannot figure him out. His set of instructions for the course in the first class contained the following..

1) Your department(Mech) has given me only 1 lecture per week, to complete this course, which is not possible. I need 75-80 lectures, which means I have to take a minimum of 4 hours a week, possibly 5. Goddamn, an increase from one to four hours. Dammit.

2) I'll start taking the class 10 minutes before the start time, and continue for 10 min after the hour is up. Whaat.? What does he think of himself..?

3) I need to take classes on saturdays and sundays if possible, if we need to.
Is he out of his head..?

4) The class representative needs to inform me at any cost, if a class is free, so that I can take it.
Madar..!

5) Next, regarding exams, it'll be the quiz-end sem pattern. Only design problems, because you're engineers. No theory. And do not write english in my paper. I want only numbers. I do not like reading. Weirdo..!

6) You'll be given full credit if an answer is wrong, provided the logic is correct, but you'll get zero if you mess up with the units, say megaohms, for ohms, coz those are unforgivable.
Scared..

7) You'll get 100 marks if say, you attempt 80 marks and get them correct, but do not have time for the other 20 marks. Oooh..eccentric..?

8) I want complete discipline in the exam hall. I do not want to hear any sound whatsoever. If anyone's caught, no problems. They just have to repeat the course.
Shit scared.

9) If at any point of time, you happen to leave the hall, for whatsoever reason, straightaway 30 percent of your marks are deducted, and 10 percent for every min after five minutes. And you can be assured, if you go out, there are faint chances you end up passing my course.

10) If someone wants to go to the bathroom, he/she can bring a bottle and do it under my supervision. Freako..!

11) Next, the make up exams. Please do not miss a quiz or an exam in the hope of writing the make up quiz. Make up quizzes are made considerably tougher. Its very difficult for students to do well. Infact, no one has passed my make up exam soo far. Zzzzzz...!

12) Regarding the classes, I do not force you to come. You may or may not come. There's no attendence, but obviously, I advise you to come.

13) You can walk in, or walk out at any point of time, but please do so without disturbing others.

14) You can eat or sleep in the class. I do not mind even the whole of first bench sleeping. Do whatever you want in class, but silently.

Now tell me, what kinda guy is he...? Age wise, pretty old. So I guess a bit of generation gap does exist. But, but, I'm in love with him. Reasons coming...

This whole process, the 15 points above suggest to me, that he respects the students. I mean it. There are hardly profs who respect students. Most of them treat us as if we're at their disposal.
He wants us to learn something. Something concrete. Something we never forget. Something at which we are unbeatable. Well, as far his teaching goes, awe inspiring is the least I can say. I have NOT come across any prof who can put forth points so damn clearly to students as he does. Unshakable concepts.

Requisite for the class - Bull-headed concentration. 100 percent.
In fact, its after his classes that I've learnt what 100 percent concentration takes. All that're there in your world, are the prof, the board, and your notebook. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else.
You see only the prof, and the board. There was something in his teaching which was unique. Which I have never come across in my life. Which took the past 10 days to find out. The uniqueness lies in his style of teaching. After spending these two weeks, I've noticed that he is the prof who can get closest to 'reading a book'. Man, its totally true..! Imagine this. You have an amazing book with you, which is strong in concepts. Incredibly strong. And that you're blindfolded, and someone's reading the book for you. Continuously. While you're reading a book, you can stop at a place where you feel uncomfortable, or difficult. But with someone dictating, the person cannot be stopped, which is the case with Vitto.

Which means, you gotto have a remarkable concentration, and grasping power. You lose it for a mere 30 seconds, Lo.! You're gone..Gone gone gone..No way you can understand. No way on earth..! I'm sure Spanky agrees with me. And that's why I'm so happy. I have been fighting for first benches in this course, and have been following him perfectly, which just makes me feel so GOOD..! I don't know if this is so very idiotic, or unique to me, but learning from any GOD level prof, and grasping points which I feel my mind couldn't have thought of, makes me just sooo happy..makes me want to jump up...I'm so happy once again..!

Long live Vitto..

14 comments:

Vijay Shankar said...

The fact that Vitto was a good prof struck me in basic elec last sem itself.

But man when spanky told me that he crashes in other classes so that he can stay awake in Vitto's class i was really surprised.

Then i figured out he must be really teaching well if he takes three classes more than he is allowed and u guys still cant gte enough of him.

I hope he takes analog circuits for us and he is as good as you say he is.

And the reason why u have vitto this sem that the 165 credit thingy has offset the elec curriculum by one sem and this sem there is no analog circuits course going on in elec.He usually takes it in both the semesters.

Hope u continue to enjoy the course

SpankMac said...

hell yeah! i agree with you on everything you said..

yet, i managed to come a few min. late for two of vitto's classes (because i had bunked the previous class).

and i surprised myself by paying attention from the last bench!

like wiper said, i had crashed in the MAD class to stay awake in vitto's :)

i liked him from the beginning too

all or nothing said...

first of all I'm trhilled to find out guys in IIT speaking something positive about their prof.
Secondly, congratulations man. We all know how lucky we are to find such gems for teachers, and they become an unforgettable part of our lives.

Ducky said...

You're all CRAZY!!!! He's just friggin made you a 30-credit sem and y'all are singin plaudits about him??? GOD, Mech Junta!

And remove the bleeding word-verification. I don't get any spam, it's stopped. Bloody I can't make out if this word is uusvw or uusvvv!!!

Makam said...

well, thats absolutely true da...anyways, i hope theres soon a post abt a particular flu mech prof too !

Anonymous said...

to me as you said he sounds scary as well as damningly dedicated.
as they say...a nation can only be as good as its teachers...i hope its true!

displayname said...

...I mean it. There are hardly profs who respect students. Most of them treat us as if we're at their disposal.
You have my sympathies :)

If someone wants to go to the bathroom, he/she can bring a bottle and do it under my supervision. Freako..!
Is he serious? Has anyone really tried it? I'm curious!

CB said...

@viper
Ya..pray he takes the course for you the next sem..

CB said...

Vatsa..
Don't know if its already happened anytime..

Anonymous said...

I recall, during my IITM years there used to be this famous one - liner by Ant Reddy (Prof. Anthony Reddy) which went - "If Vitto can do it, any monkey can do it". I rest my case.

Anonymous said...

I know this is too late, but still..there are professors in ESB at IITM who are orders of magnitude superior to Vitto. His idea of teaching Design instead of Analysis is BS. It is because he cant do analysis himself. Unless you cant analyze something, you can never design it. You will end up designing something like the water tank on campus near the Civil Engineering department where they neglected to consider the weight of water in a water tank while constructing resulting in a collapsed tank once water is pumped it.

gusulore said...

Do you guys know his nick name? It is RED ANT :D

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Anonymous said...

I guess you are not confusing the "analog guru" M Anthony Reddy with another IITM professor TJ Vitto. I had the privilege of taking courses under both.