Mathemagic (Bidar Days)

Mathemagic (Bidar days)
It was Bidar,1983 at GND Engineering college in the 1st year . We had to pedal 5kms from the hostel to reach college as there was no hostel near the college. The maths period was very interesting because we had a very good and effective teacher, Mr BS Janthe who had exceptional teaching skills in built in him and was a gem of a person who did not leave any doubt to be clarified at the end of the lecture which made it easier for everyone to digest the contents of our maths book on ‘Higher Engineering Mathematics’ by BS Grewal supplemented with his notes as his notes catered for everything. He only had one barrier : The language. He was a Kannadigas and knew only Kannada and no hindi or Punjabi which was the language in which all the conversation used to take place most of the time. The only lingua Franca thus left was English in which he was able to manage but was not able to make correct use of grammar as a result mixed the right words with the wrong situations but if thought of logically by the listener would convey the correct meaning of what he wanted to say. He had one more habit; he never liked to be disturbed in between his lecture and expected everyone to ask him a questions at the end of the class.The chances of asking the questions were however remote as usually everyone’s mind would be clear by the time his lecture finished which he also knew well. If some student still clarified a doubt it generally meant that he is just asking for the sake of fun or to gain importance in the class to impress the teacher.
It was an afternoon class when we had to come back after lunch travelling 5 kms on our pedal bikes. The seats were full as it was an important class made easy by him so no one missed it otherwise would be banging his head in the night on the Grewal book. He was teaching multiplication of imaginary numbers.
“The Zhad Zhad conjugate gives this value” as he pronounced the conjugate function and took out its value finishing the problem. Then he looked at the class for it may shoot any question for clarifying their doubts on it. No one spoke anything as the solution was crystal clear at the end of the lecture as usual. One of the student , Amandeep however got up to clarify his mind and said,
“Sir if you could tell what is meant by imaginary number again?”
“I have already told you any number which can be written in the form of a+ib is called imaginary at the start of the lecture so why asking now ?” the teacher replied
“Sir what is a and b?” Amandeep asked again
“ a one any number and b any other number” He again clarified
“Sir what is i ?”Amandeep reiterated
”i is imaginary” Said Mr Janthe
“Then what is a+ib” Amandeep asked again
“I think you not understood. Require extra time. Dont waste class time. I will explain after lecture” said the maths teacher.
But Amandeep was not ready to listen and he insisted on explaining then and there itself.
Mr Janthe then told him,
“You meet me behind the class when you are empty and I am vacant. You can also meet me when I am vibrating in the verandah. In this way class time not wasted.”
Meanwhile three of the students who had gone out for some work were waiting outside facing him to get in as were waiting for the gesture of Mr Janthe to permit them in as he was busy talking to us. Seeing them after finishing his sentence he looked at them and gestured them to enter the class for going to their respective seats saying,
“Both of you three get in”
And they without showing any sign of surprise went and occupied their places forgetting that they were three of them and not two.
One of the student,Surjit who was in a hurry to go wanted the class to be dismissed and was waiting for Mr janthe to disperse the class soon so that he could be left too said to Mr Janthe showing that he cared about him and his things,
“Sir your Luna (Scooty) seats will melt in the sun shall I park it under the shade”
Mr Janthe probably understood his psychology to break off early and replied,
“Don’t worry my Luna is understanding the tree”
And Surjit put his head on the desk between his folded hands and giggled silently.
Long live Janthe sir.