The Teacher and the Taught

That Naman Sir is not just about teaching for an exam, but about instilling larger lessons was driven home to me in the very first minutes of entering the examination hall on 16th of June,2024. With only a few minutes to go before the commencement of the exam, there was an electric short-circuit and spark in the hall which caused the lights and fans to go out.  I could immediately sense the unease and discomfort on the faces of almost all the fellow examinees. It was at this point that the lessons and practice of being in the Dravid Zone came to my rescue. I did not allow the incident to unsettle my focus and managed to retain my calm and composure. As it turned out, the fault was fixed by the administration in time, but the fact that I was able to remain focused and undistracted is largely due to the experience with misfits. 

I joined misfits with only one hope that it would help me re-experience the joys of learning as I had felt that the competitive nature of the exam reduced the preparation to a mechanical drudgery in my first attempt in 2023. For me personally, Naman Sir has exceeded my expectation. He has enabled me to bring a new perspective to the entire exercise enabling me to approach it with an open and curious mind. The preparation under the guidance of Naman Sir was more an exercise in learning and conceptual clarity. Learning from a practitioner like Naman Sir was truly a transformational exposure for me, as opposed to reading each subject in silos. Most importantly, I have imbibed his appreciation for the uniqueness of our country with all its flaws and beauties. I could sense the amount of energy put in by him in crafting the lessons, as each episode was anchored into contextually relevant aspects of the nation’s progress along the key dimensions of economy, history, polity, and culture. I have especially enjoyed the polity episodes as Naman Sir explained the nuances of many aspects of polity by giving contextual examples.  

 Naman Sir has not only helped me in building my foundational understanding of the subjects, but also instilled strong ethical values in me. However, I can’t help but mention that Naman Sir’s occasional use of epithets like ‘idiots’ for people outside the Misfits makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, given that the word has peculiar associations for me as a student of psychology. But then, persons with strong character tend to use strong and ‘edgy’ words sometimes. Also, I can sense that it is more out of a feeling of concern for the good of others. 

 Lastly, learning from the honesty that I have witnessed in Naman Sir, I would myself like to make an honest admission that I have still have a long way to go in learning to deal with the anxieties and insecurities that arise in the face of challenges. But I take consolation from Naman Sir’s words that one should focus on the process and not just the eventual outcome.