Responsibility

When we were in the tenth grade we used to believe that nothing
could be more difficult than the mathematics we were learning. Indeed
each day brought forth new challenges and we had to work really hard to
just pass the various tests. However, we later realized that all this
had a purpose. When we actually took the school board examination all
the sums seemed easy. After having worked very hard to solve really
tough problems we found the board questions very easy. Indeed most of
us were expecting to score well. And that is exactly what happened. But
pre-university was a different cup of tea altogether. The students were
expected to master much of the concepts on their own. The teacher
merely touched the fundamentals. Naturally, most of us were at sea. I
spoke to my parents about the matter. Some relatives were also
consulted. After a lot of thinking it was decided that I should join a
tutorial. In Calcutta, a tutorial is an arrangement in which
ten-fifteen students are taught a particular subject. The person who
teaches is often self-appointed. That is, he may have no degrees and
diplomas in the given subject. However he may possess a collection of
problems or exam questions and their correct answers. All that the
teacher has to do is make the student copy the various problems and
their answers. A lot of people are making pots of money by selling
problems. Nevertheless, after it was decided that I should be put in a
tutorial, my parents began looking for one. In the end a very famous
teacher was selected. My parents and I visited the person in question
whose name was Roger Roy. He ran this tutorial from his air-conditioned
living room. The room was huge and at one end there was a blackboard
and about twenty chairs and tables. Mr Roy spoke to me briefly.
Routine, harmless questions really. He seemed more eager about talking
to my parents. I was later told that he had asked for all kinds of
information about me. He wanted to know my date of birth, favourite
colour and what kind of music I listened to. Other questions were posed
too. We could not understand why he needed to ask these questions.
Anyway, I was admitted to a batch that was taught from 6 to 8 pm on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday of any given week. From the beginning I
noted Roger Roy's teaching methods. He had a masters degree in
Geography from a university about which nobody knew anything. Like
others in his trade he had a bank of solved problems. When he began a
new chapter he would explain the basic concepts very briefly. (I must
say his grasp of mathematics was quite good). And then, the problems
would start. Fifty percent of the problems had to be copied with
solutions. The rest were to be solved as homework. Mr Roy never checked
homework. Instead, he would ask any student to work a random problem
out on the blackboard. Indeed, he had everything very well worked out.
The mathematics that had seemed tough in the beginning was gradually
becoming easier. Here I must mention something. The seating arrangement
in the tutorial was such that boys and girls always sat next to each
other. I feel ashamed to admit this but this closeness with the
opposite sex was one of the reasons that we boys never missed a single
class.
Mr Roger Roy was a very sincere person. If you asked him a question he
would remember it till he found the answer. I once asked him about a
concept in business mathematics. It took him six months to find the
answer. I happened to meet him at a shopping mall. His eyes lit up when
he saw me. He mentioned the question that I had put to him half a year
before. He had just found the answer and informed me about it. I was
astonished, quite amazed. He had at least five hundred students and I
was certainly not the brightest. Despite this my question was of great
importance to him. A few days later somebody mentioned that he would
work very hard to sit on Roger Roy's chair. Roger Roy looked at the boy
and he became very sad. "Why would you want to sit on my chair young
man! There are better things to do in life." For the first time we
realized that Roger Roy was not happy with the life he had. Indeed it
was difficult to understand the man. He gave us gifts on our birthdays
wrapped in coloured paper. And it would always be the colour each liked
the most.
The Selection test had just ended. All of us in the tutorial had become
eligible to take the pre-university board exam. Roger Roy began taking
mock tests which had to be completed in half the board exam time. All
of us were familiar with this rigmarole. But there were more surprises
in store. After all the tests had been taken there was some kind of
post-mortem conducted by Mr Roy. He visited the houses of each of the
twenty students in our batch. He discussed at great length the
strengths and weaknesses of each student in the presence of his or her
parents. My father and mother were very impressed. They had never seen
a teacher who was so very interested in the progress of his students.
Someone who genuinely acknowledged that he was responsible for each
student. He had earlier promised that the student who scored most in
the mock tests wiould be given a medal. I was lucky to score the
highest. I was given a tin medal but was asked to return it the next
day. The board exam was a month away now. Roger Roy organized a picnic
to which all his final year students were invited. There were about a
hundred and fifty of us. Roger Roy paid for the picnic food. After
lunch Mr Roy introduced us to a guest. He was none other than Dr. Tom
Sen, the famous mathematician. Dr Sen spoke to us for an hour and
cleared many doubts. All of us went home feeling important and
proud.
The board examination was over in fifteen days. All of us thoroughly
enjoyed the three month holiday prior to the declaration of results. We
did well in Mathematics. All twenty of us together visited Roger Roy to
tell him about our good performance. He was happy to begin with. But
after he finished looking at the marksheets he went to his bedroom
looking grave. We waited for him to come out. After waiting an hour we
decided to leave. My cousin is now in his new batch from 6 to 8 pm. She
tells me that Roger Roy is going through the same routine-the birthday
present, the lamentations, the medals. I now see a method in all his
actions. Ten of us had gone to watch a movie yesterday. Ten from the
twenty in the 6 to 8 batch at Roger Roy's tutorial. We met Roger Roy
and each of us greeted him. And he pretended not to know us. I now know
why. To Mr Roger Roy each student is a responsibility. He probably
hates meeting too many people at one time. When a student no longer
requires his help Mr Roy prefers to ignore that person and tries to
forget him or her. That his former students do not matter financially
to him is crucial too. He moves on to a new group of students and
another and another. Thus, the story continues.