Hrishikesh Balasubramanyam,
2010-2013 BCom (Hons)
We used to hear a lot about Ruchir Sir during our school days, his brilliant teaching style, his emphasis on not using calculators in class, his electives, his emphasis on punctuality and obviously his famous “Get out of my class”. But in reality he was more like an emotion that had to be understood and could never be explained.
“There is a difference between being in time and being on time”
The very first class we had of Ruchir Sir was an afternoon after lunch class, the class timing was 2:00 pm. Now having heard about Ruchir Sir, few of us reached the class by 1:58 pm, as we proudly climbed the stairs and patted ourselves in back, thinking we had mastered the art of being punctual, we found Ruchir Sir already seated in class. Since it was only 1:58 pm, we proudly said “Sai Ram Sir” and entered the class thinking he would appreciate us for being on time. But as we were about to enter the class, he stopped us and said, “You are late, please stand outside the class”. We did as we were told but failed to understand as to “How we were late?” since the second bell had still not rung.
The same incident repeated on day two, but this time we gathered courage and decided to point out to him that we came before the second bell and that we were not late. Later as sir finished the lecture and came out, he asked me “Hrishi, you told yesterday that you would never be late again, what happened?” As I pointed out to him that we were not late as we all had come before the second bell, he looked at us with his hallmark smile and said, “There is a difference between being in time and being on time”. He then went on to explain to us that the event was attending the lecture by the teacher. It therefore did not matter if the teacher came at 1:55 pm or 1:45 pm. It was the responsibility of the student to be in the class before teacher arrives so that the student did not miss lecture. He quizzed us asking, “What if the teacher started teaching at 1:45 pm and you come in at 2:00 pm? Would you not have missed 15 min of teaching?” That day in a very simple terms, he taught us that being on time is not always correct, we need to be in time.
I work in consulting. One thing that my clients always appreciate me for, is that my meetings always start on time. Unlike few others, who start the meeting at 2:00 pm and spend the first 15 minutes setting things up, I always join at 1:45 and have thing up and running by 2:00 pm – ‘always being in time and not being on time’.
Few years back when I narrated this to Ruchir Sir thanking him for teaching me this lesson at Brindavan, I could see the same smile on his face like the one he had years back when he explained to us what in time and on time meant.
Yes, that is Ruchir Sir. Just as easily he would simplify complex accounting concepts for us, he would also simplify many life lessons for us.
When Swami directed me to pursue Chartered Accountancy after my BCom, I always wonder if Swami was over optimistic about me? As I was an average student throughout my schooling at Parthi. At times accounts did look like rocket science to me. But it was Ruchir Sir who made me like accounts and removed that fear of balance sheets not matching. Today having cleared Chartered Accountancy and successfully working in the accounting and auditing profession, I cannot thank him enough for this. If Swami pointed the direction for me, Ruchir Sir was present with a torch in his hand to guide me through the dark patches in the road.
From throwing notebooks out of the class for late submission to emptying the Rasna bucket on a coconut tree for our indiscipline during sports meet, his actions were at times unpredictable. But his intentions were always predictable i.e to make his students better. His anger was always directed at the incident/action but never at the person.
Sir, you always said, “Give the best to the world and the best will come back to you”. I promise that it will always be my endeavor to follow this both in my professional and personal life.