Nitin Ranganathan
B.Com (Hons.) 2015-2018, Brindavan
Professor Ruchir K. Desai is not merely a teacher! He is a phenomenon that we were fortunate to come across in this lifetime. It is rare to come across a gem of a person who not only inspired us to offer the best version of ourselves to the world, but also led us by the hand towards Swami! He continues to live on in our hearts.
I remember my first class with him in the second semester at Brindavan. He glided into the classroom and gave his opening statement with his unique wit and humor, “Okay Boys! I know you would have heard many stories about me. Most of them happen to be true!” That was enough to send us into peels of laughter and at the same time wonder, how could such a strict disciplinarian also be this light at heart! This was the beginning of a saga of love and respect he commanded from me and classmates at the Brindavan Campus.
Ruchir sir was known to be extremely perfect in everything that he did. He had once asked us to make a group presentation as part of the Investment Analysis class. Everyone of us had to speak for ‘about’ 15 minutes. I felt that I could be liberal on the time limit and exceeded my presentation time by 2 minutes. Ruchir sir stopped our presentation abruptly and walked out of the classroom. I was deeply shaken and upset to have disappointed him and my teammates. I later went to meet him expecting to get scolded. On the contrary he addressed me very lovingly but did not fail to drive home the lesson, “Nitin, even TeD speakers can convey their entire life’s achievements within 15 minutes. What have you achieved to exceed the time limit?” This experience reinforced Sir’s ideals of perfection, punctuality and discipline in me. I have held onto these values very close to my heart!
In our final year, Sir wanted to hear from a few students about what they felt about his idea of a Digital Museum. I was one of the few students Ruchir sir had reached out to. When I had told Sir that I had zero interactions with Bhagawan, and could only relate to His messages on Digital media, there were tears in his eyes. These were tears of joy and purpose. He was probably convinced about how important it was to take Swami’s messages to the world digitally.
On a concluding note, I recollect a question which I had asked Ruchir sir in a personal interaction. “Sir, how come you are not bored teaching the same subjects over and over again for the past 35years?” to which he replied, “The subjects might be the same but the students aren’t.