A Student, Professor, Mentor, Guide
Throughout my life I have been taught by a number of professors, all of whom have had some form of influence on me whether it is positive or negative. However, through this intellectual journey I have discovered many qualities that have distinguished one professor from the rest.
Today’s professors are challenged to teach the student population increasingly diverse in age, levels of academic preparation, styles of learning, and cultural background. Professors are now expected not only to “cover the material,” but also to help students to think critically, write skillfully, and speak competently. To address the increased demands of evolving circumstances would seem to require changes on the part of college professors. Yet many appear not to change in how they think about and approach their teaching.
I thought I would never meet a good professor, but quite amazingly, I met one in my senior year of the college,
Prof. Naresh Sukhani.
March 6, 2011 Naresh Sir’s Birthday celebrated in the small BMS Cabin. He is a one man show and managed two professional courses by himself getting his work done.
He possesses a number of good qualities such as being helpful, passionate, knowledgeable, understanding and tolerance, the one I most admire him for.
In my memory, most of the other professors were so serious and strict, always trying to pretend to be very knowledgeable. For most of them even giving a smiley face in class was as tough as nailing jelly to a tree!
But Naresh Sir wasn’t amongst one of them. He was the first Official Coordinator since the course was started in National College, who held complete responsibility of BMS as well as BAF. Bachelors of Management Studies Course was introduced in National College in the year 2009. As the course was just introduced, I and my fellow classmates were facing a number of problems. Initially there was no fixed class where our lectures would be held, no fixed timetable and also the faculty did not enter on time due to changing of class where BMS lectures are being held. There was no projector installed in our class. Attendance initially used to be taken on loose sheets of paper and proxy were openly given as everybody was a stranger to every other and also some students were threatening if the other raised voice. As there was no fear of blacklist the strength of the class would be as less as 10 in the first lecture. Also students would enter whatever time preferred by them and yet sign for all the lectures attendance including the lectures missed. When Prof. Naresh joined in as a coordinator he was very systematic and made sure we received all the facilities needed such as the computer lab, a storage area for storing projects, Air condition controls, Attendance registers etc. He also took care of attendance register which wasn’t in place until he joined.
- Subjects taught
He taught us Business Environment & Environmental Management. As I mentioned earlier he was very systematic, the textbooks of both the subjects weren’t even published but he started teaching us referring from the soft copy made available to him on special request.
He was the one who saved the students from rigid professors who were keen to enforce KT on particular students.
- Teaching philosophy & Methodology
He made the subject matter very interesting and wouldn’t be satisfied unless every student in his class understands what he meant.
In breaks between his lectures Sir showed us videos of production of certain goods in factories and various other videos to increase our knowledge. There used to always be FULL attendance in his lectures which wasn’t seen after he left teaching our college.
He also encouraged us to create our own Inter-college BMS festival. But having only one BMS class consisting of 50 students, it couldn’t be possible. I still remember the name I had suggested for the Fest “Panache”!
He is the one who helped improve my powerpoint and presenting skills, increased my computer knowledge, and also encouraged me to work hard. I still remember the way he had taught me how to put animation effects to particular slides, the knowledge of which I also passed on to my brother who won scholarship from HUL for a wonderful presentation on Go Green.
I never knew one person could create such a big shadow.
- Description of his personality and behavior towards students:
He was the only professor who was dressed in formals throughout his term then and also made it mandatory for all students to wear formals on all days in the first year and on special request reduced it to only Monday to Wednesday in the second year. During presentations he requested full class to be in black and white attire. He was very approachable and lively in person, a very student friendly professor.
A picture from the BLOWFEST Album
The reason for him being always on time for all lectures and all meetings!
- His Ability/Educational Qualifications
He has a brilliant career and has exceptional capabilities and abilities.
Prof.Naresh.Sukhani possesses a BSC Computer Science Degree from R.D National College WA Science (Class 2004), Diploma in Pharmacy from Mumbai Educational Trust Institute (Class 2006), PCMB from MITHIBAI College Mumbai, PGD in Human Rights from Indian Institute of Human Rights (Class 2011), PGDBA from WELINGKAR Institute of Management, MBA in HR from Punjab Technical University and Net Management from UGC.
Naresh sir’s specialized subjects are:
- Information System & Control Audit – CA Final.
- CA Inter It & Strategic Management.
- TYBMS – Logistics & Supply Chain Management.
- TYBMS – Service Sector Management.
- TYBMS – Business Ethics & CSR.
- SYBMS – Production Management & Materials Management.
- SYBMS – Productivity & Quality Management.
- CS – Entrepreneurship.
He is also working with Life Insurance Corporation of India since June 2009 as a Retail & Corporate Agent . He has also worked as a Project Consultant at Monsanto India limited. Sir has also undertaken Project Management, Vendor Management, Operations, Systems Analyst role & Business Coordination as Project Officer @ Standard Chartered Bank. He has also cleared NET in Management fromUGC. Naresh Sir was also engaged in Project and Team Management services as a Project Leader at Learning Mate Solutions Pvt. Ltd during his early Professional Corporate career.
- Commitment Level
He was available in college till late evening even when he was responsible for only one class of FYBMS of 50 students. He made a number of presentations himself to present to the principal to keep our principal updated about what is happening in the BMS course. The presentations usually consisted of timeline events.
- Inspiration to choose teaching
Teaching has always been regarded as a boring profession. How would sitting on an old wooden chair with a chalk in one hand and a textbook in the other hand facing 50 blank students; Out of which some are chatting, others on their phone and some thinking something else; interest anybody? But Naresh Sir changed our complete outlook on teaching. He used to enter class with a laptop in one hand and a presentation lazer light and Air condition remote on the other hand. He used to narrate interesting subject related real life incidences, control the rowdy students, show videos and obviously cover his portion for that lecture.
- Problem solving ability
Naresh Sir always entertained complains as I would say! The students having the dumbest queries would also move out smiling from Sir’s cabin. He would always understand what we want and why we asking for it and made sure it was made available to us even if it was not completely in his control to fulfill some of our necessities. One of the biggest problems solved by Sir was getting our Industrial Visit sanctioned from the Principal, which was a great achievement!
A sneak peak at the Industrial Visit album
The Industrial Visit was also organized by him alone, he met a number of travel agents, collected proposals, presented to the principal and got all documents and the trip sorted with DJ night and pool party clauses.
My favorite professor would always be him no matter how many good professors I meet because No professor would ever do so much for me and my class selflessly how much he has done.
I wish to be atleast 1/4th of him and do well for others selflessly.
For all the above reasons he is my role model and I always look up to him for advice.
Note : This essay has no intention to portray criticism for the college but certain incidences where the professor helped us to get through the course are mentioned to explain why he is favoured by students.
Submitted By:
Student, National College, Bandra
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