Prof. Shubhada Kanchan

PROF. SHUBHADA KANCHAN – M.Sc. Convocation

Teaching is not an easy profession and very few professors can carry it out with grace, dignity and passion. With loads of corrections to undertake, project work to be evaluated, managing a class of 60 rowdy students and attending to extra-curricular activities of the college, teachers do it all. It’s also like the survival of the fittest. Prof. Shubhada fits into this bracket perfectly. You’ll never see the nerves on her forehead cringing for any matter.

Everyone has a small time beginning. And like they say, small things can turn into big ideas and inspirations. It is the reason why Shubhada Ma’am took up teaching as a profession. While studying herself, she would teach her class mates in school and college, who like all college students would bunk lectures and buckle up their shoes last minute. An added feather in her hat was when she started taking tuitions while in college. Students praised her for her work and she thought she was good at it, because of which she stands where she is today – A flourishing professor.

We all have someone we look up to – someone who inspires us, motivates us and guides us through our tough times and applauds at our success.

Quotes Mr. B. B. King,

“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.”

Mr. Shriram Patil is the man behind the lady who I’m writing about. He is said to have taught Shubhada Ma’am in her final year of B.Sc. He was the one who insisted that she should start her teaching career at Vartak College itself, and mentored her for all the three years that she taught there.

Ma’am has been in the teaching field since the past 9 years. She started her career or should I say “shubh aarambh,” at Vartak College (Vasai) where she taught B.Sc. – IT. In the past 6 years, she’s been a faculty member for the Bachelors of Commerce (B.Com) degree as well as a visiting faculty for the BMS and BBI courses. She has also taught subjects such as Applied Mathematics, C Programming, DBMS, Commercial Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research.

Coming to her style of teaching, Ma’am has always placed herself in the students’ shoes and tried to make it as simple as possible for us to understand. This is where she gains her credit in the student community. She doesn’t believe in rushing with syllabus at the end moment. She would rather not do that part, than rush up with it.

She believes that mathematics is not rocket science, so it should not be made complicated. Ma’am has always found that students find mathematics difficult because they didn’t have a good teacher. Keeping self praise aside, she says that by making it simple, she makes sure that every student understands and is enable to tackle the similar yet differentiated kind of problems done in class. She always insists that we WRITE in her lecture. Most lecturers today are never bothered about what his/her students are up to in class.

She lives up to an old quote of Albert Einstein who says, “Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler.”

Ma’am makes every effort from her side to make sure she’s done her job well. “Practice is what makes you perfect” she admits. She says that one cannot READ math and become good at it. You have to write to master it. This is why she doesn’t like using a Power Point Presentation in her lectures. She makes available additional photocopies for practice at home as well as prepares last minute worksheets for the class to solve, for the examination revision.

The tranquillity combined with her calm composure leaves her ever focused. And this definitely does reflect in her methodology of teaching. She introduces the topic in a layman’s term, gives the corresponding formulae, solves problems in class, entertains doubts and queries put forth by us students and only then gives her assignments.

Ma’am isn’t the ambitious kind of person. She’s happy in her own little space. She wants to be remembered as a good teacher and pursue a PhD in the time to come. She has a simple mantra in life which she follows. “A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

This is a lady of few words. She considers students to be responsible individuals and she respects them. She doesn’t believe in insulting them in class to make them toe the line. “If I am good at my teaching, students will automatically listen. They are here to learn after all,” she says.

Her undying, relentless commitment level is ever high. Having asked her once, “Ma’am how do you manage to do all this with so much of passion?” and she replied to me that her father used to tell her, whatever you do, be it even polishing a shoe, do it in the best way you can. She religiously follows this principle in her life and shows full dedication in all that she does. She is available for guidance inside the classroom as well as in the staffroom and via the college mail.

Shubhada Ma’am has been the teacher in-charge for the Students Council at H. R. College of Commerce and Economics for the past few years. This council handles many important events of the college such as Admissions, Orientation, Anti-Ragging, etc. as well as holds the largest Mathematics and Statistical Quiz in Mumbai known as ‘Numero Uno’. Ma’am has been the guiding light for these students. She is the one who leads the shepherds to their goal and it is with her help that the council is successfully functioning today.