Prof V L Antony - 3

 After posting two stories on Antony Sar many more keep surfacing in my mind. As I wrote in the previous post, he had a deep knowledge in Electronics. The story I write here was in fact told to me by my friend Shaju Mathew George of the Chemistry department, CMS College. Many years ago Shaju and Antony Sar were in the University of Hyderabad attending a refresher course/workshop. The participants were from all over India. One guy from Kerala frowned at the two and with contempt and arrogance writ large on his face uttered the following non sense, " you should have come in attires suiting the occasion". Perhaps for the "learned professor (LP)" it was the prestige of Malayalees that was at stake. Shaju was a little upset over his respected senior being bluntly disgraced in his presence. But Antony Sar just smiled. Even today I can imagine that disarming smile.

After the inaugural function, the classes started. One or two days passed of peacefully. On the third day or so the resource person was a senior professor from Delhi University. His plan was to introduce and if possible make the participants experts in working with a variety of electronic equipment. But to his dismay most of the participants were staggeringly ignorant of even the basics of Electricity, forget about electronics. Most of them did not know the difference between current and voltage. None could differentiate between a resistance and a capacitor. Transistors and IC's were heart breaking aliens. The DU Professor was at the verge of abandoning the classes when he saw Antony Sar (in the back row - you guessed it right!), explaining things to a fellow participant. He invite Antony Sar to the front and talked to him personally for some time(certainly that was an interview to gauge Antony Sar's depth in Electronics). The participants, including our "LP" waited with bated breath not knowing what was happening in the front. The "LP" might have even thought that Antony Sar was being reprimanded for coming to the class clad in a dhothy.

After some ten minutes of talking to Antony Sar, the DU Professor rose from his chair and made the following announcement. "This man Antony from Kerala will be our leader for the rest of the sessions. He knows much more Electronics than any of us in the Chemistry department of DU knew. His classes will start now". Yes, the classes started and Antony Sar taught Electronics to an initially unwilling group Chemistry teachers in his inimitable style. By the end of several sessions spanning several days, the participants were a happy lot. While the smart ones became experts in operating the various equipment some became fairly literate in Electronics. I am sure, back in their colleges, the teachers would have transferred the newly acquired knowledge to their students. After all this is how a knowledgeable society is formed or created.

All credit to the DU Professor also for "unearthing" Antony Sar.

Prof V L Antony - 2

                           Soon Antony Sar and I became good friends. One day he invited me to his house and I went there the next day itself. Seeing me he invited me to his study (rather work shop). But I couldn't go in as the  drawing room floor was littered with radios, TV's, VCR's and anything that had something to do with electronics. Seeing the predicament I was in, he waved his hands signaling me to come in. Finally with some acrobatics I managed to get in without hurting any of those 'electronic creatures'. Watching this Chemistry professor being so at ease with electronics, my respect for him multiplied and I decided to ask him a doubt that was haunting me since my pre-degree days. Non-mathematics people may kindly excuse as this Chemistry professor now working in electronics is about to delve into some mathematics. The following was my doubt. In Physics there is a superposition principle which states that when a medium is simultaneously disturbed by two or more than two waves there will be a resultant wave which is the algebraic sum of the individual waves. Now, here is my doubt. In an orchestra there are various musical instruments and human voice each producing its own wave and the wave that falls on your ear drum is that  single resultant wave. Yet, you can hear each sound distinctly. That is, you can differentiate between the sounds produced by ,say, the guitar and the violin. How is this possible? This was my doubt. He just smiled and told me, "it's all because our brain has the capacity to Fourier Analyse". I felt spell bound by the answer. Genesis 1-3,and God said "let there be light". It was light all over with this Fourier Analysis explanation. This incident not just cleared a decade old doubt but completely changed my approach to teaching Physics and Mathematics. I decided to not leave students with such doubts that will keep them disturbing. But this was a task easier said that done. After all, the joy of learning Physics lies in understanding the meaning of the equations. Thank you Antony Sar.                                                                                                                             

Prof V L Antony - 1

 I joined CMS College in 1981 as a junior lecturer. Stepping into the campus, almost instantly, I fell for the serene beauty of it. The fascination the campus held for me remains undiminished even after all these years. Despite coming from St: John's College,Agra, my love for the campus kept growing. One day, someone told me that there was a film show in the Chemistry department at 5.30 in the evening. I went there just out of curiosity and that evening turned out to have a profound influence on my life in CMS.

There were only four or five people to watch the film show on a 16 mm projector. Those days college teachers were well dressed and used to walk around with the look of intellectuals, strenuously created. Now a man in frugal native attire was busy arranging the projector, focusing it on the screen for greater picture clarity. For the minuscule audience the picture was reasonably clear and was eager for the show to begin. But the man working on the projector was focusing, refocusing, adjusting the angle of projection, the distance between the projector and the screen etc: as if some VIP was attending the show. After quite some time, testing the patience of the people assembled, he started giving a brief description of the film. I was perplexed for a moment. This simple man, in white dhothi and white shirt ..... unassuming..... talking in Malayalam... no airs..... yet talking with such authority? That day's film was a Chinese one on the topic of migration of birds. He even talked briefly on the subject of migration of birds. Oh, this is a classic case of 'deceptive appearance', I told myself. Yes, the multi faceted genius of Prof V L Antony was shrouded in what I described in the beginning as frugal native attire.

Very soon, Prof V L Antony became Antony Sar for me and all these years occupied a huge space in my mind. I will narrate some incidents that are etched in my mind. Most of the stories may sound very silly, but were important for me particularly during my formative years as a teacher.