MPT Autograph - Guest lecture

One fine day, Mr.MSK FYI'ed me that he has "committed" APS sir about presenting a session on "Networking basics" to our MPT juniors. There is no big surprise element in this news, since everyone in our batch know that Mr.MSK is a MPT-Alumni member, and he always gets insight into whats happening there. No wonder one day he becomes a Board member of the very same polytechnic where he studied :)..

After being tired of his multi-dimensional service to MPT, MSK passed on this opportunity of guest lecturing to me. Since I had no pressing [or even normal] commitments for the week-end, I thought of giving it a try, atleast in the name of "giving back to the society" or more technically a "knowledge transfer" session to current students of where we came in from. One thing I really wasn't sure of what to present, and I kept asking Mr.MSK to send me the syllabus till 11th hour, so that I could prepare something on those lines before going in for the session. [Finally Mr.MSK passed me the syllabus when standing before the students, the 12th hr]

So, it was decided that the session will be conducted on Saturday, 20th August between 10am to 1pm - a 3hour schedule to let students know [not understand] the basics of what networking means. A surprise news from APS came in Friday stating that there will 90 students attending the session and drawing hall is blocked for the event. I wasn't really thinking about that big audience, since we had only 26 members in our batch. I was expecting some 30-35 students at max for the session in PCB lab. Somehow, making up my mind, I  refreshed myself on the OSI layers, Hub, Switch concepts and other basic fundas of networking. A nice reading for me indeed. 

The next-day, myself and MSK were there in MPT by 9.50am - a 10min ahead schedule. A call from APS to MSK said that "APS was on his way still and he will be here in next 15mins.. actually he forgot to bring the drawing room key and he is going back to fetch that".. So, now that we had a extended 15 minute window, we just went through roaming around the campus. The first sight itself was astonishing - a group of 20-25 girls under the tree near the electronics lab all clad in blue. Few boys roaming here and there in small groups. We could see a very good difference between what we were those days and what these guys are now... Boys wearing Reebok shoes with cell phones in hand.. I ain't sure how many of us really know atleast the "Reebok" brand when studying, and cell-phones, not even existing at that time. Only those small pagers and very rich guys having that "brick" model phone.

Now back to story - It was all nostalgic walking through the campus, a trip from the principal room - auditorium - canteen [double decker now] - new building besides canteen - international standard cricket ground [when it was just a ground, it really served its purpose. Now its a cricket ground, but no students to play] - PCB lab - Sheet metal [mallet] lab, mechanical lab and back underneath the tree.. We sat there for few minutes awaiting APS arrival, and finally he came.

Iam really shocked to see APS after a very long time... Though identifiable, he became very lean to what I remember him last. Time shows no mercy to anyone. He really couldn't recollect me, and confirmed with MSK whether I studied in his batch only. Then, he opened the drawing-hall, which is nothing but our old Auto-CAD room where all PCs are removed and benches are now placed. Needless to say, how can one forget this room, the place where we really saw how a computer looks like, a place where we took days to learn how to draw a line from point-A to point-B, a place that VT madam and Philomina was sitting with lot of books and record notes in the center-table, giving the room a hifi computer room look... Its all gone now folks; except the memories..

Within next few minutes all students gathered up in the drawing hall - a close to 70:30 girls:boys ratio. Not sure why there are less boys. When myself and MSK entered in the drawing hall - all students stood up and said "good morning sir". [nammalayum periya manishana madichi....] A quick chat with students, we came to know that there were two batches attending the days session - ECE regular and ECE sandwich making up the ~80-90 headcount. APS sir was sitting in front row with a notepad for taking notes. He is still learning.

Around 10.30am, MSK after his quick into, started the session in his own style, throwing up the first question on "what is networking" and  then going a bit into some postal-address to IP-address mapping,  then handed over the session to me. Just before getting into the session, APS  sir gave us the Networking syllabus with a surprise message that these students will undergo that syllabus only in their next semester, which means the audience in front of me dont know anything about networking. An additional responsibility on us to make sure we don't incept any wrong impression on networking into these fresh minds. 

After making sure everyone knows Tamil, and requesting everyone to close their note-books [as usual everyone has opened up their notebooks to take reference] and only listen to what the concepts are being told, I just started up explaining the same old "lets make two PCs speak through OSI layers". To my surprise, students are really brilliant catching up the concepts to speed. Atleast they looked like they understood. They even throwed back questions like 'what protocol means', 'what is MAC', 'what is Transport and Networking layer doing' and stuff like that.. I really have to dilute the OSI layers to its very simple, just for the students to understand that a packet traverses through some virtual layers before being spit.

After a 5 minute break by 12, we again gathered up for an introduction on Hubs, Switches and Routers. By 12.30, we closed the session with a Q/A part. You will be surprised if i say that all questions that we asked on the OSI layers, Products, Products-OSI layer mapping are answered good. Not sure whether they will remember these concepts for days to come, but I was really satisfied that I have done my job to my best.

Finally, APS sir stepped up on the dias and requested few students to come-up and share their feedback. To be honest, it was the real funny stuff guys. A guy came up and said that "I did not know anything on networking, OSI layers, but now i learnt things.. Thanks to these people".. Next APS called in for a  girl to come up and speak. After a brief silence, the first row girl stood up the repeated what the guy said - just with some is/was changes. Now, APS requested one student from ECE-Sandwich to represent her department. Same old story. One girl came up and repeated the same story - as if she is enlightened on every networking aspects; though we didnt cover even the basics to its fullest. But good, from being "knowing nothing" to "knowing something" makes a difference. For them what we taught is the whole of networking now.

After a successful wrap-up, APS sir collected my details with a note that, an engineer with 10yrs can come as external during examination - which MSK is already doing. I really dont want to step in there, but just gave my contact details for courtesy. 

Overall, it was a very nice experience for me taking a session for such fresh minds, and i need to thank Mr.MSK for presenting the chance and special thanks to APS for organizing it. Later we were informed that these students need [are compelled] to go in for a upcoming 2 day self-paid session by DOT. Without knowing anything on the basic fundamentals, APS is not much comfortable in making these students shell money out of their pocket, which obviously the students are resisting to attend now, and hence this pre-requisite session as a teaser-trailer. 

I really appreciate his care towards the students, taking such a responsibility of catching MSK to organize such session, requesting students to attend, coming-in over a week-end [which is not a compulsion for him], and he himself sitting in the front row taking notes. Its really hard to see such dedicated personnel these times. 

But it was a bit painful for me to hear some comments passed by the current students on him. They right now dont understand what people like APS is doing to shape-up their career. Its all fun for them now, as we had 10 years back. 

1. "Pls dont pass on the session to APS sir - neengale edunga" - This is a common comment and I believe we would have done the same thing if we were in students shoes

2. "When APS is taking networking or C class, he is often jumping into explaining capacitors/optocouplers" - This was really shocking comment I heard. Why the hell an electronics expert like APS is teaching (or asked to) computer networking/C programming? Is polytechnic feeding grass to tiger? An expert should be allowed to become domain-expert, rather making him "Jack of all, Master of none" type. How immersed APS should be with electronics, if he jumps explaining capacitors from C programming that are no way related..

After coming home, I really felt that I should have taken the last couple of minutes to explain students about APS and his dedication in arranging such sessions in the interest of students future. No one was really there to explain us these things when we were studying, but now we are there, just to say them that there are  still "ladders" like APS to shape them up.