A year back, I was in awe with the store again when I went shopping for the formals for the very first time. Granted, I was scared and didn’t have a clue. I entered the store with doubts, but was amazed and left the store with an excellent collection and a memorable shopping experience for which I thanked the very helpful and knowledgeable staff. No matter where the store is located, it always has the collections to excite you. I can assure you this because I am a South Indian studying at IIM Rohtak, Haryana. I visited the Pantaloons at Rohtak several times and each time had been an equally wonderful experience to the ones in Chennai. My friends and family, whom I have introduced to the store, still continue to shop at Pantaloons as they loved the collection because Pantaloons has something for everyone.
LEARNING IS ALWAYS FUN – IIM ROHTAK
Back when I was in my 8th standard, my dad spoke to me about IIT for the first time. He explained about the standard of the institution and how sophisticated and disciplined were the students. He also spoke about the various hardships and challenges the students go through to pass the JEE and finally become a student of IIT. Being a student who loved Maths and Science, I was instantly motivated to become an alumnus of IIT. I joined JEE coaching classes that summer. We had classes on either one of the sessions - morning or afternoon, on all holidays – including weekends, term breaks, and festivals and national holidays. When I started my 11th std, I had classes every day in the evening after school on all days.
I didn’t clear JEE in my first attempt and hence took a year off after school. The last 4 months before the exams were intense with preparations the whole day every day. I didn’t have a single day off. But I didn’t clear JEE in my second attempt either. I joined SASTRA University, Tanjore, Tamil Nadu. After joining college I realized, I wasn’t using much of the knowledge or skills that l had gained through all those years. I wanted to do something with all that I have learned and not just forget them. I wanted to at least pass them on.
Thus I started teaching JEE Physics and Maths for 8th, 9th and 10th standard students in the summers of my undergrad. The boards of Tamil Nadu was mostly theory with little to no application at all. Whereas, JEE was completely application oriented. So teaching 8th standard students was challenging, because you had to make them understand and apply physics and maths which they have never done before. I was teaching them and making them do something which their teachers haven’t made them or let them do all through 7 years of schooling. Not only did I have to explain the concepts, but I had to make it as simple as possible and interesting for the students to motivate them to continue coming to class in the holidays when their friends were enjoying. I had to clarify their innumerable doubts by not giving the entire picture as it was complex for their age.
So I started looking for ways to make the students understand and make the learning simpler and interesting. I came up with real-life examples like day-to-day activities they can relate with to explain maths and physics concepts. I realized these were examples I haven’t related to when I was preparing for JEE. As a result, teaching which started as a passing-on process, led to the beginning of new learning for me, leading to an in-depth understanding of concepts. This was followed by me better explaining the concepts to the students. This took up all my summers of undergrad with me teaching from morning to evening, but it was a blissful experience. At the end of the day when the students told me they understood something better after attending my class or when their parents told me their kids are scoring better in school and were eager to attend my class, the soreness of your throat and legs are long forgotten. To this day, I am proud to have made an impact in the lives and to have been part of their JEE foundation preparation of those students who now are now students of IITs.
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