“Thanks DADA……………………Salute to a Great teacher”

I remember the days when I was young kid (yes-yes I am still a young kid only). What I remember most is my Grandfather, I used to call him “Dada”. His real name is ‘Shri Govind Rao Parshuram Karandikar’, he used to teach in Gwalior for about 58-60 years of his life & he is very famous in Gwalior by name “Bansi Bhaiya/Kaka” (as Govind is name of Lord Krishna & Krishna used to play flute or say Bansi in Hindi) or “Master Saab” but for me he is only my Dada. Dada is my greatest teacher ever, he taught basic of mathematics in so nice manner that I never faced difficulty in mathematics till today. Due to those basics only I never scored less than 95% marks (many time I scored perfects also) in mathematics. How good & perfect methods of teaching Dada had in his teacher bag (I only can say AMAZING). Dada started teaching me mathematics when I was only 3 or 4 years of old. My class used to start at Tea (I can’t say breakfast table here because we used to sit on floor only), he used to tell me to count cups, plates & spoon, then a lot of combinations by creating situations like some guest are coming for tea or while bringing tea some cup-plates has broken. That time I was thinking why Dada let me count those same things daily & daily, but I used to like this session lot because I love those situational stories & other gossips which we do while Tea. After that I used to play for sometime & again at 9:00AM my official teaching class used to start. I was lucky there that my school timing was in afternoon & all my friends used to go school in morning, so thought of playing with friends never affect those classes. Dada used to teach me till 10:30 AM, in that duration he used to teach me English & Mathematics. For English Dada had only 3 books- “Tadkhadkarancha Bhashantar” (say - Grammar by My Tadkhadkar) volume 1, 2, 3, each of which contains not more than 150 pages. Those are very small & thin books but I can only say those are best, but as I never had interest in English so I always used to ignore that part of teaching session (if I would have read those 3 books properly then may be you could have seen effect in these blogs). Next part of teaching session used to my favorite subject - “Mathematics” (Dada also used to know this that’s why he used to teach 30 min English & 1 hour Mathematics). In starting I need to write count form 1-100 or 1-200, reverse counting form 100-1, tables till 10 (but Dada always increased count for this & when I was in class 3rd I used to remember tables till 20 and when I was in class 5th I used to remember tables till 30). Then the most challenging and interesting part of mathematics session used to arrive which Dada called as “Chakravyuha”, now next question you will ask me what is this “Chakravyuha”. So let me explain for you- I think most of us heard this word in Mahabharat or Bhagvat Geeta. In Mahabharat Guru Dronachaya (teacher of Pandava’s and Kaurava’s) used teach very special method of war called as “Chakravyuha”, which is very difficult and apart form Dronachaya only Arjuna know how to break that “Chakravyuha”. Now in the same way Dada (like Guru Dronachaya) has his own “Chakravyuha” for me (you can say his Arjuna), that “Chakravyuha” is of numbers. Now let me explain you what is this number “Chakravyuha”, in that basically he used to give me 5-6 numbers of 4-5 digits each, first I need to add them up then I need to subtract each number one by one from total & in last I left with last number (you can say its simple approach but it works on accuracy & lot of number crunching). In this way if I did mistake anywhere in whole process then I won’t be able to get last number & I need to again & again check till I get correct last number. So I can only say it is as difficult as real “Chakravyuha” in which there is very less scope of mistake. This task I also used to like a lot because it used to give me lot of calculation & number crunching. As I am lazy person this practice also improved my accuracy.
Due to my habit of doing homework in school itself I used to get lot of time in evening for playing with my friends. But there is one more teaching session for about 30 minutes was used to waiting for me in evening too, which was named as “Parocha”. Many of us who are Maharashtrian may know meaning of this word “Parocha” but for others I explain. “Parocha” is oral study practice generally preformed in evening to remember things like Shlokas, Counting, Tables and Spellings etc. So in evening I used to revise Shlokas, counting, tables and some spellings in loud voice which is very useful in remembering anything. Specialty of these “Parocha” sessions was regularity & rhythm, it’s like that if you revise any thing again & again then you can remember it without difficulties (as you can remember any song easily because you sing it regularly & in rhythm).
Dada passed away in August ‘1996 so he taught me till I was 10 years old only, but the base he established is so strong that I never feel any difficulty till date in mathematics.
I still miss & remember Dada most not only for his affection for me as a grandfather but also for all what he teach me & made my foundation strong. Really he was a great teacher.
Thanks a lot “Dada” ………………………..