Dear Students,

Nothing is as good and noble as teaching and learning ,there are so many goodness in the world but everyone is limited and relative ,you might have heard the old story about the man who married his one daughter to a farmer and other to a porter, whose interests are antithetical to each other if it is raining, then it is good for farmer, but will pose a threat to the livelihood of porter and vice-versa so this situation creates a dilemma and a perplexing situation for the old man .

I think in this mundane world only two things are absolutely good, without any exception and i.e. teaching and learning which never cause any evil. I am fortunate enough and indebted to the kind and loving GOD, that GOD has entrusted this responsibility upon me to proliferate and propagate this absolute good in this world. So first of all I am paying my awfulness, reverence and gratitude to the mighty ruler of the all kinds of existence for his generosity.

My objective, while teaching is always to present mathematics as, it is really a vast panorama of ideas, whose history reflects some of the noblest thoughts of mankind. I think that it is not only the crude content of mathematics which should be imparted in our students but there should be a bigger focus on the macro level analysis and it ought be started with basic, fundamental and simple aspects and then one should gradually move towards the more advance ,standard and complex aspect of mathematics. The words of famous philosopher, mathematician and writer René Descartes are worth mentioning here, he says, "it is not the subject matter, but methodology usher in clarity, distinctiveness and certainty and makes a subject truly scientific."

In my long journey of teaching, I observed that there is a huge difference between learning mathematics at under graduation and post graduation level, at early stage we learn 'how things work' but at higher stage we have to focus upon, 'why things work'. Here in my classes I frequently use the phrase like ,"Please Concentrate" and ,"You Need To Focus" ,actually nowadays learning has become just means to passing exams, whereas it should focus upon concept building .

I am very careful about this old saying-

"The lecture is a system whereby the notes of the professor become the notes of the student, without passing through the minds of either."

Here I would like to share one good story about a lecture and note taking system-

A university professor has to go on leave for a few days, but he didn't want his students to miss out on his wonderful lectures. So he decided to take the help of his graduate assistant, he called him and directed as: I've taped my lectures for the next few days. All you have to do is, every day as per my class schedule play the tapes as mentioned on the tape. The graduate student agreed and the professor went off happily on leave.

As it happens sometimes... the professor finished his work before the schedule and came home a day early. He thought of giving his lecture, but decided instead he would just drop by the lecture hall in the middle of class and see how his system was working. The door was at the front, so as he walked up, all he could see through the glass was the front table. Sure enough, his tape player was going, and he could hear his beautiful lecture. The professor was about to walk away when he thought: no, let's see how the students are taking it. So he came right up to the door and angled his head to see back into the room. There were no students! Instead, at every seat, a tape machine was placed to record the professor's lecture!!!

What is the moral of this story? Definitely there is and there has to be a well defined strategy and algorithm for attending lectures, making notes and asking questions! Definitely as teachers cannot be replaced by their audio lectures -you too cannot be replaced by photo copy machines or tape recorders!

Before concluding my message, I would like to dedicate my efforts to the great saints and intellectuals, especially

To Ramanujan, inspirational Indian mathematician who stirred our mind and forced us to believe in our own thoughts first, and glorified, fearless innovation of thoughts

To Joseph A. Gallian, Professor at University of Minnesota, Duluth, who showed the pleasure elements in pure mathematics through his writings?

Finally, to all my students who have been my best teachers and reliable companions. For me they are like guiding force as their enthusiasm forces me to keep myself updated and stay dynamic.

With Best Wishes:-
B.P.Yadav
IIT-Madras