“He was such a character! Charming and totally un-academically inclined. Look at him now!” This from my teacher whose husband was the Principal of my elite Boarding school in India.
I also distinctly remember my buddy Harsha, who about fell out of his chair when he found out I was a professor. “Your poor students”, he said to me, half in jest and half in disbelief.
I guess I set the bar low. Academically, I was a mess. I guess somewhere along the way I grew up. While I never knew what I wanted to do with my life, I always knew what I did not want to do — sit behind a desk, or in a cubicle.
A PhD by default is not a bad outcome, and finding my calling as a teacher was the icing on the cake!
About Hemant Rustogi