I cannot write about Agrawal Classes except with much nostalgia. All you young kids, you babies, what would you know?? Back then, when we had to walk to our schools (instead of being driven there), in the rain, up hill (both ways), - gosh, those were the days.
This was the era when Dheer Singh loomed large on every Physics student’s imagination, inspiring awe and fear. You either loved him because of his wit and innovative ways of looking at issues, creative ways to solve problems and constructing everything from FIRST PRINCIPLES (’’THINK!!’’ he’d plead) - or the man was on your list of most disgusting creatures. He would put you on the spot with those multiple choice questions (and if he caught you counting the people before you as they took turns answering questions and you were trying to figure out which question would come to you).
And there was sweet Prof. Laxman. The poster child for the word ’’professor.’’ Man, I shall never forget Coulomb’s law (’’kwoo-lawmz law’’ and the ’’one-byeee-kay-one-byee-4-pyeeee are-squared’’). There was Mehta we fondly called the PERFECT BLACK BODY. And Professor Pi - okay, Pai. Man, is it legal to know so many characters in one lifetime?
For Math, there was Khatre - the older brother of then CBI director (or so rumor had it). The most perfect handwriting on a blackboard. It hurt each time he erased the board. It was worth framing. Karkhanis was slighly smaller in size than his ego and he barely fit in the room. ’’Wherever there is ’hex’ (well, x actually), replace it by hex plus hatch (h).’’ Professor Pereira’s bhutt extended 3 feet behind is rear, and he repeated everything y times where y >= (greater than or equal to) 11. And he used a variable just to confuse you. ’’This is tan-theta, tan-theta it ees, tan-theta, aaah, yes - taaan-thetaaaah, tan-theta it eees.’’ Man, he sounded weird. Prof Goel - whose UP (Uttar Pradesh as in land of ’’bhaiyas’’) accent made it hard for us Bombayite teenagers to stop laughing everytime he said pee upaaan q instead of p-upon-q (for p/q). And if he was having a sensitive day, he’d say p-over-q.
All adorable and committed men. All with such strong class-room personalities, one wondered where GD actually found them. And of course there is GD himself. GD Agrawal. The Owner. Ever see him in a frenzy during admission times? He’d be screaming at parents ’’Bahot tension - dheere bolo.’’ Gosh, he was the fountainhead of all idiosyncrasies.
If you are still reading (and I wonder why) then you should know that in my long academic career, I have never had such good teachers. This was before they handed out notes. They dictated them in class. My fundamentals in Math, Physics and Chemistry are second to none in the world. I can solve integration problems all these years later by merely looking at the problem - ok, may be second to only Ramanujan. And I remember all the basics of Phsysics. Their chemistry crew came only for the 12th and I went there for both 11th and 12th. Chemistry staff too was namoonas, characters, but less than the physics-math crew.
For HSC board (read Hatch-Ass-See in the adorable Maharashtrian accent), nothing prepared you better to get Mhay-rit (merit) list. And to rank well on high-high-tea (yeah, IIT).
Jagjit and Chitra come to mind:
yeh daulat bhi lay lo
yeh shohrat bhi lay lo
bhale chheen lo mujh say meri jawani
magar mujh ko lauta do bachpan ka sawan
woh kagaz ki kashtee
woh baarish ka panee