The Banyan Tree of SIT

Dr. M N Channabasappa, the Director of Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), Tumkur is a renowned Mathematician.  Before joining SIT, he was the Dean and Head of the Mathematics Department at NITK, Surathkal.  His colleagues and well wishers organised a function to felicitate him on his 82nd Birthday recently.  A souvenir was brought out on this occasion and I wrote an article  titled 'The Banyan Tree of SIT'.  The same is given below.

My first visit to Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT) was in June 1998 for attending the interview for a faculty position in the newly established MBA Department.  After the presentations in the morning we were taken to the Basaveswara Hostel Block for lunch.  A huge tree near the hostel caught my attention.  The shade of the tree was covering almost the entire ground in front of the hostel block.  I got selected in the interview and joined the Institute in September 1998.  Within no time, I realized that there was another huge banyan tree in the campus, providing shade, support and encouragement to all, who was none other than Dr. M N Channabasappa.

Since the MBA Department was relatively new, and there were only three full-time faculty members, I got opportunity to interact with Dr. M N Channabasappa on a continuous basis, who was the Principal of SIT at that time.  He was 68 and I was less than half of his age!  In spite of this huge age difference, he always treated me with great amount of warmth and grace.  One day I was in his cabin along with an administrative assistant, correcting a report that we had prepared, he suggested some changes and told the assistant ‘make these corrections and show it to Prof. Ajoy Kumar’.  Should I say, I felt extremely happy or a bit uncomfortable that such a senior Professor was addressing me as ‘Professor’?  Such is the respect that Dr. MNC gives his colleagues, irrespective of their age, designation and qualification.  When I reach 68, I am not sure whether I would be able to treat a person less than half of my age with the same grace with which Dr. MNC treated me.  But I consider this as a great lesson that I learnt from him.  What is more important is that he continued to shower on me the same affection throughout the last 14 years.  I still remember what he told me during my initial days as a teacher: “The students would evaluate you during the first two to three sessions and make an opinion about your teaching.  Once they put you in a pigeon-hole, they rarely take you out and put elsewhere”.

My interactions with Dr. MNC became more frequent when I got involved with the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), for which he was the Project Authority.  This was a World Bank funded project which required lot of documentation and transparency at every stage.  We, the TEQIP team, never had any difficulty as he was at the helm of affairs and he always insisted on a completely transparent and systematic work culture.  His style was to handpick the right kind of people and give them full freedom to work.  He never interfered or created unnecessary pressure. 

I would like to share few interesting experiences during the implementation of the project.   Once, a high-level committee from New Delhi visited the campus to inspect the progress of civil works funded by the project.  The construction was behind schedule due to various reasons and the committee was a bit unhappy.  At the final meeting attended by Dr. MNC and all other senior professors, the expert said he would like to have one person taking the entire responsibility, who would ensure completion of the work at the earliest and also would keep in touch with the authorities in Delhi.  After a minute of silence, Dr. MNC raised his hand and said “I take the responsibility”.  I could see a true leader here.  He could have turned to any senior professor and asked him or her to take the responsibility, and I am sure, no one would have said ‘no’.  But he rose to the occasion; and the expert could not have asked for anything more!  The project was completed soon.

When we were preparing for submission of the proposal for the second phase of TEQIP, an expert from Delhi told us that the proposal should contain a detailed ‘Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)’ document and it would be better to outsource the services of a consultant to prepare this document.  Hearing this, I told the Project Coordinator that we teach SWOT in MBA and it would be possible for us to do it internally.  He immediately informed this to Dr. MNC, who in turn, directed me to take up that assignment.  What surprised me was the speed with which he took the decision and the confidence that he had in me.  He created a team consisting of the Principal, the Dean and the Project Coordinator to help me in the process and made all necessary arrangements for conducting a series of meetings with various departments.  We thoroughly enjoyed the process of developing the SWOT document for SIT and also won appreciation from the authorities in Delhi.

SIT has a system where the students give feedback on faculty members at the end of every semester.  Whenever faculty members get below average rating, a group of senior professors provide counseling and suggestions for improvements to such teachers.  However, there is hardly any system that recognizes the star performers.  During a recent review meeting of TEQIP, the expert, while enquiring about the faculty feedback system asked “what do you do with the teachers who get excellent rating?”  Immediately Dr. MNC replied ‘we ignore them’.  The entire group burst into laughter.   I was witnessing another quality of a good leader.  He never hesitated to accept any limitations or lacunae on our part and always indulged in self-criticism with a pinch of humor.

Doors of his office as well as his residence are always open for everybody.  He doesn’t even expect people to knock on his door before entering.  Anybody could just walk in at any time and he was available and accessible for all.  Many a times I have accompanied faculty members who had already left SIT to his room and saw him welcoming them with the same warmth that he showed while they were working for SIT.  Many of us, with very little experience in our lives, take great interest and pride in talking endlessly about our achievements; and exercise greater care to avoid talking about our mistakes and follies.  Dr. MNC is just opposite.  With six decades of professional experience to his credit, I have never heard him talking about his achievements to anybody.  At the same time, he would not hesitate to tell others about some mistakes that he had committed and how he came out of such situations.  I have often seen him waving his hands in a denial mode when somebody praised him in a function.  He once told a visiting delegation, ‘I don’t do anything.  I just come and sit here.  I am surrounded by lot of good people who keep doing all the work’.  This humility is what makes him stand apart.  I am reminded of an old Arabic prayer:

“When you give me Strength, take not away my Sagacity.

When you give me Glory, take not away my Humility.

When you give me Humility, take not away my Dignity.

And take not away my Grace, when you give me Authority”

I can not find anyone better than Dr. MNC who has lived according to the true spirit of the above prayer.  I have never been his student, but I can’t express in words what I have learnt from him, just by observing him and working with him during the last 14 years.  I can go on sharing my experiences.  But I would end with what Dr. MNC likes the most – playing with numbers.

When I joined SIT the difference between my age and his was 43 years.  This difference continues to be same even now; and would continue so forever.  But the difference between my age and half of his age has been gradually coming down.  I haven’t touched half of his age yet, and I need to wait for four more years for that to happen!  Though I would never be able to catch up with his age, I sincerely wish to surpass half of his age and continue growing this difference for a long, long time.  Let the almighty give him good health, so that he continues to remain a huge banyan tree, providing shade to all of us at SIT.  I can’t pray for anything else for him, as I am sure he doesn’t desire any materialistic comforts any more.  Thank you, Dr. Channabasappa for all the care and affection that you have bestowed on me.