Chronicles of a TA

TA = Teaching Assistant

With semester just starting and TA duties being randomly assigned I was worried to get a tough duty somewhere for the whole semester. So I approached the concerned professor and got myself assigned Digital Electronics lab for the semester, Monday and Tuesday 2-5. I was supposed to report to Prof. Bhaumik under whom I had done VLSI course last year.

We had done this lab in the first semester of our 2nd year, that is exactly three years earlier. And I didn't exactly excel at the course. So, I was a little tentative and anxious and reached right at 2, the kind of punctuality I hadn't experience before. Prof. Bhaumik appeared a few minutes later, looking considerably pleased to see at least one TA for the lab, as the TAs were still to be assigned. I introduced myself to the lab in-charge and the related lab assistant and took the sheet of paper which was distributed to all the students.

It asked the students to design a circuit, which was in effect a 3 bit adder. I went around to every group (each group consisting of 2 students) and explained them in detail whatever I knew. As I went from 1st group to the 2nd somethings got clearer to me. As I went on along, many things which I had lost earlier, were recovered in mind. Like the floating connection, how to go about troubleshooting/debugging the circuit and so on and so forth. It really put a stamp on my conviction that Teaching is the best way to Learning.

There was also a table on which a single girl stood working on the circuit all alone. I went over to ask her where was her partner, she said she had missed it. She kind of looked pretty, but remember the glass ceiling on beauty in IIT? Well neway I decided to help her a bit more in case she needed as she was working singly.

There was also a group in which one of the guys was keeping his head in a very lazy position and his partner was working laboriously. It kind of reminded how I and Bharat use to work, me being the former guy. After an hour that lazy chap asked me to actually work out the circuit. I said no. After two hours he asked me if I could fraud sign for him! I asked him if he was from Delhi, he affirmed. I know Delhi kids :D

Moving back to that girl, after 4pm when some of the groups completed their experiments and moved on and she was among the few remaining, she began to make the now famous "puppy face". Her voice also changed to what girls feel can melt any guy's heart, the omnipresent "please please and almost teary voice". After sometime she told me she had almost completed I was like cool! After sometime I saw her packing off, "Wait a min, you didn't get it verified after completing it!". She said you said its cool! lolzz, make back the few connections you have dismantled and verify. I was not gonna leave her easy and have my fun :P

On Tuesday, a different group had come, but from the same electrical and computer science department. But the students appeared to be much more sincere/knowledgeable. When I asked on many of the tables in the beginning, "Do you know what you got to do?" A lot of them replied in affirmative without even as much as bothering to look back and speak! I was like, "Okay! Do you know what is XOR gate". Common reply was, "Exclusive Or". "Do you know the logical function?". "No." Duh!

But the best thing is that I really do enjoy teaching stuff to my colleagues or to my juniors. I have rarely got that chance after coming to IIT and this I take as a golden opportunity to really observe if I enjoy teaching. I actually stayed till 5:15 to make sure every group finished the exp; I then took leave. My Professor was more than just happy with my attitude.

See you guys, I hope it wasn't too boring! :)