Prof Samir Mathur: A Role Model Speaks

As an extension of the DNS ROLE MODEL List 2008, we asked the Role Models - 'How did De Nobili impact their life?' The third writeup in the series comes from Professor Samir Dayal Mathur (ISC 1975).

As I look back at my school years at De Nobili, I am struck by the amazing high standards the school set up for us. In our school years it looked natural to me that one should struggle for every goal, academic or extracurricular. Every success was cherished, and every failure led to a determination to do better next time.

I now look at my classmates and see that each of us has made a place for himself in life, striving to do the best that he can in whatever endeavour he has chosen.

But what looked a natural set of standards in our school years, now look to me to be a very remarkable set of standards indeed! My own path has been in science and education, and I have had the opportunity to pass through many countries and their Universities. The most common lament I hear from professors is that students lack ambition; they are not motivated to pursue high goals, or to apply themselves to their chosen jobs with full diligence. There is an abundance of books, computers and laboratory equipment, but the students are not very interested; they do the minimum needed to get their grade and promptly forget the material of the course soon after.

I then started to think about what made us different at De Nobili. I think a large part of it was the sense of freedom that I grew up with. We could study in our own chosen way, individually or in groups, from whatever book we chose. The teachers did not make us dependent on them; they did not insist that we had to learn everything from them.
We could form our own opinions on what we should do to pass our board exams, or what to do with our extracurriculars. Interestingly, in many of today's affluent schools I find the opposite: students are very closely supervised by the teachers in all aspects of their education and development. I cannot help feeling that such supervision leads to a subtle lack of independence, and ultimately to a lowered set of standards that one places on oneself.

In short, De Nobili had somehow managed to produce a mix of discipline and independence that has served all of us well in our lives, and I would like to thank all those who dedicated their time to guide us in our youthful days.

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