Instilling love for mathematics among schoolchildren

Seventy-seven-year-old Narayanaswami Iyer is clearly surprised when I reach out to him to talk about his life and work. "Oh, you want to write about me? But I am no Narendra Modi or Abdul Kalam. I am just a humble teacher," he says. I assure him that, whether he believes it or not, spending an entire lifetime teaching Mathematics to thousands of students indeed makes for an inspirational story. When I say the word 'Mathematics', it's as if his words come to life, and the conversation begins on an interesting note. During the course of the next hour, he keeps asking me if he is boring me or taking up too much of my time. I reply in the negative, for, this conversation, as it turns out, is replete with more than just information for an article. It is filled with nuggets of wisdom and experience and the life-affirming belief that age is just a number for this 'young man' of 77 years.

Teaching rural children Narayanaswami currently resides at Serene Urbana of Columbia Pacific Communities, a retirement community in Kannamangala, near Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL). Every weekday is the same for him. He has breakfast at 7:30 am sharp. By 8am, he is ready, in a neatly ironed white-collared shirt paired with his favourite veshti along with a vintage briefcase. He is all set for his morning Mathematics classes at the nearby Maruti Vidya Mandir school. This is an honorary job that he took up after his retirement to continue indulging his love for teaching mathematics. After spending three hours there, he returns home for lunch and rests. In the evening, he conducts classes for rural children at the Maruthi Educational Trust for another three hours. It's a routine he loves, right down to the last class.

"Age is just a number," he tells me, adding, "You are as young as your mind tells you. I wouldn't like to spend my life any other way." After completing his primary studies in a small village in Thanjavur district, Narayanaswami moved to Trichy for secondary education and college. After completing his BTech in electric engineering, he landed a job at Binny Mills in 1966. This was also the time when his tryst with mathematics and teaching began. "As a bachelor, I had a lot of free time after I returned from work in the evenings. A lot of staff in the company was struggling to complete their AMIE, as they found engineering-related Mathematics tough. I started taking classes for free," he recounts.

Source: www.yourstory.com