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Maverick in the Microbiology Class
Milind Watve has released an audio cassette of Marathi folk songs, has published an award-winning series of wildlife encyclopedias, and written scores of popular science and original research articles on topics as diverse as bird cognition and microbial diversity. Somewhere in all this, he has also found time to teach and inspire a generation of young scientists.
interview: Mohinish Shukla
additional input: Adish
Dani
illustration: Amruta Patil
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I guess I am more interested in off-beat talent than academic performance. The odd ones out seem more drawn to me. And if I see off-beat
talent, I feel it is my duty to nurture it - because the system does not
support such people.
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MS: So, what do you
teach? And where?
MW: Head of Microbiology at Abbasaheb Garware College,
Pune. The most important class I teach is the first year of B.Sc. When students enter the B.Sc. program, they are without any direction. They have just survived the onslaught of 10th and 12th and they have not really thought much beyond that, and they don’t even know what lies beyond. Many of them want to go for engineering or medicine somewhere, but they haven’t gotten admission into those courses, so they get into a B.Sc course.
The first two months are very critical - in that period, if their interest is drawn into this field, their entire future career can build itself up. But if these two months don’t go well, and if they don’t develop an interest in the subject - then it’s obvious that they won’t do any better in the future. So, I spend a lot of time with the first year students. In the lab, in the classroom, taking them out on field trips, talking to them individually. And personally, I enjoy teaching the first year the most. I don’t teach the second and third year much. One reason is the physical limitation of how much teaching a single person can handle. But the other reason is that latter years become very exam-oriented. Then, I teach the
M.Sc. students.
MS: what inspired you to take up this line of work?
MW: Bad teachers [laughs]. I wasn’t generally happy with the kind of education system I went through. And I wanted to be able to give others that which I myself did not get. There were a few good teachers though - especially in college.
MS: Any that come to mind?
MW: There was a head of the microbiology department who was not so great in the class - one would feel sleepy during his lectures - but the things that he told us were different. He used to tell us to just come and sit in the lab. That way, according to him, your attention will wander around the lab, you’ll see people doing things there, maybe you’ll even talk to them… something is bound to happen. Creating a love for the lab was something he did.
MS: other teachers say that your way of teaching is different, not exactly exam-oriented, in a sense. In what way do you see the difference, and how do you get around the fact that eventually it has to be exam-oriented or, within the confines of the institution.
MW: The funny thing is that, even when I was a student, I never really thought much about exams [laughs]! So, the fact that I don’t do so now is a continuation of that. As a student, my take was that one should read what one is interested in. But, at least in those times, passing was not so difficult…
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