Twice the learning

Dr. Ravi Kumar and Ameeta Kumar:
For Dr Ravi Kumar,who is a scientist at the National Chemical Laboratories in Pune,teaching has taken on a different colour altogether. “I guide PhD students for their thesis and their doctoral projects,so compared to my wife,who teaches undergraduate students at the university,my work is a little different,” he says. However,he does agree that since they are both scientists,their areas of work coincide often.

“Between the two of us,the discussions revolve around our areas of expertise too. Since I work in the field of bio-informatics and biotechnology,my husband discusses them with me whenever he comes across any interesting news item or research paper relating to them. Of course,if I happen to find something related to his work,I pass it on to him,” says his wife Ameeta Kumar,who is a professor at the Institute of Bio-Informatics and Biotechnology at the University. The couple agrees that they deal with more mature students,and are thankful they don’t have to face up to noisy or troublesome students.

Dr Vijay Kumar Jain and Shashi Jain
Dr Vijay Kumar Jain and Shashi Jain,both started teaching at the age of 19. With a sound teaching experience of 30 years in taxation and law today,Jain feels both passionate and satisfied about his job,but it is his wife who made life a lot more different than what he thought it might have been. “I consider teaching my first love,so my wife had to be a teacher,” he says with a big smile,adding,”but on a serious note,my wife made a lot of difference in the way I took up this profession. In the many discussions we have on teaching,on the education system and the society in general,I get new insights everyday from her which always make me think.” But for his wife,Shashi,teaching happened all because of her husband. “It was his suggestion that I apply to teach Hindi,and from then on the journey has been a long and fruitful one,” she shares. She has been teaching the language for a good 15 years now and feels that the fact that both of them are from the same profession increases their understanding as a couple. “I feel he is very proud of the fact that I teach,and I get all support from him that I can. And the best part is that being teachers also make us understand our kids better,and that is what makes it an enjoyable thing.”

Prof Sashidharan Nair and Dr. Vaijayantee Nair
They both teach,in the junior and senior college sections respectively,in two different institutes. And the common thread that binds their professions is that they they both teach biology,albeit to two different age groups. And that is where the challenge for them comes in. Professor Shashidharan,a lecturer at Loyola Junior College says,“Both my wife and I teach biology. Of course she teaches at the Senior college level,but that doesn’t stop the two of us from discussing research papers,or interesting bits of information that either my wife or I have obtained from the students regarding the same.”

Sharing more about one such incident where his wife actually helped find an easier method for conducting an experiment on the topic of ‘Cell Division’,he says,“My wife actually helped develop a better method to conduct the same experiment,which I eventually even introduced in my own classes and lectures. For us,this is what teaching is all about.”

Dr N Nagesh and Rajam Nagesh
While one is a professor of Physics at the MIT’s Vishwashanti Gurukul World School (VGWS) at Rajbaug,Pune,the other has been teaching English and Social Studies since 25 years at the Kamalnayan Bajaj School,Chinchwad,Pune. But that is not what makes the couple of Rajam Nagesh and Dr. N Nagesh click as teachers. “For the two of us it is more about relying on one another for advice regarding the various facets of our teaching careers that makes things click. So while for me it would be about taking his help on the school projects and on how to make life for the students more interesting and interactive,for him it is about being able to address the core issues of students,” says Rajam.

Adding to that,Dr Nagesh says that it is important for them to have the right attitudes to discuss the various issues relating to their professional lives. He says that right from generating a new approach to teaching students,to understanding their mentalities,the discussions regarding their professions are diverse and they help one another to improvise and work better. This,in turn,helps them approach their own different sets of students accordingly.