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that the teacher should become the role model for his/her students. In his opinion, the teacher should
never be strict. Instead, a teacher should always be a mentor as well as a guide for the students.

Tagore also stressed the need for continuous learning by the teacher. In his own words, “A teacher
can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it
continues to burn its own flame. The teacher, who has come to an end of his subject, who has no living
traffic with his knowledge, but merely repeats his lessons to his students, can only load their minds; he
cannot quicken them.” (Prasad, 2006). In the early 20th century, Tagore’s thinking on education was a

combination of the ancient Indian system and the modern scientific attitude (for example, towards the
education of girls, co-education and so on). With this rare combination as the motivation, he started a
new model educational institution, Shantiniketan, on December 22, 1901.

Mentoring Experiences of Nobel Laureates

It is normally found that behind every Nobel laureate, there is a mentor! A short summary (See the
Table in the Appendix), presents some case studies of Nobel laureates in sciences and economics,
listing out their respective mentors, who helped them choose the right path. It is indeed instructive to
go through their individual mentoring experiences and observations from their review articles, Nobel
Lectures or Memoires. A citation from the Nobel laureate Hans Krebs is given here as an example:

“Association with a leading teacher almost automatically brings about a close association with
outstanding contemporaries of the pupil because great teachers tend to attract good people. Students
at all levels learn as much from their fellow students as from their seniors” (Krebs, 1967). Nobel

laureate Venkataraman Ramakrishnan, cited two experiences about his getting mentored at the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology. After joining the laboratory, it took him several days to realize that
the regular breaks from laboratory work, to have meals or coffee or tea are important. These breaks
allowed scientists to get together informally, at the canteen on the top floor, and talk and share ideas.
He noted that the human mind could remain fully focused for a couple of hours at a time. The tea/
coffee/lunch breaks indeed re-energized the scientists.
The other lesson he learnt is given here in his own words: “Even very famous scientists would ask
questions at seminars that were often trivial to people in the field. It reinforced in me the feeling that
ignorance is not something to be ashamed of, and that no question is too stupid to ask if you want to
know the answer” (Ramakrishnan, 2009).

Mentoring Experience of Narayana Murthy

In 2018, Professor H. V. Sahasrabuddhe’s (HVS) 75th birthday was celebrated in Pune, with Mr.

Narayana Murthy, then the CEO of Infosys, being the chief guest. In 1969, when Murthy faced the
dilemma of choosing between a high paying job versus learning the “cutting edge” technology, HVS
had advised the undecided Murthy to prefer learning over salary.

Murthy said that while he was studying for M. Tech. in Computer Science at IIT-Kanpur, his batch-
mates, including himself, were offered jobs in 1969 by companies such as Telco, Tisco, HMT and Air
India. When Murthy met Professor Krishnayya of IIM, Ahmedabad (IIMA), and got a job offer, the
latter told him about the modern, time-sharing mini-computer that he was going to install and that
IIMA would be the third business school to do so after Harvard and Stanford. Murthy was advised by
some of his hostel friends to talk to somebody of their generation. He told HVS (who had completed
his Ph. D. in 1968) that the only catch was that the job offered by Krishnayya paid only Rs. 800. HVS

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