The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : I never missed a class in college: Narayana Murthy

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Monday, Sep 06, 2010
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I never missed a class in college: Narayana Murthy

Staff Reporter

Special guest:Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy at the Teachers' Day celebrations at B.M.S. College of Engineering in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: In his college days, Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy had a “dubious distinction”: he was the only student who would attend classes even when the entire college would empty out when a ‘strike' was called.

“The reason is simple,” says Mr. Murthy, whose father was a teacher. “I respected my father, and so I knew I had to respect every teacher. And to respect a teacher, you must go and sit in the class.”

Addressing the first year B.E. students at B.M.S. College of Engineering on the occasion of Teachers' Day, he said: “Be disciplined. Do not bunk classes. As a student I attended every single class — and believe me, that has served me very well.”

Mr. Murthy also advised students to focus on learning, rather than just passing exams.

“We have not leveraged the power of education. Our engineers have become people who learn by rote and are incapable of making a difference to society,” he said.

Celebrations

Teachers' Day was celebrated across the city with students expressing their love and respect to the educators who supported them in various stages of life. Though it was Sunday, students of Vidyanjali School participated in a colourful function held to mark the occasion at M.E.S. College on Bannerghatta Road.

The 1985 batch of St. Joseph's Indian High School celebrated their reunion on Sunday by deciding to support the education of a few deserving students and donated Rs. 1 lakh for the cause.

Free surgery

Sparsh Foundation extended a helping hand to retired teachers ailing with arthritis. The project, ‘Sparsh Guru Namana', will help 100 retired teachers suffering from arthritis to undergo joint replacement surgeries free of cost at Sparsh Hospital. The surgeries will be carried out till September 12. Sparsh Guru Namana was inaugurated by chairperson of the Infosys Foundation Sudha Murty. “In a land which chants the Vedic verse, where the teacher stands first in hierarchy, we often tend to neglect primary school teachers who are the building blocks of our education system,” said Ms. Murty who herself was a teacher.

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