learning from people

its amazing how you start looking up to people. some of them just click, from the first interaction onwards, some others grow on you. i have found one and as my teammate Sara says, "when i grow up, I want to be like him".

Fernando Penalva, our accounting professor is this person. you will say, an accounting prof? this is crazy! i would have thought the same, like i did when i got similar reviews from seniors. i mean why would they be in LOVE with him?? wasnt it one of the least exciting subjects? and then suddenly i realized i was a part of this craze.

the story begins like this. once upon a time, in a far-away land, i received an email from my to-be accounting professor. 'this is the exercise, if you can't finish it, sign up for this online course, if you are not good at it, join the pre-course class.' i thought aah, i am not worried about that! the quiz seems doable with a peek at the answers, i mean i can match up my answers with that for sure! then the seriousness grew, we had to buy this book costing 140 euros. what!!?! why?? but I not even going to do any accounting after this program.. but almost everyone succumbed to the pressure. we met all the pre-requisites and huffed-puffed our way to pre-class.

who is this? this frail-sweet-looking-child-like person, was he the one sending out all those instructions? can't be! and then he started teaching. i am getting poetic now, but this is how it is. he teaches you as if you were the naivest student, and having the unfailing dedication of learing accounting principles. and should you feel sleepy in class, he sprinkles you with his simple humour. my memory of his classes are an image of a bright classroom, with the sun shining in through the window against a cool blue sky and autumn leaves whistling in the distance. his words like the cool wind, and the writing on the black-board like the most soothing piece of art. now you see, how crazy it gets?

he is probably the most quoted person on our facebook profiles. i will take the liberty of posting a few here:
"This is my home telephone number. Please avoid calling me in the middle of the night, but if you do call me in a panic situation, I will be nice." (this is not sarcastic. he is the only professor so far to have given us a contact number.)
"Bonds are like marriages. You get what you get." (Bonds here mean debt instruments issued by governments with fixed terms for returns)
"I have hired them because they are professional killers. they will break your neck. they have done that before." (poor invigilators in our mid-term exams, they didnt know this was coming!)
"You can use anything you want to mark your answers. Pen, pencil, crayons." (I told you we were like children for him)
"Tangible assets, if they fall on you, you will die" (I will never ever forget types of assets, you can wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me)
"What do you need to solve this problem? Apart from an accountant i.e.?" (simple, isnt it!)
"Dont get discouraged, it is not the end of the world even if you have secured the lowest grade in mid-term. My consideration and respect for you is even higher than before the exam." (aah wish this was a movie and i could weep with happiness in the dark ambience!)

and the most famous one, the one that made me fall in love with him. but before the quote, let me give you some background. as per the course methodology, we are supposed to read the concept on our own, solve the exercise and then in class the next day, he explains the whole thing to us. some students complained that with all the other workload, this was taking a lot of time. This feedback reached him through our class administrator, and in response he wrote us two mails on friday night, as late as midnight.. He addressed us as "beloved class" (sigh of happiness!!) and went on to reaffirm us to believe in the system and that it would all be fine. He gave us short-cuts to reduce the time taken, and signed-off saying:

"I feel your pain"

I can't say any more. May God bless.