KV Subba Rao is a teacher with a lot of accomplishments to his credit. He and his students focused on Alkaline complexes, Continental and Oceanic Volcanism and Rock Magnetism against the backdrop of field mapping. He was responsible for the revival of interest on Deccan Volcanics and publication of five volumes on this flood basalt province, which is now one of the most studied volcanic provinces in the world. Rao was also an invited member of a TV series in the US and UK on Volcanism and Mass Extinctions. An ABC Production, it was aired about 15 years ago.
Rao is a recipient of several awards including the National Mineral Award, MR Srinivasa Rao Award and the World Academy of Sciences Award in Earth Sciences. He has earlier served as Secretary, Foreign Society of India. Currently, he is the President of the Natural History Society of India. The 72-year-old completed his MSc in Geology from Andhra University and PhD at Sri Venkateshwara University in Tirupati.
About his acting stint in the TV series, he says laughing, “It was definitely quite a unique experience for me. I’m not an actor, so I had to be really spontaneous. However, for years I was teaching the subject to students and catering to their needs, so it was quite natural for me. But it was my only stint as an actor.”
Rao is also a writer and has authored several books during his illustrious career. He was the co-author of the book Story of Oceans for children in English with his student Shankar and later got it translated into seven Indian languages with the help of his friends. He was the section editor of India’s first Encyclopedia of Indian Natural History titled The Encyclopedia of Indian Natural History. It was published during the centenary year of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1983. Most recently, he launched a book titled Landforms of India from Topomaps and Images, which he co-authored with his teacher R Vaidyanathan.
“For a teacher, who has done vast research on certain topics, you have your own interpretation of the works you teach. So it is only natural that you would want to document it. A dancer, for an instance, may be brilliant on stage but they need an audience to perform. It is the same for teachers, we too need an audience,” says Rao on why he started writing.
Teachers have played a proactive role in shaping his career. If he co-authored a book with his teacher, it was in fact a teacher whom he encountered during his PhD who steered him towards teaching. “Until you touch the heart of a student, you are not a teacher,” he says. While there are teachers who patiently pass on their knowledge to their disciples, Rao does more than that — he connects with them on a personal level and also tries to inspire them. Following a brief period as a teacher at Sri Venkateshwara University, he then went abroad and taught at the University of Alaska, US. Later, Rao returned to India and was a professor at the Indian Institute of Bombay for 30 years.
His teaching career has left Rao rich with memories. “At different places, I taught different crops of students each time. Every one of them was from different cultures and backgrounds and as a teacher, I too had to adjust to these cultures. Having said that, the students kept me on my toes all the time. They were really enthusiastic and full of energy,” he recalls.
“Education brings out the inner strength of a child. In rural areas, there is not much exposure for the children and they are somehow expected to climb up the ladder by themselves. The opportunities in the rural sector are far too less and that is what we must focus on — they must not be taught in a mechanical way, but in a way they can understand,” he explains, adding that he thoroughly enjoyed his experience as a teacher.
“Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world,” he signs off, quoting anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, urging more people to take up teaching as a career.
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