The 24x7 WhatsApp Counselling Guru for students
HYDERABAD: Sir, can I meet you today to discuss my career in the National Defence Academy?” A high school student in the city asked Dr TP Sasikumar, space scientist-turned-student counsellor. Dr Sasikumar agreed to meet him that afternoon. “The boy told me that he bunked school to meet me and gain some gyan about his career. I told him that very moment that he is unfit for a job in the Armed Forces as they value integrity above all else. Bunking school does not signify this.I think he realised what I meant.”
Another day, an intermediate student from a corporate college in the city WhatsApped him to find out if he can meet him, to find the best American university for him. “He used to call me every morning and find out where I am. Just to gauge his attitude, I would ask him where he was and would tell him that I was in a place at least 30 km away. He would invariably say that was too far for him and that he could not make it. I told him that if he was planning to move abroad, he had to get used to commutes. If he could not make it in his own city, then going abroad may not be up his alley.”
Dr Sasikumar is now the preferred ‘Counselling Guru’ of the twin cities whose popularity seems to be on the rise, with every passing day. When Telangana was burning with the struggle for statehood and students were either taking part in the agitation or were whiling away their time, silently and sweetly, Dr Sasikumar used to coordinate trips where he would take high school students to Golconda Fort to give them a history lesson.
If the next day too was a holiday because of bandh, he would take them to the Jain Temple to teach them out Jainism as part of the Holiday Shiksha programme. “That’s how I started engaging with students of the twin cities after I retired a few years ago. Today, I relish the fact that I could counsel over 8 lakh students through on-ground events, over radio chats, through phone and through my YouTube channel. I have over 1.92K subscribers from across the world for 1,600 YouTube videos.”
From telling students how to break up their Maths syllabus in December to be able to score 100 percent in their Board finals to helping them understand what career works for them, Dr Sasikumar, a resident of Manovikas Nagar in Hyderabad, does it all. Just last week, he was in Sharjah addressing students from 17 schools at a three-day seminar titled ‘Be a Warrior, Don’t Be a Worrier’. He was invited to speak at a meet in Chennai in 2018 where he addressed over 100 CBSE Principals in Gulf and the principals, in turn, invited him to counsel the students.
Dr Sasi is fluent in Telugu, Kannada, English and Malayalam and the latter makes him a hot pick in counselling events in the Middle East. “I am often invited to speak on radio chat shows in the Middle East. Sometimes I record the show from my home in Hyderabad and sometimes I am invited to the studios there. Either way, once my one-hour counselling session ends (of course interspersed with over 30 calls from Indian students studying there, I also get around 1,200 WhatsApp messages.
I ensure I respond to every message, even if it means I am up the whole night to do that,” says the multitasker. Recently, he also addressed SR Engineering College in Warangal. Earlier this year, he was in the US to address three student camps. “I found many homemakers came to drop their children for my class. I felt they also need some value addition instead of just being glorified drivers who picked and dropped their kids. So one weekend, we all went driving and chanted Lalitha Sahasranamam and understanding its significance.
A regular at school and college fests besides Job Mela counselling events, Dr Sasikumar is known for his sense of humour and ability to pare down any academic problem, Dr Sasikumar says he is just a WhatsApp message away for students. “I am always available for any kind of question. I work 24x7 for students,” says the scientist who worked in the Department of Space for two decades. A Vastu, Yoga and Jyothish expert, Dr Sasikumar is also popular for conducting Skype and Facetime classes on Bhagavad Geeta.
He believes that his experience with students makes him what he is. He was Director at Academic Staff College under University Grants Commission at the University of Calicut and was Deputy Director at Directorate General of Security, Cabinet Secretariat, New Delhi before taking voluntary retirement in 2009. He opted to be in Academics and Mentoring Youth to create dreams in them and enrich their skills towards Nation building. Dr Sasikumar initiated Mentors’ Navigation Workshop for College Teachers and reached out to colleges in Kerala. He also had a two-year tenure as Management Professor in an Engineering College under Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University at Hyderabad.
How to crack civil services exam
Dr Sasikumar says: First of all, abandon all thoughts of enrolling yourself into a coaching centre for civil services. Instead, subscribe to all the newspapers in your city. Read them everyday. Write your own analysis in 200 words. Write down bulletpoints for each of the issues that are rocking the country. From CAA to Greta Thenburg to three capitals of Andhra Pradesh, tackle each of them. Comprehension is the most important skill that will help you crack this exam. Comprehension comes when you read a lot and sum it up in an effective manner.
How to get your teenager to study
Dr Sasikumar believes that jeans therapy works wonders on teenagers. “Sometimes, all that you need to do is stop being so harsh on them. Encourage them to wear their favourite jeans, T-shirt, perfume, give them some pocket money and ask them to hang out with their friends. Trust me, when they come back home, they are all set to get back to their studies. Parents put too much pressure on them and in my experience, the jeans therapy is easiest, most affordable and most effective for teens,” he quips.
Most asked question to Dr Sasikumar:
What course should I take after my 12th class or intermediate?
Where should I go for IAS coaching
How he conducts his group activity:
Whenver I visit schools, I first ask the students the subject they think is tough. Then we mark the most difficult lessons and most difficult questions. Then with the help of students, we make a plan on how many hours we need to study to tackle this. When I finally tell them they need, say 18 hours, to tackle this, they feel happy. They feel it is very doable.
Next, I make the students set the question paper and I swap answer sheets in such a way that one student gets to correct the answers of the other student. This gives students an understanding of how they write. “I have students calling me up the next day to say how the exercise helped them understand their shortcoming or how I have made it easy for them to tackle the mountain called Maths in an effective and efficient way.”
@newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi