Utkarsh Kumar Rai, an alumnus of BITS Pilani, is a distinguished motivational speaker and former Vice President Software and Managing Director of Infinera (India and China), renowned for his innovative approaches to leadership and career development. With a unique blend of technology and human behavior insights, he has transformed traditional executive coaching into an integrative model that has proven highly effective for techno-business leaders.
There are three vivid memories of twists in the tale during my educational journey at BITS Pilani, which I joined in 1983. Back then, admissions were based purely on marks. I had topped my school and was optimistic about getting a subject of my liking at BITS. However, to my surprise, I got Mathematics as my first degree. Ironically, I had scored higher in Biology than Mathematics, but the admission rule considered one language and three science subjects.
I wanted Computer Science as my second degree and came to know that only 10 seats were awarded for CS as a dual degree in the previous year. Determined to succeed, I studied hard and ranked in the top 10 of my batch by the end of the first year. I was thrilled to be eligible for Computer Science, but my euphoria turned to regret when I learned that the number of seats had increased to around 25. I regretted missing out on some fun in the first year.
The third year was particularly challenging as it involved core courses in Mathematics. Only in Mathematics out of all branches, there were two courses where one had to score at least a C grade to pass; otherwise, students were not allowed to take further courses, resulting in the loss of a semester. As the semester progressed, fear was palpable among some of my batch mates. One such challenging course was taught by Dr. Subramanium. After the final examination for his subject, our focus shifted to other subjects.
When the last paper was over, I was happily walking out of the main block, ready to pack my bags and go home. That's when I saw Dr. Subramanium coming from the other direction. He asked me to accompany him to his office. There, he showed me a graph with marks on the Y-axis, with something towards the left hidden by paper. The graph had many crosses. Handing me a pencil, he asked, “Assume you are a professor and doing the grading. How will you do it?”
There were four clear clusters with significant gaps in marks among them. I drew three lines to separate the four clusters. He remarked, “Aha, see how easy this is. This is what I am going to do, and yet students complain that I am strict and tough. I have to give D grades to a few.” I looked puzzled, and he clarified that this was my batch’s grading, and it was our names he was hiding. I was petrified, seeing a couple of students in the fourth cluster, and requested him to reconsider. He smiled and escorted me out.
Upon returning the next semester, the names of those students spread like wildfire, and the number of students matched the fourth cluster exactly.
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