"Timble waale sir", as he’s lovingly *ahem* called by the student population here, is someone you would want to see only when you’re sitting at 74% attendance and see no way out of your seemingly inevitable grade down.
Abhishek Sharma is the face of Timble here at IIT Delhi. A loving husband and a doting father, he has been working in IIT Delhi since July 2017. He has been acquainted with IIT much longer than that though.
“Before starting at IIT, I had a job in Katwaria, involving testing. I used to come to the IIT grounds for my morning walk daily and couldn’t help but wonder if and when I would have the chance to be here someday. Following a fortuitous meeting with a stranger, aided by a stroke of luck, I found a job here in Timble support.
I was somewhat apprehensive before coming to IIT, afraid of whether I’ll be able to reach the students here. I felt so shy in front of these smart people. But the students here are really nice and have always made me feel like a part of IIT, far from the distant personas people generally think of. They don’t seem like strangers, more like people I have been acquaintances with long before.” Continuing, when asked about some of the challenges he has to face:
“I have to travel around 75km when travelling from home to work but I like to think it instils the values of routine and respecting time in me. Also, it is no news that many students try to increase their attendance by raising false queries making life busy, just because of the sheer numbers, but now we are advanced enough to segregate false and true requests fairly quickly. One way to solve this to an extent is to relax attendance for better-performing students as others need to attend classes more than them, in my opinion.” Finally what he takes away from IIT:
“If nothing else, one thing IIT has taught me the most is the importance of education. I just want to be able to provide for the best education my daughter can have. And with all the interaction, food, people and memories in a safe environment where I feel like I am at ease, IIT is … home.” - Abhishek Sharma, "Timble Waale Sir"
(Interviewed by Ishita Hans and Shauryasikt Jena)
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