Let them break the apparatus
Why my lab celebrates equipment destroyed in good faith, and what a broken galvanometer teaches that a working one can't.
Read note →
01 · Rest frame
— I. Rao, still taking bets on the two masses
Nothing in this class is taken on faith.
I left a research fellowship in condensed-matter physics because I noticed the best hours of my week were the ones spent explaining, not measuring. Sixteen years later I've taught every flavour of school physics — board, JEE, NEET, olympiad — and I still open every year the same way: by dropping two unequal masses and taking bets.
My lab has a wall of broken apparatus labelled 'honourable deaths' — every one broken by a student testing something worth testing. That wall has produced 312 JEE and NEET qualifiers, four national olympiad campers, and an average board score I'm quietly smug about. The rote-learners arrive terrified of physics; they leave arguing with textbooks.
If your school wants a physics department where the syllabus is the floor and not the ceiling — where students queue for lab period — I'm one demo class away. I bring my own Van de Graaff.
Laws of this classroom
Empirically verified · 16 yearsCuriosity ∝ 1/fear²
Wrong answers cost nothing here. Silence costs everything.Understanding = ∫ doing · dt
Hands on apparatus before eyes on equations. Always.Marks → 0 as meaning → 0
Chase the concept and the ranks arrive as a by-product.
02 · The apparatus
SignatureSpecialistPh.D. depth200+ demos312 qualifiers4 campers
Instruments, calibrated
From chalk to cloud chamber — everything on this bench works.
Mechanics & waves
kinematics to SHM, taught bench-firstElectricity & magnetism
circuits, fields, induction — live demosModern physics
photoelectric effect to nuclei, minus the mysticismLab & practical design
error analysis, apparatus repair, demo libraryJEE / NEET strategy
problem craft, timing, question autopsyOlympiad mentoring
NSEP → INPhO pipeline coaching
03 · The experiment
Predict. Measure. Be wrong. Repeat.
Every physics formula is a compressed story about the world — and schools hand students the compression without the story. I run it backwards: drop the ball, swing the pendulum, blow the fuse — then derive the law from what we all just watched. A student who has seen momentum conserved on a lab bench never needs to memorise that it is.
- PredictBefore every demo, everyone commits to a written prediction. Being wrong in ink is the beginning of physics.
- MeasureReal apparatus, real error bars. My students fight about uncertainty like it's cricket.
- DeriveOnly now the mathematics — as the shortest honest summary of what the bench just showed us.
- ExtendEvery unit ends past the syllabus: one rocket, one circuit, one 'but what if' pushed to breaking.
04 · Trajectory
Sixteen years of constant acceleration
2016 — PRESENT
Head of Physics (PGT)
National Public School, Bengaluru
Lead a five-teacher department. Rebuilt the lab around a 200-demo library, started the open-lab Saturday programme, and run the JEE/NEET physics stream — 312 qualifiers and counting, with a 94% board average alongside.
2011 — 2016
PGT Physics
Delhi Public School, Bengaluru East
Grades 11–12 physics; built the rocketry club whose water rockets are still confiscated at inter-school events, and the 'honourable deaths' apparatus wall tradition.
2009 — 2011
Research Fellow → Teacher
IISc Bengaluru (CeNSE), then classroom
Condensed-matter research; discovered the explaining was better than the measuring. Left with a Ph.D., a soldering habit, and no regrets.
05 · Degrees of freedom
Education
2004 — 2009
Thesis on thin-film superconductivity
Ph.D. Physics (Condensed Matter)
Indian Institute of Science, BengaluruThesis on thin-film superconductivity
2002 — 2004
CGPA 9.1 · institute merit list
M.Sc. Physics
IIT MadrasCGPA 9.1 · institute merit list
1999 — 2002
First class · gold medal
B.Sc. Physics (Hons.)
St. Joseph's College, BengaluruFirst class · gold medal
06 · Calibration
Certifications
IB DP Physics (Cat 2)IB workshop, Singapore · 2022
National olympiad resource personHBCSE-TIFR programme · 2019
Advanced physics lab safety officerCertified · renewed 2025
CBSE competency-based assessmentCoE training · 2023
07 · Constants
Results that replicate
Best Physics Teacher — Karnataka CBSEState sahodaya teaching awards
2023312 JEE/NEET qualifiers mentoredPhysics stream, NPS Bengaluru
2016–4 national olympiad camp selectionsNSEP → INPhO pipeline
2018–Published — 'The Honourable Deaths Wall'Physics Education (IOP), on productive failure
2022
08 · Field notes
MAY 2026 JAN 2026 SEP 2025
Published observations
The prediction notebook
One cheap notebook per student, one written guess before every demo. The single highest-leverage habit I teach.
Read note →JEE physics is a reading test
Most 'hard' problems are comprehension failures. How I train question autopsy before problem solving.
Read note →
09 · Peer review
Independent observations
OBSERVATION 01 · REPLICATED
My son now argues with me about why the fridge door resists opening after you close it. Dinner is a viva. We are thrilled and exhausted.
Advait's motherPARENT · GR 12OBSERVATION 01 · REPLICATED
Physics went from our weakest stream to the reason parents choose us at admissions. His open-lab Saturdays have a waiting list.
PrincipalNPS BENGALURUOBSERVATION 01 · REPLICATED
I cleared JEE Advanced because he made me autopsy every question I got wrong for two years. I hated it. It worked. Thank you, sir.
TanmayALUMNUS · IIT BOMBAY
10 · For schools
The research proposal
⚡ SESSION 2027–28 · ONE DEMO CLASS: I BRING THE VAN DE GRAAFF, YOU BRING GRADE 12
Current employerNational Public School, Bengaluru
Current roleHead of Physics (PGT)
Open toPGT Physics · HOD Science · JEE/olympiad programme lead
Expected salary₹14–18 LPA
Notice period60 days
Willing to relocateYes — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune · CBSE / ICSE / IB DP
Principal, National Public SchoolCURRENT EMPLOYER · SHARED ON REQUEST
HOD Science, DPS Bengaluru East2011–16 · SHARED ON REQUEST
11 · Signal
Establish contact
Based in77, Indiranagar, Bengaluru 560038, Karnataka
Phone / WhatsApp+919999999994