What does an average day in the life of an IIT professor look like?
by Prof . Arpita Mondal originally published in June14th, 2020 on GROW's website . Many a times, I get asked by friends and family, on days that I don’t have a class – ‘but you don’t have to teach! What keeps you busy?’ I thought of penning it down once and for all, and hence this article. What does an average day in the life of an IIT professor look like? Is teaching the only thing we do? If not, what else? Why is this profession not a nine-to-seven job that let’s you forget about its joys and worries beyond the office hours? Let’s discuss that a bit. Let me take a typical day with teaching as an example, to give you some idea about what fraction of my job actually constitutes teaching. It is a day in April. I have an 8.30 am lecture. Since I have the support of my family and domestic help to look after my infant, I am at least relieved of the worry of freshening him up, brushing his teeth, feeding him, bathing him, and so on and so forth on the days that I am away for wor...