Although I went to a good school, just outside Bombay, I did not find any of the teachers at all inspiring. They were all proficient, but they seemed bored with what they were teaching us. 

My father was worried that I would not pass the entrance exams into Oxford, where he had been, and he decided to get a tutor from Tutors from England to come and live with us and prepare me for the exams – he had heard good reports of the company from friends of his. 

Martin arrived and he seemed a nice enough person, although I was not very impressed with him at first. But slowly I came to appreciate the fact that he was not only a very good teacher, but a very fine person as well. He was well-read, a patient teacher and I came to like him very much. 

Slowly it became more than that – I came to really admire and respect him in a way that I had never experienced before; he had a knack of getting me interested even in the subjects that I was not interested in. In short, he inspired me and I came to love the time that we spent together, which was almost all day every day. 

He also taught me how I was to behave when I got to Oxford (how to dress and mix with other undergraduates etc.) – about which I had previously had no idea, despite my father having been there. 

The result was that I passed the entrance exams and the interview easily and got a place at Christ Church where my father went, which made him very happy! Martin helped me specially with preparing for the interview, which I do not think I would have passed without his help beforehand.

I am now up at Oxford and Martin’s advice – he also went to Oxford – was invaluable and has helped me get much more from my time here than I would otherwise have done. 

It turned out that meeting Martin was a turning point in my life and I am forever grateful to him. JP