Waiting list !!!

It is an annual fanfare in GIM ,the long admission process...

Dr Jesus and his office takes care of the process from the advertising in all national newspapers about GIM ( with the large campus and the building projected, with Air conditioning and the gardens as the selling point, keeping in mind the publicity rule that " allways your postives should be touted about"....), to the applications that they receive (thousands of them, for all the negatives, GIM had a name of its own partly due to the huge campus that Dr Joy had the common sense to build and partly due to its teachers, again Dr Joy had a good sense in identifying them..) and to conducting the actual admission process....

This year the process began as usual and all the major news papers carried big ads (it need not be big to look best ,but Jesus never knew that ) and inspite of the "heavily loaded" other works that he was doing Jesus was in the helm of affairs........

Every one knew that the father was told by every other person that it was difficult to attract good students with Dr Jesus in charge of the admission process. His haphazard and abrupt decisions made the process go haywire every time and the list of selected would be disappointing at the end of the whole process.. Every year, inspite of the thousands of applications that poured in, a large section of the selected lot wouldn’t fit into a decent B School canvas, which GIM was claiming to be.. Still Jesus was there everywhere,running here and there ,with noises and cracking the whip, as if he was actually running the Jumbo circus !!!

Prof Ram..... called Dr Joseph, the ED coming out of his chamber to the large common area in the faculty room...

He is not here sir... I shouted back from my pigeon hole where I sat as Prof Ram's neighbour... I think he is in the library...
( Prof Ram went to the library many times a day, while most others didnt even know that GIM had one..)

Then you may have to go ... for the Group Discussion first round..the prospective students are waiting...... ED announced to me callously.

My goodness..... lamented a poor me as I cursed myself but managed to blurt out........ I have scheduled a case discussion in my next class, just two hours from now... thought of getting into it a bit more...

Oh that shoudnt be a problem Sukesh...said ED,....this will take only one hour...

But sir... I protested ,faintly though !!!

Well, then tell me what shall I do.. some has gone on leave...most are in class ..only you are sitting here idle...... shall I go and tell the HQ...?

That was the trick and it was done....... I went for the first round of the group discussion , which was the first round of the selection process to get into the coveted MBA from Gods Institute of Management....
Young and anxious faces waited, mulled, discussed and debated, as we, the two professors sat watching the show and as their parents languished outside the building, in the sprawling lawns and gardens with hopes and worries printed all over their faces.....
I didnt see most of them..or hadnt seen it all before, different faces though...
I was burning...
IDLE .... !!!
Did some one say that to my face some time back? IDLE??? and did I protest????
Me and protest !!! Never ......
The actual me protested to the pseudo loyal me,,,, but that was it....

Most of prospects as they debated showed that they have got trained by professional schools as was discernible in their mannerisms and lingua, often artificial and synthetic ,very prominently displayed to the extent of causing irritation to a neutral observer.....
To me yes... it was a fake show- where the result was declared even before the test was conducted....

I will say that number 5 and 6 are the only ones who can go in ..all others can go back home... said my co Prof who chaired the GD session with me,after the melee in which the kids debated over " whether democracy was good or bad for India" was over...

But out of 10 shouldnt we atleast recommend half of them....?..... asked a honest me unable to digest what I just heard....

why should we let all the scum in..? Is it not enough what we already have here?.. pat came the reply...
The RAM tribe was growing , I could see but I didnt respond to that..

Who is a friend ? who is a foe? who is a spy? .....at GIM you never knew it....

Those who made it into the second round went for an interview where VC presided normally and ED was called in and sometimes one of the Directors and the Dean. A typical interview was simple and straight forward and not a messy affair....

Have you bought the Demand Draft drawn in favour of GIM? .....the VC will ask..

No sir... but I didnt know that I will get selected.. so.. If I get I thought I will... will be a typical answer..

Who said you are getting selected... You will be selected only when you have the DD ready in your hand.... flashing a smile, the grand old man will scan the poor guy or gal like a vulture will pore over its distant prey.....

The candidate will sit sad and miserable at the apparent miss between the cup and the sip...

Dont worry....... VC will say in a soothing voice as the ED or who ever is there in the panel will shake his/her head in total agreement....

We will put you in waiting list, you will come with the DD before 4 Pm tomorrow and join or you shall never...but you shall not tell this to any one...
The candidate will smile and then later blush out of joy and relief as for a sick man with death comes peace!!!
The candidate rushes out still in blush and in glee, little knowing that this is what they told everyone and the waitlist in GIM was usually bigger than the actual selected list...

The next candidate will walk in like a thief will do in the middle of the night ....