Go to Hell !

A professor resigned and wanted to be relieved the next day.

Why? You ask? Well.. at GIM no one did since long back….The intellectual capital that forms one of the pillars in a B school was for ever floating here .Ever since I joined GIM, I was amazed at the number of people who have left the place. After a point of time I stopped counting heads, of who came and who left…stopped crying at farewells and almost closed building relations with my co prof’s as it did not make any sense, not any more,,,…

This one, the new exit also taught Strategy and Business policy at MBA ,like Prof Ram. He was a learned prof, a silent and humble man, a researcher, a prolific writer and voted as a good teacher but unhappy at the way GIM was treating him….

He wasn’t an exception for the discontent factor… it was there in everyone except the loyals…

Some lived with it… some just left it….

What next? Who will take over?..... The question loomed over the faculty room as did it over Dr Joseph -the ED’s table where an emergency meeting of senior professors was going on...

I am fed up with this ..... lamented the ED....I am doing a magicians job here with no one to teach and....

I guess you have to do it and only you can….. I heard some one commenting as I sat in the common area with a news paper but most of the time listening to the gathering (dirty me !!)…

Classes are already in trouble... the new ones are making a royal mess and now this... Jesus my lord.... cried ED

You are right ...laughed one of the professors…only Jesus can save..not the real one... the one here... our lord and saviour......

Ha...... scorned the ED.....he will say the same thing... new ads are released.. new people are joining... we will be flooded with intellect...ha...

The evangelist that he is.. He is good in selling pain... drawing beautiful pictures out of blood even....came another remark.

Still I think what you suggest is true ......he is the only option...confessed ED ....and anyways I am meeting him this afternoon... I guess if you can join me we can jointly put it forward... he pleaded with the dean, another senior pseudo loyal in the GIM faculty room..

Oh I would love to but I am on leave this afternoon....said the Dean with a genuine regret appearing on his face but a smile hiding behind it......he knew that it was a trap and he also knew to keep himself safe, to keep away from it.... after all he has survived the darkness and deluge of GIM for ten long years now...

Dr Jesus didn’t appear that afternoon either and Dr Joseph wandered here and there, in search of the man whom the kids nick named as Samrat Natvardhan or Nuts…Nuts that he is ..
He abruptly vanished and suddenly came back.. Would never tell it to his sub ordinates for evident reasons, and superiors...well… no one of that category ever existed in GIM.... And when he left things accumulated, meetings, decisions, files, even petty and paltry things like timetable revisions and which class room for what specialisation type decisions (HUH!), were put on hold...he enjoyed it with a sadistic pleasure and seemed to have got instant nirvana .... it was his way of telling every one that he is the boss, but the more he did it, the more looked like an ass...

Prof Ram seemed to be the only option before Dr Joseph, to hand over the subject that was left unattended like an orphan...

No way.... Prof Ram as usual didn’t mince words... I am already fully loaded with the same course in two sessions … not any more of the same subject...

But there is no one else who can take it over at this critical juncture... almost cried ED... you have to Prof Ram..

That is not my headache ....thundered Prof Ram... when you recruit faculty you should recruit based on what we need, not on what is available cheap and in bulk...

Now that should not be told to me...stood up Dr Joseph , visibly angry at the sudden development, and the anxious faces that gathered around.....you should be telling the VC and the top management....

I would sir.... no doubt... I call a spade a spade and now I am telling you since you called me. I will tell him if he does.. Have no doubt...Prof Ram retorted

I don’t want to talk to you.... go to hell .... Dr Joseph couldn’t control his emotion as he fell back into his chair...

Prof Ram scorned and smiled in sarcasm as he walked out of the ED’s cabin to the common area of the faulty room....

hahahahahaha….He roared as he came precariously close to me in my cabin ,as I almost fell off in the shock and reverberation.... go to hell? Did you hear that Sukesh ?….He asked a flabbergasted me…. Is’nt that funny? As if we are already not in one...

Ya it is true... I said to my self... But sir why me???

The comment policy-

While I respect and value the comments that I get in this blog, I need to make my comment policy clear here. I accept anonymous comments since I know bad systems and the fear in which people who are inside such systems live and hence the responses could be guarded . Having said that let it also be clear that your comments shall not be accepted if they are personal and taking names. This blog is not a forum for personal vendetta and settling scores and that is a policy I hold very strong and with conviction.

Keep reading the chicken curry, post comments but within this policy...

That is a request !!!

Intellectual orgasm>> part I

I drove late to office that day. Home pressures and the traffic took a toll and the GIM fortress was the last hurdle. GIM had huge gates that will put even the Buckingham palace to shame manned by security guards, who scan the visitor with their eyes and then with strange tools and equipments .Even the regular staff was not spared from this daily sacrament and people like me who often drove in the last minute to flash the swipe cards at the machine installed at the main entrance were the usual victims of this security drama. I often felt that Dr Joy & co suffered from a bizarre insecurity and a sort of strange diffidence which makes them put up this farce, which made an educational institution look like the main office of the Reserve bank of India.

The incessant banging of horns told me that it was 9 and panic was at its pinnacle. Students rushed in from all corners, the ones with early morning classes from the canteen, others from their hostels, with semi worn ties, a shoe in hand and the lap top bags clinging precariously from their weak shoulders running to reach the main gate..

At 9 the main gate of GIM offers a unique spectacle.. no one recognizes the other fellow… it’s a mad rush… just get in before the time…

As I swiped the card I saw three guys, senior students whom I also taught, with tonsured heads and funny looks, like the three proverbial monkeys standing there with notice boards hung around their necks.

I AM A JOKER, LAUGH AT ME……

It announced piercingly….

I did laugh and so did all and sundry who was rushing in. Hurry didn’t forbid them from stopping for a second to chuckle and then rush to life. I saw Prof Ram talking to them as one of them was sobbing like a kid. I was curious for sure but it was GIM and with Prof Ram investigating I was sure that it was a recipe for trouble. I walked away to the lift to carry myself to my second floor office where the tasks of the day were in waiting for me, with annoyance.

The crowds swell to see the spectacle and the amusement grew with every passing minute as I walked into the lift with drag steps.

I was their teacher and the three guys were good students at MBA, at least in my class.....

WHY?
Why do they have to stand with tonsured head and the funny board?
And why am I so impassionate about them?

I saw Manohar at the second floor when the lift opened, waiting with his gadgets in both the hands, wired and otherwise, earphones and Bluetooth devices dangling from everywhere and he looking like a robot who had escaped from the sets of a techno-psycho thriller….

I knew that he was going down, and in spite of the fact that he was not in charge of students and their affairs, he also did the shouting show, once a while with the students and others( even faculty) just to convey a message that he was also a boss, if not THE boss. This seems to be such a day, I assumed as I ran to my cabin, left my bag there and was decided to scuttle down to see the culmination of the episode, when Sri laxmi walked in.

You know sir… she was coming in with some news…

Ya I know I saw the jamboree downstairs...... I said with a smile…

Oh what happened downstairs..? she blinked and fluttered her eyes.. Yes! the same set of beautiful eyes…

Ohh what are you then talking about… ? I exclaimed

ED … what is your opinion about the ED…? She posed a question…

This time I blinked …with my dull eyes… the question was tricky and my verbosity wasn’t helping me much….

Dr Joseph , the ED , was the point of discussion . For me he represented the loyal group, who saw the king as God and his son as God’s gift to man kind, and his son in law as a wizard and saviour, adored the family dispensation that ran the place, accredited the fact that here management and ownership was the same and blissfully confused between both…he was the living face of the management hegemony or whatever you call it.. a smart ass who knew to lick the right ones and grease the accurate points… . He was a stooge as per critics, but for me a survivor, and OK OK teacher but who cared for teaching skills at GIM, if you knew how to endure….!!!

You didn’t give me a reply… she persisted…

I don’t know ..I fumbled.. in what context are you asking?…

Do you think he has this special ..you know… this … attraction to women?

WHAT? I reacted quite loud and it didn’t matter.. we were the only people in the faculty room…

Do you think so? She insisted.. she wasn’t any longer the innocent girl who ran from the MBA class room unable to manage the subject and its subjects…

You want me to say yes or no? I asked with a smile, disguising my confusion as to why she was quizzing me on something about which I had no clue about…

Your choice.. she retorted…

If he has... you think you can woo him and survive here? I asked with a wicked smile that came easily in my miserable face

How dare you ..she almost shouted at my suggestiveness …

Then why the hell? You think I don’t have any work here than this…?

There is a reason sir… she said in a unruffled calm voice…he is not all that good,,,

Well I had no disputes… no disputes at all… no one said, I never said.. not even he would have claimed that he is good.. he was not an angel… no one was ..to survive everyone played games and for them they were right… ethics and morality was subject to the theory of relativity ..yet again and… always!!! but then women... I was'nt sure...

He tried to grab my hand today.. inside his toilet… she said as my eyes popped out, and mouth remained open for a long long minute…

Obviously first question was “what were you doing in his toilet?” but before opening that I needed to close my mouth….

Teach the teacher !!!

Srilaxmi walked around in GIM dawdling & dragging, as if she was a new bride lost at the newness of her groom's house….

The large place threatened her.... a topper in her MBA
which she passed just a year back, she had no clue of what her career should be… May be teach at a business school, she had thought somewhere.. but neither for the admiration for the profession nor for the ardor to contribute to the development of it, but simply because her tradition bound parents would not allow her to work otherwise.
She send an application with a one page CV attached, when GIM had called last time for faculty recruitments (another regular drama that GIM undertook, foolish as per the critics but a smart way of Brand building as per Dr Joy), the VC called her for interview and because she looked good and could speak english, was appointed as a faculty in the Marketing area of GIM....

The characters in the faculty office tried their level best to make her uncomfortable, as they did with every new entrant.....telling her spiced tales of how the ever-over expecting crowd, whom they call 'students', in GIM would behave with you......how this piece of paper which the student gets to fill at the end of every course, which they call 'faculty feed back' would behead you....how thankless the deadly devils, whom everyone called 'the management' would suck your blood out and leave you empty and alone in the vast sea where everyone was a pirate or a sea wasp ...

I for one didn’t enjoy torturing her but to confess- was never very comfortable at the idea of a 20 something girl teaching Marketing to a set of over zealous 20 something’s…

Can you give me some tips..? She asked me one day while I was in the library trying to make sense of some heavy article in some international marketing journal…(those really help me when I was in deep problem.. I sit with one of them, try to read it and then get some peace of mind that my problems are far simple…. at least explicable and hence dealable) …

That was the first time she talked to me, that is after the formal introduction round where I was the chosen one… She rarely looked pleasant, when she moved around ,smiled once a while and that too faintly as if there was some thorn stuck to her permanently, somewhere …and I was surprised when she came and sat opposite to me and asked for TIPS…

Tips? …I cried… for what??

The Vice chairman told me that you are one popular teacher in Marketing… As you know I am new … I mean… I have no teaching experience… I mean I have no experience at all…so ..you know… I mean… She mumbled in inarticulate stream of utterances where words came out in an asymmetrical chain, the tone went up and down, the pitch was less than discernable but her eyes said it all….

she was petrified and needed help…

Well Madam… I said with humility that I wore as a decoration, when I felt elated…

Elated for what ?( later I kept wondering)…

The VC has told her that I AM popular as a teacher”……Hmmmm…. so he has noted it…
So…
So what ? nothing ….I knew the answer but the fact that the second top man in the GIM management knew it and has in fact recommended some one to take tips from me was worth to be jubilant…

I told her things which I was in no doubt that she didn’t understand… she was impervious not because she was arrogant but because she was ignorant… I felt pity at her plight, as I knew that her evident gullibility may turn expensive for her…

Never use the text book in the class, for instance… I said with her mouth open, suggesting to me that she was planning that, exactly that…

Cases, deep analysis of brands and issues, updated information about Markets and marketing…the sites, the blogs... the books that I read... I went on and she sat there showing me mixed expressions of fear, angst, loath, scorn and disbelief … her beautiful face was in radiance, her big eyes glittered like blue diamonds in spite of her dreary expressions ….

Come back you bloody flirt… my mind warned my wandering self…... Hey Sukesh you are a professor….

She smiled at me the next day and the comfort, for me looked like the handiwork of my TIPS….That was the day when she had to launch herself….the prospect of walking into a class which is a semi theatre with almost 100 young boys and girls sitting there with skepticism freely circulated along with the cold air from the Air Conditioners made her upset but her new friend was there to boost her morale… who else..? ME…only me....!!!......

The moment she introduced herself and Sales Management-the course which she was to 'teach them’, hands went up in the air.....

Mam do you have experience in sales..?
Mam you are just one year senior to us, how can you teach us the complexities of sales as a subject and practice..?
Mam.. Mam…Mam do you...
how?
what? Mam...

It was a semi dark room, and even other wise she wouldn’t be able to see anything.......She wanted to tell them that the VC of GIM has prejudiced her that as long as she is beautiful (which she is) and she has the command over the language, she could teach anything.....

She, but didn’t want to tell them that for her this was a stop gap arrangement, when someone comes asking for her hand in marriage, this job will make her more saleable....

Sales management was the issue, selling her in the marriage market to be precise and alas I had no TIPS to offer in that domain !!!

Shoot the messenger !!!

It was a long wait for Prof Ram…

First the admission process which kept the management quite busy and the HQ section of the GIM main building a hot bed of activities, and then came the schedule for the AICTE visit that was long pending. A lot of work had to be done before the Delhi team arrived ,with their greed packed in suitcases, pretending to be a group conscious about quality of higher education in this country and Ram never got any gap to squeeze in with his letter and discuss it with the king…

I was the prime victim of the delay, ostensibly as I sat next to him…

He edited it, modified it, tailored it even more, add more quotes and instances, cut off flab but added more, thought about it, rambled incessantly and worse -suddenly walked into my cabin or even showed up his head through the half partition to ask for my opinion on adding something or taking off something from the letter, knowing fully well that my opinion by and large remains the same…

It was discussed by others for some days and later forgotten mercilessly in the admission jamboree and the AICTE visit preparation… Women started worrying about their attire and how disgusting and deplorable it is that the AICTE team is coming on a month end and how good it would have been had it been scheduled for the next month to facilitate better sarees and matching accessories ….In the melee it seemed that only two people were bothered about the letter and its reaching its designated target.. the Kings table !!!

Me and Prof Ram….

Prof Ram was in utopia, or that is what I believed at least … I for sure knew that Dr Joy knew most of the things that was so ornately described in the letter..
May be the quotes and examples from the industry would be new but the facts wouldn’t be and if things were in the shape as they were , it was either because he intended it that way , or because he was helpless…

For me, either ways we couldn’t help it but I stopped saying that to Prof Ram, for not wanting to bicker and squabble over something which was like the classical chicken or the egg issue…

At last the day came when Madam Secretary called Prof Ram in his intercom and announced that the King is now ready and he may come to the HQ in 5 minutes if he still wanted to see the man…

I saw the Prof running out of his cabin in sheer ecstasy as did Archimedes when he ran yelling eureka eureka… Ram of course wasn’t wet and naked and wasn’t yelling, but as he ran, I could see his bliss as if he was a teenager who got an appointment to date Mallika Sherawat….

When Prof Ram walked into the palatial comforts of Dr Joy’s seven star cabin, there was a guest sitting opposite to Dr Joy..... It was not expected, and worse he expected the king to be alone to facilitate a discussion. Wedged for a moment as to what to do, Prof Ram took the seat which was offered to him.

Meet Prof Ram... Dr Joy introduced him to the guest... he teaches strategy at MBA and is a renowned expert.... in fact the back bone of intellect in GIM....

Ram smiled at the praise, knowing very well that it was diplomacy- Joy style and in utter discomfort caused by the presence of a stranger …

And he is Sam Harris... an NRI... Dr Joy introduced the guest to Prof Ram.... we are planning of starting a joint business....fish culture and export...

Prof Ram was taken aback and sat as if a lightning struck him... even the vivacious him couldn’t speak ...

The strategy that he taught wouldn’t agree to this "diversification plans " of the boss.. from education to fish… Goodness gracious!

His brain stopped thinking and as he handed over the envelope with the letter told Dr Joy in a faint mutter....

Please give a reply.... I think I have written down something very important... he muttered in an incoherent tone as if the king will realize his discontentment…

When he was gone, Dr Joy opened the letter ,read that for a minute and with contempt threw it into the dust bin...

What is that ?... asked the curious NRI...

He wants to tell me that he is unhappy and I should do something to make him happy... laughed Dr Joy...

Like...?

Give him a raise and he will shut his mouth for while, then again a letter.....grumbled the king... Teaching me... huh...?

And this stupid teachers..This is the bloody problem with them.. they think they can teach every one… I have reached so far and I god damn know how to take it further….. he went on as the NRI sat there amused and annoyed at the same time.. he had come there for fish business and now was caught in something fishy..

Oh I am sure you can handle it Joy… he said reassuringly….

Hahahahaha… the King laughed in mirth…. You bet… It’s the least of my problems…. I have dealt with such trouble makers often… one thing they don’t understand is that for me I know the art of making money and for that I don’t need an MBA…

Thank God we don’t have an MBA ….laughed the guest as Dr Joy walked up to his refrigerator and poured vodka in two glasses… Now that Prof Ram had ignited it, his interns began to blaze…

Cheers!!! they said and clang the glasses…

They talked business but Dr Joy had an eye set in the dust bin… he wanted the NRI to go to clasp the cover that he had dumped into it with disdain and disgust…

He knew that it was important…
He knew that it WAS NOT the least of his problems…
He knew it could tell him things that he never knew…
He knew that GIM could be saved if he could read it without derision.. once ..
He also knew that it could tell him things that he knew but thought to himself that others didn’t know….

Bastard!!! he still muttered even as the NRI talked fish to an inattentive king….

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 ....

The king is naked !!!

Manohar and Dr Jesus had one thing in common !!!!

Their passion for the latest gizmos and costly apparels, flashy cars and pens to flaunt, and more importantly... air travel...... Dr Joy seemed to be enjoying the flamboyancy which his son and son in law picked up as the family got richer and richer, year after year with MBA aspirants and their hopeful parents flocking with bags of money...... The father had pride written all over his face when ever some one(rarely though) praised him about his egotic son and his erronous son in law....he knew that they were bad and had a fear in his mind as to what will happen when his days are over...Their quarrels and mutual apathy gave him sleepless nights and peace of mind simply eluded him ,no matter how much money he had in his coffers and how many cars he had in his garrage....It is there he heavily depended on the astuteness of the likes of Subramaniam Iyer the VC, not that he was any less in sneak and craft but he trusted VC's abilities more than his own...

It was such a day when Dr Jesus was away on a trip to Mumbai (Bombay) for rrrrr...well... why and for what, no one knew, for Dr Jesus or nattu as the kids called him was the crown prince and no one dared to ask him where he is flying to... Dr Jesus was away and Prof Ram had made a detailed letter as to how to change and make GIM a respectable place and discussed it with a couple of us in the faculty office... I for sure kept mum inspite of the painful and pricky facts that glared and stared at my consciousness from all across the 16 page document,and felt bad at my insouciance ..... I couldnt help it- the pseudo loyal that I was,,,,

The rebel was ready with his 16 page weapon and called madam secretary from his intercom to fix an appointment with the Director .......

But sir Dr Jesus is not in town.... said the proud lady..... he is not expected to be in for another three four days...

Oh ..where is he then .?...asked Prof Ram...

Ha... a supercilious gasp was the reply... I am sorry sir, I cannot tell that to you...

Prof Ram turned to me and mangled while he banged the receiver back to the cradle...This is a funny place..... the director is out and even that is a secret... I guess I would be metting Dr Joy and giving him the letter which I have written...

Sir there are things which we cant change...it is their place... I said unconvincingly .... either be with them or go away..there is not a third choice...

You are talking like George bush.. shouted Prof Ram... it is not THEIR place... it is OUR place... employees should feel that it is their place, then only organisations would excel... what you told me now is an indication..you feel that it is their place and you have no role in building GIM...

I sat there staring at the old mans face.. for me what the grand old man of GIM was saying was sense( absolute sense) but again from his angle Prof Ram could say it.... others could not...at least I could not..

Call it cowardice ..call it despondency.... I didnt care... well...

Did I? I guess I did but I couldnt help it...

Your job is not just teaching and taking home the salary check which Joy or Jesus signs at the end of every month.. you are in a process of making future managers... in a way making talents... moulding the nation...Prof Ram thundered and the common room and its occupants sat dazed....

And when they treat you like a whore...? joined some one else, presumabily unable to resist the temptation to join....

We teach management... but dont practice it and that is the content of this letter ...said Prof Ram as he threw a bunch of papers into the table...

The ones with grey hairs, stroke them .....some read it again and some smiled as they read the long letter,again and again while I was wriggling in discomfort at the whole episode....

YES...I told my self... I would want GIM to change.... realise that change is an inevitable reality.... and would be happy at such change, but would be happier if I could retain MY JOB....
Wonderful ....said another Prof ,with admiration after reading it....how I hope that they open their eyes....

Prof Ram smiled.... I will tell them... I will tell the king that he is nude and he really looks ugly.... some one will have to tell... when the young refuses to go for war the old have to...

Getting the dig that was a projectile aimed at me and my likes in GIM I stood up......

You can Sir....for me my life is only begining... I cannot simply stand in the street....

You call it life..? at your age you should be at a place where they respect your intellect..... not where they suck your blood and pretend to be ignorant of it...why at your age.. at any age... Prof Ram went on ....

I walked away to my cabin upset of the development and afraid of the news ,that the omnipresent spy racket is going to carry to the HQ, with addition and substraction, with spices added... I was afraid of the whole system..

It was a dubious system by design ..now by default it was getting even more dirtier ....

Questions and answers !!!

For me, it was an aweful day.....
The hot summer was brooding and sultry, and as humidity reached its pinnacles, I was sweating profusely, even as I sat under the fan, strategically positioned to cool me off....
It was a heaven inside GIM, with central A/C and soft music spread everywhere but people when needed free thinking and some loud talking ,migrated into the canteen building across the large garden that was the centre point of GIM.
After introducing Srilaxmi to the class of MBA who for some time were awed by her beauty, but then slowly looked daunted by her obvious naïveté ,I too found solace in the canteen and sat there idle seeking respite and for some introspection as to what the HELL was my doing there...

I, for a minute hated the profession that I was in...

It was new to me... I had hated certain elements of the job there many a times but inspite of all the negatives I didnt hate the job, hadnt yet because of the students that I got to teach there..The best result that a teacher can hope for is the transformation that his students undergo under his tutelage,,.. probably that is the only take home or gratification that teaching as a profession world over gave its practitioners..I kept reassuring myself whenever I sulked....
The heat wave that swept me was refusing to get cured by that logic...

In a B school lots of star studded jobs came into campus and left with the bright students ... most of them bagging double and more of salaries than their wise and well learned teachers took home inspite of all their wisdom.... Still I didnt hate my job..... there was a unique satisfaction in seeing raw material turning into finished products that some one would come ,see, test, like it, and go buying... there was a unique bliss in seeing the teachers role in the pupils transformation...

I for a minute hated the profession only for the way it was practised in here at GIM...I just had lead a young lady into a class of demanding kids ,a damsel who clearly ventured into a profession having no idea about why she is there and what makes her qualified to be there....
I hadnt had in me the guts to say "I cannot be party to it" to the man who assigned me the dirty job.At GIM I was popular as a teacher, mostly because of the theory of relativity in place...AS compared to whom was a question no one ever asked...... I felt it good that way to be ranked top by the hundreds on young boys and girls with bright eyes and even brighter intellects, well informed mindsets and well oiled brains. Deep inside I knew that inexperienced damsels and good for nothing else idiots should walk in to teach at GIM, get the wrath of students and run away again and again, so that when the theory of relativity is applied next time when a student feedback is taken ,I remain visible and shining... We needed the bad ones, compared to whom the better ones looked the best,,,, HUH!!!

Sullied motives so glaring out of self declared altruism and no fan could beat the sweat ...

Prof Sukesh.... you are here.... walked in Valmiki Gupta ... into the canteen bouncing me back to GIM and its real world.....

Oh yes yes.. Guptaji ...I smiled sheepishly....Day dreamer eh...? he laughed loud as he came and sat opposite to me with a cup of tea and deep fried banana that GIM canteen was good for.

It seems to be rocking ..your soft skills classess... for the first time there is so much of noise in GIM .....I said and I meant it....

Ohh yes yes... and as expected they LOVEEEE it.... claimed gupta with his trumphet out....
I knew I did a mistake by encouraging this self important guy... He was ready with more of his tales but then I interfered as words got stuck in his mouth, in between hot pieces of fried banana..

Hope the management also feels the same... I garbled sarcastically.... The full time faculty hated the part timers who came,saw and conquered the student minds and I too felt the same with this man whose classes were LOVEEED by the kids.

hahahahhaa... Gupta laughed at my face with such blatant impunity that for a second put me to shame and made me regret again...

Why do you think so much noise is made? Asked Gupta biting off the last piece of banana fry, and quickly gulping the remaining tea...

I didnt know.. well ... I mean I could have come up with answers but unprepared to accept more of hoot and howl from the soft skills trainer, I kept shut....

It is not how you work my dear professor.....Gupta revealed as if in a sermon.... it is how you show you work....

I sat there ..... I atleast regretted my self centrism, it seemed to me that the rest of that world was celebrating it...

Will she? Wont she?

Sri laxmi, a newly appointed lecturer in the area of Marketing was at GIM that day and after her joining, Dr Joseph called me in to his cabin and gave me the not so very admirable task of taking her to the class room and introduce the incumbent to the second year students in my capacity as the chairperson-Marketing area .(Such paraphernelia kept visiting the faculty of GIM in rotation , and we received it in no great exultation and when it left us we left it with no great sadness either)...
Valmiki gupta and his noisy softskills classes were in full swing... it was unusual at GIM to hear so much noise and for a change it sounded like a place where some 500 young men and women lived, literally....
I dont think she has that kind of confidence... I told myself after seeing the shy and timid lady sitting in the common area of the faculty room... I walked to her and extended my long hands to welcome her to the fraternity at GIM.
She looked horrified, and a scare was visible in her big eyes.. Beautiful she was and why not... GIM never recruited women who arent good in looks, brain is another thing which as per a logic put down by the HQ -could be done away with if they looked good... She too seemed to be of the same genre and definitely not the one who was destined to teach Marketing at a B school....

You are the nth one I am seeing my dear.. I said to myself as she said a namaskar with her hands folded, and a shaken me taking back my hands and taken aback byher primitive manners.

I sat in Dr Joseph's chamber waiting for the bell to go on air, after which I could take the new damsel to start her life with the knowledge hungry crowd of the second year of MBA at GIM.

I dont think she is that confident...... told Dr Joseph in a hushed tone to my worried eyes more than to my ears...
I was aghast by that remark... for a second I even thought that the ED knew mind reading and this old man has just grabbed what I was thinking .

It is clear to anyone who sees her but then it is VC's appointment and as usual even I had no say in the whole thing.... I was only told this morning ... he added as if he did it again... mind reading....

....ooh.... I sat with an open mouth, as if it was through there that the news was going in...

And you know what......Dr Joseph was more than happy to feed me with more information...... Another four more are joining to 'boost the intellectual capital' as per VC but in fact to compensate the numbers which we have lost in the last two months.......

Ohh..numbers is a problem is it...? I thought with everyone in the HQ from Dr Joy in the list of faculty send to AICTE, we were on the comfortable side.... I whispered in disbeleif which took Dr Jospeph by a storm.. I wasnt prepared for the reaction and got annoyed when he responded to that ....
...hahahahahaha....Dr Joseph laughed, in thunderous mirth, with air gaps in between giving you a feel that it will end,it sure will but to begin again and raise to a top volume hilarity...in a way his laughter was entirely his own and even the best student mimic of GIM could never copy it with full perfection....
Sirrrrr.... came and called Jansi william,the faculty office secretary...
Yes please......said Dr Joseph, visibly unhappy for the abrupt end that he had to put to the chat with me but much to my happiness that I was releived from the torture of being cornered by this commander of the kings loyal army...
The bell will not work..there seems to be some problem ....so if...... said Jansi in her usual curtailed style of speech......
Next thing which I did after returning from class was to run to the canteen.. have a face wash and over a cup of tea, ponder....
Will she?
Wont she?

Tug Of War !!!

Dr Joseph was glued to the telephone when the guest walked in with firm steps, a lavish smile and an extended hand of friendship. I was sitting opposite to him with a couple of other colleagues and was about to begin a syllabus review process which was a regular exercise that we undertook at the B school to make sure that we taught what the industry wanted.. whether we actually did it is a different question altogether and can be seen later.....

Yes sir.. will do sir.. no sir.... ok sir.... he kept on saying mechanically and kept the phone....

You look pale and shocked... said Gupta who walked in and didnt bother even to acknowledge the presence of two three others in the room....... For him we were like invisible or some lesser mortals who didnt have the right to exist....

Did I walk in at the wrong time? he enquired...

well no... said Dr Joseph with a sheepish smile...... absolutely not.....but I am afraid you may have to go to the guest house now... and let us begin fresh tomorrow morning...

Cool with me ....said Gupta.... and in any case im here direct from the airport.. would like to have some rest...

As Gupta was packed off,Dr Joseph started sweating as if he has just seen a ghost and told us that the syllabus review can wait and then ran out of the faculty room to the VC's office.......

You will have to help me sir..... he lamented as he almost fell into a chair at the VC's room......There is a man who have come from Delhi on Mr Manohars invitation and we are putting him as a soft skills trainer....

mmmm....mumbled VC who was writing something on a notepad and didnt raise his head to look at the expressions that bloomed at the ED's face.

Sharma of AICTE has recommended him and you know Sharma....continued Dr Joseph......that is why Manohar wants...

And Jesus has told you that Gupta cannot and will not train the students here.. right?......asked VC this time, putting his notepad on to the table...

Dr Joseph smiled in astonishment, for a second, and then out a releif over the realisation that this man who knew the GIM family better than he knew his own, could solve this puzzle as well....

Valmiki gupta went on with his softskills training and the ED was caught in the tussle between the son and the son in law, both directors at GIM .Dr Joseph played his cards safe as per the VC's directives and made sure that he wasnt hurt in the bizarre tug of war between the two power centers at GIM . Jesus was angry and the VC brokered a deal between both the parties, in the Kings chamber and a temporary cease fire was declared... Truce it was but Dr Joseph the ED ,knew that it was just a matter of time before it flared up again.... But for the time being he was happy and thankful to one man...... The VC.. shrewd to the core and a master manipulator he was....

Half the time he spend unravelling such quagmires......Rest half he spend crafting new problems so that he could solve them...........