Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival….
For me that was not a motto dictum….. I had inadvertently blurted out that to Sri Laxmi in a fit of anger but when it boomeranged on me from Anand Mohan it really caught me wild.. It did upset me and my thoughts…It slowly and surely swayed me like a coconut tree caught in the wind
Win or loose but play… ? should I or just stay away?
The semester was coming to an end and Dr Joseph- the ED called for a subject review meeting. Exams were just a week ahead and the kids had all gone for their study holidays. Teachers were free with the shutters down the teaching shops and to keep them busy was a big challenge for the top…
Why keep them busy?
Because the HQ thought that the academic community was the worst when it came to poli-tricking and left alone and idle the devils will all meander in rage … Even I thought the same, not because of my status as a pseudo loyal but I lived in that community and experienced the pains of a victim and the triumphs of the winner often.
We need to introduce new subjects.. said the ED… industry friendly things like Strategic HRM .. That seems to be kicking these days…
I will rename my subject as Strategic Brand Management .. said one Prof…
What do you call it now? Asked Anand Mohan who sat next to me in the meeting
Brand Management…..replied the prof….
Huh ….said Anand… and you call it industry friendly… ?
And probably keep the contents the same.. the same power points and teaching notes and even the same age old cases… said Prof Ram with sarcasm..
Strategic Sales Management… ? I wrote in my note pad… Huh… how funny ,,,, I said to myself as I scratched over it..….
This strategy term is misused… Said Prof Ram as if in pain that his patented chemical formula is misused by an unscrupulous horde of amateur scientists… any one and everyone seems to be dragging it ....
Strategy is no Draupadi.. said Anand Mohan with a laugh… Hey Dushasan….
In any case that is not the option that we have been looking for .. said the ED prevailing over the confusion..We need something new… concrete…some thing which when put across the industry will make heads turn…
Anand leaned over to my shoulders and said… they must say… hey that’s sexy…. How about a date?
I couldn’t help but laugh…
The contemporary issues in management has to be bought in…….said Prof Ram
Oh yes ….Oh yes,,,, cried the ED with a blush…you said it… we will have that ..we will freeze on that…
Freeze on what? .. asked many….
Contemporary issues… like say Contemporary issues in Banking…Contemporary issues in HR… wonderful !! … with the reddened face in full bloom the ED kept saying...
Holy shit .. said Anand… the other one was far better… the Strategic prefix….
I didn’t mean it… mumbled Ram… I just said it for example…
I kept laughing … and writing in my note pad… I didn’t want Dr Joseph to see my giggle but there was no escape…
He saw it and kept staring at it as if that was the issue there and not the contemporary issues in whatever bullshit…
I am serious ..said Dr Joseph..
And who is not?… questioned Anand…
Some people seem not to be.. said Dr Joseph with his gawk still fixed into my face… I knew that and kept drawing and writing in my note pad as if the target was not me.. it could be anyone else but me…
But if we are thinking of a revision we should think of something fruitful… really industry friendly…said Prof Ram….
I agree..said Anand even as he shared a wicked smile with me…and for that we need to talk to the industry.. it would be foolish to assume that we do some cosmetic changes and they will accept it graciously….
Precisely… joined Prof Ram
Now this was getting interesting for me… not the content.. I knew that this was a wasteful discussion leading to nothing.. things will remain the same.. but what amused me was the synergy… Ram and Anand was taking it forward like a preplanned strategy.. ooof… not the ‘S’ word again.. like a foot ball match ..pass the ball… ya got it.. I run… and again pass it to you.. got it.. you run… again pass it to me…
Ahem ahem.. I scribbled in my note pad again… the game is getting interesting!!!
Anand winked at me even as he peeped into my note pad and possibly read its contents…
You can write a book on this entire scrawl … he suggested.. and name it frustration !!
Get lost …I said… but I knew it made some sense, I also knew that his tantrums were becoming less irritating for me…
Behave like a professor..I said with a put on contempt …
He took his note pad and started writing…then drew lines over it and then again jotted over and over again…
Will you at least listen to the discussion Sukesh Menon? Asked Dr Joseph in a loud and acerbic tone which gave me a shock… the whole crowd turned to me as if they were seeing me for the first time…
Anand sat there serious, and looked like a professor with the rapt attention that he displayed and the contribution that he so very graciously bestowed during the discussion…
Will you at least listen? Did the old creep say that…?
I was set on fire even as the throng returned to the discussion mode.
Behave like a professor Dude… Anand wrote in his note pad and gave it to me…
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Mission Impossible !
Prof Ram taught strategy or I can safely say he even lived in it.
Day in and day out he talked only strategy and more of strategy as if life was fully about that one term. He knew Jack Welch than perhaps the man himself and wrote about issues, alliances, mergers & acquisitions and the like which made him think of himself as an expert par excellence in his domain.
Lunch time was when he kept us updated about the latest book he was reading and the most recent piece of writing of his which was accepted by some academic journal or magazine and which would be arousing a spirit in us and inspiring us to write as well. Well by US I mean the rest of the teaching community at GIM, but Ram had disenchantment most of the time and it became worse after the advent of Anand mohan into the scene.
It was jokes, hilarity and more laughter for anything and everything at the faculty lounge where the whole group assembled for lunch. Anand was a humorist sans frontiers and made flutter and flap with his mere presence. Ram’s lessons on strategy and his directives and dreams for GIM almost got sunk in the noise.. for the first time in my existence in GIM , I heard and saw people laughing to glory with gibe and jeer top in the agenda…
Kudos Anand .. I said to myself even while refusing to be part of the laughter club. I was invidious at times at the man who like a magician, made us awe, who like a comedian spilled beans of laughter and merry and who like an acrobat did the rare games of audacity and yet walked free…
I kept wondering and almost hoping that he will be summoned by the top after his daredevilry that he displayed during the Delhi teams visit.
Nothing happened!
Dude ! you are a moron… he told me suddenly even as I was busy eating. I loved to laugh but this sudden camaraderie was somehow indigestible for me.
I flashed a smile but kept quiet and went on with my chapattis and my favorite potato fry.
If you eat potatoes like this one day you will burst…. Said Anand even as he sat opposite to me with his lighter sandwich stuffed with leafs and vegetables and a glass of fresh orange juice.
Eat healthy….. he said.. hit the gym…laugh a lot and that keeps you robust ….
Oh yeah …I said annoyed by his aggression … that shows
You hate me... don’t you? He asked me direct.. instantly to my eyes…
He had large and well defined eyes on which floated piercing brown pupil which locked with mine making me feel discomfited ….
NO ....I said loud even as I meant YES and he knew it… Eyes couldn’t lie in any case…
You know Sukesh… he said in a soft tone…
Yeah I know…. I said ,gobbling the potato pieces with delight… you are a born winner and the game is just begun… I know…
Ha ha ha ha .....he laughed …
I don’t have the habit of repeating the same stuff… he said… but haven’t you thought what am I up to?
Yeah I have… I said..but whatever you are up to Anand….At GIM you cannot change things.. you have to accept that…
Says whom? Anand asked me
Says my God damn experience..I almost thundered… you are new and take it from me … you are on one bloody mission impossible….
What if I am the chosen one? He asked me imperturbably
This guy was impossible..
Prof Ram was better that after some insistence he left his hapless victim alone and travelled unaccompanied to utopia.. this guy but stood on your head and had a sadistic bliss in irritating others …
HUH… I screeched in exasperation…
Impossible is nothing dude… he announced even as I stood up and walked outside….
Back in my cabin and after the days war with the
MBA kids and the power points, the cases and the teaching notes, I sat tired… teaching is what I enjoyed but too much of it was making me just a teaching machine… just an LCD projector…
Switch on and you are on… bang!!!
LCD projectors never complained but!!!
Anand Mohan came online in the internal mailing system…
Anand says hello…...a pop up window appeared on my screen…
I care my foot and no hello vello…… just fuck off….
Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival….
Again said the pop up….
This time I sat and watched.. read it again and again…
I have heard this before..
some where…. some one …
Shit............ God ....this is the same thing I told Sri Laxmi after the game she played with me….
A splash of denim flooded me….
It grabbed my senses … my brain stopped thinking but my hands reached the intercom….
143.. I dialed and the ring went on…
Impossible is nothing dude… said another pop up which had a smiley :) laughing at me….
Fuck you … I shouted.. and banged the receiver on to the cradle…
Day in and day out he talked only strategy and more of strategy as if life was fully about that one term. He knew Jack Welch than perhaps the man himself and wrote about issues, alliances, mergers & acquisitions and the like which made him think of himself as an expert par excellence in his domain.
Lunch time was when he kept us updated about the latest book he was reading and the most recent piece of writing of his which was accepted by some academic journal or magazine and which would be arousing a spirit in us and inspiring us to write as well. Well by US I mean the rest of the teaching community at GIM, but Ram had disenchantment most of the time and it became worse after the advent of Anand mohan into the scene.
It was jokes, hilarity and more laughter for anything and everything at the faculty lounge where the whole group assembled for lunch. Anand was a humorist sans frontiers and made flutter and flap with his mere presence. Ram’s lessons on strategy and his directives and dreams for GIM almost got sunk in the noise.. for the first time in my existence in GIM , I heard and saw people laughing to glory with gibe and jeer top in the agenda…
Kudos Anand .. I said to myself even while refusing to be part of the laughter club. I was invidious at times at the man who like a magician, made us awe, who like a comedian spilled beans of laughter and merry and who like an acrobat did the rare games of audacity and yet walked free…
I kept wondering and almost hoping that he will be summoned by the top after his daredevilry that he displayed during the Delhi teams visit.
Nothing happened!
Dude ! you are a moron… he told me suddenly even as I was busy eating. I loved to laugh but this sudden camaraderie was somehow indigestible for me.
I flashed a smile but kept quiet and went on with my chapattis and my favorite potato fry.
If you eat potatoes like this one day you will burst…. Said Anand even as he sat opposite to me with his lighter sandwich stuffed with leafs and vegetables and a glass of fresh orange juice.
Eat healthy….. he said.. hit the gym…laugh a lot and that keeps you robust ….
Oh yeah …I said annoyed by his aggression … that shows
You hate me... don’t you? He asked me direct.. instantly to my eyes…
He had large and well defined eyes on which floated piercing brown pupil which locked with mine making me feel discomfited ….
NO ....I said loud even as I meant YES and he knew it… Eyes couldn’t lie in any case…
You know Sukesh… he said in a soft tone…
Yeah I know…. I said ,gobbling the potato pieces with delight… you are a born winner and the game is just begun… I know…
Ha ha ha ha .....he laughed …
I don’t have the habit of repeating the same stuff… he said… but haven’t you thought what am I up to?
Yeah I have… I said..but whatever you are up to Anand….At GIM you cannot change things.. you have to accept that…
Says whom? Anand asked me
Says my God damn experience..I almost thundered… you are new and take it from me … you are on one bloody mission impossible….
What if I am the chosen one? He asked me imperturbably
This guy was impossible..
Prof Ram was better that after some insistence he left his hapless victim alone and travelled unaccompanied to utopia.. this guy but stood on your head and had a sadistic bliss in irritating others …
HUH… I screeched in exasperation…
Impossible is nothing dude… he announced even as I stood up and walked outside….
Back in my cabin and after the days war with the
MBA kids and the power points, the cases and the teaching notes, I sat tired… teaching is what I enjoyed but too much of it was making me just a teaching machine… just an LCD projector…
Switch on and you are on… bang!!!
LCD projectors never complained but!!!
Anand Mohan came online in the internal mailing system…
Anand says hello…...a pop up window appeared on my screen…
I care my foot and no hello vello…… just fuck off….
Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival….
Again said the pop up….
This time I sat and watched.. read it again and again…
I have heard this before..
some where…. some one …
Shit............ God ....this is the same thing I told Sri Laxmi after the game she played with me….
A splash of denim flooded me….
It grabbed my senses … my brain stopped thinking but my hands reached the intercom….
143.. I dialed and the ring went on…
Impossible is nothing dude… said another pop up which had a smiley :) laughing at me….
Fuck you … I shouted.. and banged the receiver on to the cradle…
Friday, October 17, 2008
Daggers and sheaths...part II
GIM was near to the sea, not the red one but the one which some one somewhere named as Arabian sea and the sight from the GIM building was simply stupendous. The central courtyard gave a panoramic view and as one went up in the lift, one side of which was open to the outdoors with a fibre wall, would get mesmerized by the sheer beauty..
It looked boundless, the vast expanse of green earth with ease merging with the blue sea….
Endless and eternal… as time…
Good Morning sir… some one said and I came back to life, I was in the lift going to the 5 th floor where an MDP meeting was scheduled and I was one of the invitees….
Hi… Good morning…. I said with a hangdog expression of having seen by a student in my dream world.
Suhail Khan … he said with an arm extended…second year MBA
Ohhh yes… I said with a smile… I knew only the guys who took Marketing .. this one was not one among them…
I am into Operations and HR sir… he said as if he too was a mind reader…
Too many of this tribe in GIM.... I thought…
I guess I miss some good lectures in Marketing… he said with a smile… that is what I hear from my folks…
I flashed my uneven row of teeth at the free appreciation that was coming on my way and that too from some one who never had attended my classes.
It was debatable whether he would have had the same opinion if had attended !!
Ha! ….I said…. you made my day Khan… I said with a beam and I meant it… Praise was something I liked, and that too about my teaching skills which I was not that convinced about.
Anand Mohan sat next to me at the MDP room where some corporate clients had come and where presenting their case, some sales issue which the think tank of GIM was trying to make look as a strategy issue with an intention of selling more of their expertise than to solve the client’s issue.
I now had to keep away from this new dare devil as well… Ram was a head ache always but it was easy to avoid him and take distant seats and in meetings like this one he would always prefer the front row and will be there discussing and debating quoting from the GE story and the like…Anand seemed adamant and stuck on to me, wanting to look like thick friends who had met some 15 years after graduation. I liked his presence but not his gallantry which he seemed to be putting on display even at the most inapt spaces….
The Delhi team has recommended for a seat raise …he told me in a hush tone
I stared at him for the outdated news that he was sharing… I mean it was an inevitable finale which all knew particularly after the meeting which ended up as a sham.
The Delhi team (who had come and gone) had been in a fix after the infringement from Anand and the high hopes that he raised in the process. I assumed that Prof ram would jump in the fray, outperform Anand and explain why the FACES were not telling it all…and why as a professional committee who had taken the PAINS to come all the way from Delhi ,how unprofessional it was to depend face reading as a tool to assess employee satisfaction of an institution.
Anand Mohan sat after the intrusion, pleased as his job was done, and possibly expecting veteran mouths to carry on .Ram was the alternative( at least as I saw it) but strangely he did not and bingo the VC stood up. Subramanian Iyer the shrewd tactician was on his legs when I wrote in my note pad…
THE GAME IS OVER!!!!
Let the faculty also speak… he said in a careful tone with an American accent that came naturally to him …. But since everyone cannot speak,due to the time factor, let us have one to represent us….
The chosen one was one of the loyals, who feigned surprise but it showed like the pre practiced expressions of wonder and marvel that the Miss world’s display when the crown is announced….
After the astute move, the master stroke by the VC it all went haywire… I found Ram dumb, Anand still smiling, some others fuming and most of the others falling back to reality after the brief and short lived hope… I always knew why Dr Joy and his team like mad depended on this old man…
I did not know the game here…Anand told me as if in a confession box and I came back to the MDP room.. Some one was still in argument with some one over something that was petty……. I did not know that the one who was asked to speak would sing praises and make it easy for the Delhi team
I smiled, with a ridicule at his ingenuousness.. I saw that the charisma and aura which was the other name of this man was failing but was the dirty mind in me sunny and gleeful at it ?
But you know what Sukesh…. Anand Mohan is a winner….. he said, in what if others would have said would have sounded like an empty audacity but for him suited well…. And the game has just begun…
He didn’t scratch thighs but left deeper lines in my mind…
Ram was better, he never carried himself into my thought and most of the time with him, I heard him, but rarely listened to him. Anand was different… he looked fearless, sounded bravo and up to the point…
That evening when I was about to leave and had just kept my bag and a fat copy of some business book( to give the serious intellectual look most prof’s carry one or two books home and back everyday) in the back seat of my car, a voice interrupted …
Can I get a lift sir…? Said Sri Laxmi as she stood just back to me, with her long flock of hair waving in the soft sea breeze and her large dreamy eyes in full flicker … she looked like she was carved out fresh from the setting sun…
A splash of denim fragrance out of the blue spread in the air… I hadn’t put any denim for a long time and it was for sure not from her either…
The game has just begun… some one whispered into my ears…
It looked boundless, the vast expanse of green earth with ease merging with the blue sea….
Endless and eternal… as time…
Good Morning sir… some one said and I came back to life, I was in the lift going to the 5 th floor where an MDP meeting was scheduled and I was one of the invitees….
Hi… Good morning…. I said with a hangdog expression of having seen by a student in my dream world.
Suhail Khan … he said with an arm extended…second year MBA
Ohhh yes… I said with a smile… I knew only the guys who took Marketing .. this one was not one among them…
I am into Operations and HR sir… he said as if he too was a mind reader…
Too many of this tribe in GIM.... I thought…
I guess I miss some good lectures in Marketing… he said with a smile… that is what I hear from my folks…
I flashed my uneven row of teeth at the free appreciation that was coming on my way and that too from some one who never had attended my classes.
It was debatable whether he would have had the same opinion if had attended !!
Ha! ….I said…. you made my day Khan… I said with a beam and I meant it… Praise was something I liked, and that too about my teaching skills which I was not that convinced about.
Anand Mohan sat next to me at the MDP room where some corporate clients had come and where presenting their case, some sales issue which the think tank of GIM was trying to make look as a strategy issue with an intention of selling more of their expertise than to solve the client’s issue.
I now had to keep away from this new dare devil as well… Ram was a head ache always but it was easy to avoid him and take distant seats and in meetings like this one he would always prefer the front row and will be there discussing and debating quoting from the GE story and the like…Anand seemed adamant and stuck on to me, wanting to look like thick friends who had met some 15 years after graduation. I liked his presence but not his gallantry which he seemed to be putting on display even at the most inapt spaces….
The Delhi team has recommended for a seat raise …he told me in a hush tone
I stared at him for the outdated news that he was sharing… I mean it was an inevitable finale which all knew particularly after the meeting which ended up as a sham.
The Delhi team (who had come and gone) had been in a fix after the infringement from Anand and the high hopes that he raised in the process. I assumed that Prof ram would jump in the fray, outperform Anand and explain why the FACES were not telling it all…and why as a professional committee who had taken the PAINS to come all the way from Delhi ,how unprofessional it was to depend face reading as a tool to assess employee satisfaction of an institution.
Anand Mohan sat after the intrusion, pleased as his job was done, and possibly expecting veteran mouths to carry on .Ram was the alternative( at least as I saw it) but strangely he did not and bingo the VC stood up. Subramanian Iyer the shrewd tactician was on his legs when I wrote in my note pad…
THE GAME IS OVER!!!!
Let the faculty also speak… he said in a careful tone with an American accent that came naturally to him …. But since everyone cannot speak,due to the time factor, let us have one to represent us….
The chosen one was one of the loyals, who feigned surprise but it showed like the pre practiced expressions of wonder and marvel that the Miss world’s display when the crown is announced….
After the astute move, the master stroke by the VC it all went haywire… I found Ram dumb, Anand still smiling, some others fuming and most of the others falling back to reality after the brief and short lived hope… I always knew why Dr Joy and his team like mad depended on this old man…
I did not know the game here…Anand told me as if in a confession box and I came back to the MDP room.. Some one was still in argument with some one over something that was petty……. I did not know that the one who was asked to speak would sing praises and make it easy for the Delhi team
I smiled, with a ridicule at his ingenuousness.. I saw that the charisma and aura which was the other name of this man was failing but was the dirty mind in me sunny and gleeful at it ?
But you know what Sukesh…. Anand Mohan is a winner….. he said, in what if others would have said would have sounded like an empty audacity but for him suited well…. And the game has just begun…
He didn’t scratch thighs but left deeper lines in my mind…
Ram was better, he never carried himself into my thought and most of the time with him, I heard him, but rarely listened to him. Anand was different… he looked fearless, sounded bravo and up to the point…
That evening when I was about to leave and had just kept my bag and a fat copy of some business book( to give the serious intellectual look most prof’s carry one or two books home and back everyday) in the back seat of my car, a voice interrupted …
Can I get a lift sir…? Said Sri Laxmi as she stood just back to me, with her long flock of hair waving in the soft sea breeze and her large dreamy eyes in full flicker … she looked like she was carved out fresh from the setting sun…
A splash of denim fragrance out of the blue spread in the air… I hadn’t put any denim for a long time and it was for sure not from her either…
The game has just begun… some one whispered into my ears…
Monday, October 13, 2008
Daggers and sheaths...part I
It was the D day for GIM…
Never before, had I seen so much of activity and bustle in the campus in my 4 years subsistence there. The team from Delhi would arrive and all was set to receive the guests who for GIM, for that day at least, was important than GOD. People were called back at war footing… It was like Pakistan had suddenly attacked and the border had to be refilled … The jawans were all geared up with guns and barrels,,, the Nags and Arjuns were deployed.. the formations were finalized.. the battle fronts were drawn and the weak links were identified…
When we walk, when we talk and when we smile… we had to be careful that day… It could be wrongly interpreted… It was not the life and death game for GIM but yes more seats for its MBA programme and more money… Even thoughts were monitored, I felt…. The cameras were always a cause of worry but that day it made everyone nervous and an uneasy calm prevailed….
The team had three people…
A fat middle aged man who looked like Eddie Murphy in the nutty professor, emerged from the Merc which was send for them specifically but the GIM management. He laughed with a roar seeing Dr Joy at the portico with his team… Jesus, the ED, the VC, Manohar and all their pen pullers and palanquin bearers. This man was not new to GIM; he was a regular and formed part of every team that came to GIM for Delhi, for INSPECTION…
The king knew how to play his card… I told myself as we all stood behind to greet the Gods who had just arrived in a Mercedes, with salvation in their bags…
Two other men also jumped out, but Eddie Murphy made them insignificant by his sheer size, the laugh and his familiarity with the place and its owners…Greets , smiles, bouquets, it looked like communist China and the Olympics they hosted… plastic smiles galore and all the down trodden were swept away to oblivion….
I would say it was a long wait for me and Prof Ram...
For me because I wanted the ritual to be over ..the customary meeting where we were counted for numbers like cattle’s are before they are taken to the butcher, asked questions- half of which they themselves answered and the other half no one could and did… it was all assumed..
For Prof Ram because he wanted to speak out (as usual)…
I don’t expect any support..he told me during the tea session, when the team was with the top brass of GIM locked in the comfort zones of the HQ…
I didn’t give and exact reply, I knew he didn’t expect one either.....I guess they have made up for the numbers… with this new guy Anand Mohan its now a perfect score board…. I said instead…
He is a close friend of Jesus… Ram whispered, leaning precariously close to me…one more spy …
I got a sudden smell of denim, from no where… Inspired from the new fellow and his charm, I had bought a bottle of denim the last evening, and had splashed it all over, but this one was different..
Oh …come on.... sir… I disagreed.. I mean, I couldn’t accept that version fully… a charming spy.. ? a secret agent… ? why not..? he had all the ingredients to be a James bond .. the allure, the physique , the style and…but sir… he is like .. he did his
MBA from UK… and a lot of international exposure…how can??
Hey Sukesh.. Prof Ram had a disbelief in his face… You are not that idiotic I know.. today, I guess you are making special efforts…
I laughed at that, but still couldn’t get the full meaning of that expression in his face…
What is your doubt? A well learned sophisticated man cannot be a friend of Jesus? Or is it that such a person cannot be a spy? Ram posed it to my startled eyes…
I just nodded my head… both were possible… in fact in GIM everything was possible…
Thank you ladies and gentle men… Eddie Murphy announced after the introduction of his own greatness as well as his team mates … he almost drew a halo on the white board and stood in front of it.. I mean.... he didn’t do it literally but could have and that would have been better…
From your faces, it is clear that all of you are happy… he took it on… but this is a formality and has to be recorded… so let us…
Another face reader... HUH...
It is an amazing campus, excellent infra structure, canteen, labs libraries and a management who has clear vision and a road map to reach that vision.. Strategically aligned to the needs of the day and………I switched of there … the jargons was unbearable for sure but more than that the one sided tirade was more horrendous ..
No complaints… I wrote in my note pad with disdain … it is going as expected…Perfect Precision...
But that is an assumption… a voice broke the silence that reigned in the other side of the room where the audience sat…
Prof Ram?.... I woke up in search of the voice ..
The whole crowd looked back, Jesus and ED including, Yes…they were also there in their capacity as faculty members…a murmur broke the silence and it took the team by awe…
Eddie Murphy looked upset and disconcerted, for being cut into during his intended lecture and also for the game plan being thwarted..
Anand Mohan stood up with a glow in his face and a smile, a fresh one in semi bloom in his lips … he looked like Moses leading the hapless people of Israel and the other side suddenly looked like the Egyptians, chasing to death an ill-fated crowd that was cornered and badly bruised …
The room was charged up suddenly … I saw a lot of electrified faces… shock ran across…
Sacrilege … I scribbled hastily in my note pad, even as I looked into Prof Ram’s face..
The first thing after this meeting, I thought was to ask for an apology… Ram had to do it…
The Red sea was roaring… Moses but, stood there- valiant and strong…….
Never before, had I seen so much of activity and bustle in the campus in my 4 years subsistence there. The team from Delhi would arrive and all was set to receive the guests who for GIM, for that day at least, was important than GOD. People were called back at war footing… It was like Pakistan had suddenly attacked and the border had to be refilled … The jawans were all geared up with guns and barrels,,, the Nags and Arjuns were deployed.. the formations were finalized.. the battle fronts were drawn and the weak links were identified…
When we walk, when we talk and when we smile… we had to be careful that day… It could be wrongly interpreted… It was not the life and death game for GIM but yes more seats for its MBA programme and more money… Even thoughts were monitored, I felt…. The cameras were always a cause of worry but that day it made everyone nervous and an uneasy calm prevailed….
The team had three people…
A fat middle aged man who looked like Eddie Murphy in the nutty professor, emerged from the Merc which was send for them specifically but the GIM management. He laughed with a roar seeing Dr Joy at the portico with his team… Jesus, the ED, the VC, Manohar and all their pen pullers and palanquin bearers. This man was not new to GIM; he was a regular and formed part of every team that came to GIM for Delhi, for INSPECTION…
The king knew how to play his card… I told myself as we all stood behind to greet the Gods who had just arrived in a Mercedes, with salvation in their bags…
Two other men also jumped out, but Eddie Murphy made them insignificant by his sheer size, the laugh and his familiarity with the place and its owners…Greets , smiles, bouquets, it looked like communist China and the Olympics they hosted… plastic smiles galore and all the down trodden were swept away to oblivion….
I would say it was a long wait for me and Prof Ram...
For me because I wanted the ritual to be over ..the customary meeting where we were counted for numbers like cattle’s are before they are taken to the butcher, asked questions- half of which they themselves answered and the other half no one could and did… it was all assumed..
For Prof Ram because he wanted to speak out (as usual)…
I don’t expect any support..he told me during the tea session, when the team was with the top brass of GIM locked in the comfort zones of the HQ…
I didn’t give and exact reply, I knew he didn’t expect one either.....I guess they have made up for the numbers… with this new guy Anand Mohan its now a perfect score board…. I said instead…
He is a close friend of Jesus… Ram whispered, leaning precariously close to me…one more spy …
I got a sudden smell of denim, from no where… Inspired from the new fellow and his charm, I had bought a bottle of denim the last evening, and had splashed it all over, but this one was different..
Oh …come on.... sir… I disagreed.. I mean, I couldn’t accept that version fully… a charming spy.. ? a secret agent… ? why not..? he had all the ingredients to be a James bond .. the allure, the physique , the style and…but sir… he is like .. he did his
MBA from UK… and a lot of international exposure…how can??
Hey Sukesh.. Prof Ram had a disbelief in his face… You are not that idiotic I know.. today, I guess you are making special efforts…
I laughed at that, but still couldn’t get the full meaning of that expression in his face…
What is your doubt? A well learned sophisticated man cannot be a friend of Jesus? Or is it that such a person cannot be a spy? Ram posed it to my startled eyes…
I just nodded my head… both were possible… in fact in GIM everything was possible…
Thank you ladies and gentle men… Eddie Murphy announced after the introduction of his own greatness as well as his team mates … he almost drew a halo on the white board and stood in front of it.. I mean.... he didn’t do it literally but could have and that would have been better…
From your faces, it is clear that all of you are happy… he took it on… but this is a formality and has to be recorded… so let us…
Another face reader... HUH...
It is an amazing campus, excellent infra structure, canteen, labs libraries and a management who has clear vision and a road map to reach that vision.. Strategically aligned to the needs of the day and………I switched of there … the jargons was unbearable for sure but more than that the one sided tirade was more horrendous ..
No complaints… I wrote in my note pad with disdain … it is going as expected…Perfect Precision...
But that is an assumption… a voice broke the silence that reigned in the other side of the room where the audience sat…
Prof Ram?.... I woke up in search of the voice ..
The whole crowd looked back, Jesus and ED including, Yes…they were also there in their capacity as faculty members…a murmur broke the silence and it took the team by awe…
Eddie Murphy looked upset and disconcerted, for being cut into during his intended lecture and also for the game plan being thwarted..
Anand Mohan stood up with a glow in his face and a smile, a fresh one in semi bloom in his lips … he looked like Moses leading the hapless people of Israel and the other side suddenly looked like the Egyptians, chasing to death an ill-fated crowd that was cornered and badly bruised …
The room was charged up suddenly … I saw a lot of electrified faces… shock ran across…
Sacrilege … I scribbled hastily in my note pad, even as I looked into Prof Ram’s face..
The first thing after this meeting, I thought was to ask for an apology… Ram had to do it…
The Red sea was roaring… Moses but, stood there- valiant and strong…….
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The paradigm shi (f) t !
It is funny and even amusing that in life sometimes when we look back we find how outlandish we had behaved to certain situations which if had repeated, we would have done better. Alas! Life is not a DVD player, and there is no rewind or repeat buttons… it has to go on…
Looking back is the utmost one can do.. Or is it not?
In my case it was not.. The Sri Laxmi experience some how made me chary. Careful I always was, cautious I had been but there after I looked like a secret agent apprehensive about everyone, as if all were contriving and conspiring against me.. I looked nervous, all the time and spend my time at class and when I had no class, at some corner of the huge library delving deep into a better world, or in the scorching canteen gulping as many hot banana fries as I could .
Sri Laxmi of course remained as my teaching assistant but stopped coming to the class with me, as she got busy with the PARADIGM SHIFT seminar. Forming student teams, identifying prospective speakers and the like kept her running, most of the time from her pigeon hole to the HQ, where Jesus sat with resplendence. Jesus would have been a happy man… the Paradigm shift seminar had given him a reason, I mean an official reason to be with the most beautiful woman at GIM whenever he wished to.
Are you angry with me? Sri Laxmi had asked me after the drama in Jesus’ room.
I gawked at her with derision …
Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival … I told her before admonishing her.
I cared the damn if she too was a spy!!!!
You would be seen as rebelling for the wrong reason ….said Prof Ram later during the lunch break where we usually had fun and frolic at the faculty lounge.
I mean..he added seeing my face which for him resembled a question mark … you will be looking like some one who is jealous that she is the convener of the seminar and you had been asked to help her with no official designation per se…
I protested… That was a new angle that this old man was adding into it…
Think about it … he told me before he left me alone but in an even worse condition…
I was in my cabin during one of those torturous days, when the news broke….
The inspection team from Delhi is coming tomorrow… the ED came out of his cabin to the larger faculty hall where we all sat in a row, in cabins that will even put an internet café to shame.
No grand mothers shall die, no one will fall sick…..he announced as if it was some joke, and he was the main joker of the show. Then as usual he started laughing at his own joke in his style with the giggle and gag going up and down with air escapes in between, making him blush and his thick bush of hair at both his earlobes in full erection out of excitement.
Another drama… Prof Ram told me over the cabin walls…
Ohh … lamented some women in chorus... the month end would have been bothering them.. What will the Delhi team feel when they see the GIM faculty in old and used sari and under make up?
Huh… I said to myself…. Life is about priorities…each one has their own !!!
The VC was out of town and that seemed to be the biggest worry for Dr Joseph the ED.
He expressed it overtly in a hastily convened faculty assembly at his chamber to discuss the do’s and don’ts during the one day performance that we all were expected to put up when the three member team from Delhi will walk around the GIM campus, talking to the
MBA guys and faculty, analyzing, eating and drinking, wearing a mask of absolute seriousness, with grave faces looking like dead men walking around , writing on small note pads, leaning on to the next guy and whispering whenever some on talks something in the meeting sending shivers down the spine of the speaker and ending it up, with a foregone conclusion…
GIM is next to heaven, if not the real one…
Farce!!!
I wrote in my note pad, as I sat in the third row corner very far from Prof Ram in what I thought was a conscious decision to avoid the scratch and scorn.
Sri Laxmi was in the front row, suggesting to me her new status.. a loyal she had become..
Incapability had to be compensated after all!.... my jealous mind found a logic and a dirty bliss in it…
It was that afternoon that this new fellow came in to the GIM faculty room.....
He was tall, unfairly handsome, impeccably well dressed, looking almost like a bollywood hunk who just decided to take a break from his shooting schedule and visit GIM....
I turned around at the smell of splashed denim and there he was, standing just behind me, with a beaming smile…
Hi Sukesh …he said with his left arm extended
I stood up with an ensemble of feelings, panicky I was but pleased I wanted to look as I extended my right arm to give the weakest handshake I had ever given.
I am Anand Mohan …he said in style and in a clear husky voice… your new colleague and friend…..joining the Marketing Department at the great GIM today.
Now that was new to me, I bet. The whole thing looked like another episode in the great GIM drama…
Ohhhh….the first reaction burped out quite suddenly from my open mouth even as bewilderment was in full bloom in my dull eyes
I know I know… he blissfully smiled ,as if in me he had met his long lost childhood friend… we are gonna be great company … I know…
I didn’t know the meaning then…
I didn’t know that he was the man who would change my life for ever, change the course of GIM and its inhabitants ….
We are gonna rock dude… he shook me fully with both his arms firmly on my shoulders and then left me after an affable tap on my cheeks…
The fragrance of denim lingered, the smile stayed behind, the charm simply refused to go even as he went to the ED’s cabin and started his formalities of joining.
Anand Mohan!!! I said to my self….Haven’t I seen this guy before?
Looking back is the utmost one can do.. Or is it not?
In my case it was not.. The Sri Laxmi experience some how made me chary. Careful I always was, cautious I had been but there after I looked like a secret agent apprehensive about everyone, as if all were contriving and conspiring against me.. I looked nervous, all the time and spend my time at class and when I had no class, at some corner of the huge library delving deep into a better world, or in the scorching canteen gulping as many hot banana fries as I could .
Sri Laxmi of course remained as my teaching assistant but stopped coming to the class with me, as she got busy with the PARADIGM SHIFT seminar. Forming student teams, identifying prospective speakers and the like kept her running, most of the time from her pigeon hole to the HQ, where Jesus sat with resplendence. Jesus would have been a happy man… the Paradigm shift seminar had given him a reason, I mean an official reason to be with the most beautiful woman at GIM whenever he wished to.
Are you angry with me? Sri Laxmi had asked me after the drama in Jesus’ room.
I gawked at her with derision …
Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival … I told her before admonishing her.
I cared the damn if she too was a spy!!!!
You would be seen as rebelling for the wrong reason ….said Prof Ram later during the lunch break where we usually had fun and frolic at the faculty lounge.
I mean..he added seeing my face which for him resembled a question mark … you will be looking like some one who is jealous that she is the convener of the seminar and you had been asked to help her with no official designation per se…
I protested… That was a new angle that this old man was adding into it…
Think about it … he told me before he left me alone but in an even worse condition…
I was in my cabin during one of those torturous days, when the news broke….
The inspection team from Delhi is coming tomorrow… the ED came out of his cabin to the larger faculty hall where we all sat in a row, in cabins that will even put an internet café to shame.
No grand mothers shall die, no one will fall sick…..he announced as if it was some joke, and he was the main joker of the show. Then as usual he started laughing at his own joke in his style with the giggle and gag going up and down with air escapes in between, making him blush and his thick bush of hair at both his earlobes in full erection out of excitement.
Another drama… Prof Ram told me over the cabin walls…
Ohh … lamented some women in chorus... the month end would have been bothering them.. What will the Delhi team feel when they see the GIM faculty in old and used sari and under make up?
Huh… I said to myself…. Life is about priorities…each one has their own !!!
The VC was out of town and that seemed to be the biggest worry for Dr Joseph the ED.
He expressed it overtly in a hastily convened faculty assembly at his chamber to discuss the do’s and don’ts during the one day performance that we all were expected to put up when the three member team from Delhi will walk around the GIM campus, talking to the
MBA guys and faculty, analyzing, eating and drinking, wearing a mask of absolute seriousness, with grave faces looking like dead men walking around , writing on small note pads, leaning on to the next guy and whispering whenever some on talks something in the meeting sending shivers down the spine of the speaker and ending it up, with a foregone conclusion…
GIM is next to heaven, if not the real one…
Farce!!!
I wrote in my note pad, as I sat in the third row corner very far from Prof Ram in what I thought was a conscious decision to avoid the scratch and scorn.
Sri Laxmi was in the front row, suggesting to me her new status.. a loyal she had become..
Incapability had to be compensated after all!.... my jealous mind found a logic and a dirty bliss in it…
It was that afternoon that this new fellow came in to the GIM faculty room.....
He was tall, unfairly handsome, impeccably well dressed, looking almost like a bollywood hunk who just decided to take a break from his shooting schedule and visit GIM....
I turned around at the smell of splashed denim and there he was, standing just behind me, with a beaming smile…
Hi Sukesh …he said with his left arm extended
I stood up with an ensemble of feelings, panicky I was but pleased I wanted to look as I extended my right arm to give the weakest handshake I had ever given.
I am Anand Mohan …he said in style and in a clear husky voice… your new colleague and friend…..joining the Marketing Department at the great GIM today.
Now that was new to me, I bet. The whole thing looked like another episode in the great GIM drama…
Ohhhh….the first reaction burped out quite suddenly from my open mouth even as bewilderment was in full bloom in my dull eyes
I know I know… he blissfully smiled ,as if in me he had met his long lost childhood friend… we are gonna be great company … I know…
I didn’t know the meaning then…
I didn’t know that he was the man who would change my life for ever, change the course of GIM and its inhabitants ….
We are gonna rock dude… he shook me fully with both his arms firmly on my shoulders and then left me after an affable tap on my cheeks…
The fragrance of denim lingered, the smile stayed behind, the charm simply refused to go even as he went to the ED’s cabin and started his formalities of joining.
Anand Mohan!!! I said to my self….Haven’t I seen this guy before?
Monday, October 6, 2008
Games people play !
Prof Ram and his letter (If you remember, I had said it…) made no impact at all. At least there was no visible after effect. He was not called for a discussion, as he expected .Nor was he even given a courtesy call from the King’ side saying that he acknowledged the receipt of the 16 page document.
Ram predictably was upset and most of the fire and fury at the ‘nauseating apathy’ of the top fell on me from the neighboring cabin. I couldn’t help but keep praying that I was shifted from my cabin to some corner where no cameras could prey on me, no spies could track me and no neighbour could spur their wrath and rage on a helpless me…
Ram walked up and down the faculty room, wanted to talk to the ED who was but busy dealing with some students who did some grave crime like riding the bike in side the campus ,Schumacher style or making some noise in the hostel room last night, and hence deserving capital punishment and had no time for Ram and his petty issues.
Jansi William the secretary at the faculty office came in to my cabin with slow and cautious steps..
Sir…. Dr Jesus wants to meet you… NOW… she said whisperingly
I had an intercom and yet… I kept wondering…. Well you never know… Jesus and his games…
At the prince’s cabin, where AC was in full blast I felt like I was in the North Pole. Jesus tried to look intellectual with a cool library in his cabin with all the latest management books in display (rarely read though) and with journals from HBR (My kinda stuff) to the International Journal of Management carefully scattered on his central table. Soft music was on the air and Jesus sat in his chair, too large for his short frame but again it gave him a feel, a confidence, a halo that I could almost see as I sat across him, every time.
Guess what!! he seemed to say as he kept on smiling when I sat in a much smaller chair kept for guests.
I had a smile, a faint one which reflected my anxiety at the sudden call
Sri Laxmi is supposed to join us … said Jesus as I sat there in his chilled room where he lived like a polar bear.
Sweat came out, for me at the hint.. I knew what the discussion was going to be…
He is going to ask me about the chemistry thing…
Fuck man ..I said to myself…All said and done ..Reputation was something ( may be the only thing) I had so far in GIM….
We are planning an international Marketing conference…. Said Jesus in a strange baritone cutting across my wandering thoughts…..You and Sri Laxmi will be coordinating it….
He expected me to grin and be grateful at his munificence … if he had, then I am sure he would have got disappointed.. Not that I felt good, I felt delighted that he had chosen me but why me and Sri Laxmi?
Why the bloody hell?
Again had he also seen the chemistry?
Does he also LOVE to see us together?
When Sri Laxmi came in, Jesus beamed like a toddler who got his rare chocolate. That was one thing with Jesus; he loved the company of women.
It’s now official …he declared to her with a wicked smile… I have told Sukesh about OUR plan …
She displayed a sumptuous smirk in return even as I stared at her face for the apparent duplicity that she had shown to me.
Sukesh is experienced and the best organizer we have.. said Jesus as I felt distracted and dejected at a ploy that was unraveling before my eyes….and with your charm this should be a bench mark event…
What is your suggestion? He asked me and I heard it…
Yes sir… true.. very true… words just stooped out without my consent…
I thought I taught at a B school... It looked like I had to change my belief now..
Yes.. you said it … said Jesus even as I kept staring the female…
Who said beauty and brains do not go together?I kept wondering...
A circular later on announced it to the world ..
It said …
Prof Sri Laxmi will be the coordinator for the up coming International conference in “The paradigm shift in Marketing and the altering consumer mind space”.
All are requested to give suggestions to make the program a grand success.
Signed..
Dr Jesus Joy
Director
I was thankful that my name was missing in the piece of paper that floated around from cabin to cabin, causing flutter and I could see many heads fuming, some curious, some taking it in a stride and some too exited to sit back and relax…
I banged my head on to my table, and waited for Sri Laxmi to come.. I knew she will... She had to...
Ram predictably was upset and most of the fire and fury at the ‘nauseating apathy’ of the top fell on me from the neighboring cabin. I couldn’t help but keep praying that I was shifted from my cabin to some corner where no cameras could prey on me, no spies could track me and no neighbour could spur their wrath and rage on a helpless me…
Ram walked up and down the faculty room, wanted to talk to the ED who was but busy dealing with some students who did some grave crime like riding the bike in side the campus ,Schumacher style or making some noise in the hostel room last night, and hence deserving capital punishment and had no time for Ram and his petty issues.
Jansi William the secretary at the faculty office came in to my cabin with slow and cautious steps..
Sir…. Dr Jesus wants to meet you… NOW… she said whisperingly
I had an intercom and yet… I kept wondering…. Well you never know… Jesus and his games…
At the prince’s cabin, where AC was in full blast I felt like I was in the North Pole. Jesus tried to look intellectual with a cool library in his cabin with all the latest management books in display (rarely read though) and with journals from HBR (My kinda stuff) to the International Journal of Management carefully scattered on his central table. Soft music was on the air and Jesus sat in his chair, too large for his short frame but again it gave him a feel, a confidence, a halo that I could almost see as I sat across him, every time.
Guess what!! he seemed to say as he kept on smiling when I sat in a much smaller chair kept for guests.
I had a smile, a faint one which reflected my anxiety at the sudden call
Sri Laxmi is supposed to join us … said Jesus as I sat there in his chilled room where he lived like a polar bear.
Sweat came out, for me at the hint.. I knew what the discussion was going to be…
He is going to ask me about the chemistry thing…
Fuck man ..I said to myself…All said and done ..Reputation was something ( may be the only thing) I had so far in GIM….
We are planning an international Marketing conference…. Said Jesus in a strange baritone cutting across my wandering thoughts…..You and Sri Laxmi will be coordinating it….
He expected me to grin and be grateful at his munificence … if he had, then I am sure he would have got disappointed.. Not that I felt good, I felt delighted that he had chosen me but why me and Sri Laxmi?
Why the bloody hell?
Again had he also seen the chemistry?
Does he also LOVE to see us together?
When Sri Laxmi came in, Jesus beamed like a toddler who got his rare chocolate. That was one thing with Jesus; he loved the company of women.
It’s now official …he declared to her with a wicked smile… I have told Sukesh about OUR plan …
She displayed a sumptuous smirk in return even as I stared at her face for the apparent duplicity that she had shown to me.
Sukesh is experienced and the best organizer we have.. said Jesus as I felt distracted and dejected at a ploy that was unraveling before my eyes….and with your charm this should be a bench mark event…
What is your suggestion? He asked me and I heard it…
Yes sir… true.. very true… words just stooped out without my consent…
I thought I taught at a B school... It looked like I had to change my belief now..
Yes.. you said it … said Jesus even as I kept staring the female…
Who said beauty and brains do not go together?I kept wondering...
A circular later on announced it to the world ..
It said …
Prof Sri Laxmi will be the coordinator for the up coming International conference in “The paradigm shift in Marketing and the altering consumer mind space”.
All are requested to give suggestions to make the program a grand success.
Signed..
Dr Jesus Joy
Director
I was thankful that my name was missing in the piece of paper that floated around from cabin to cabin, causing flutter and I could see many heads fuming, some curious, some taking it in a stride and some too exited to sit back and relax…
I banged my head on to my table, and waited for Sri Laxmi to come.. I knew she will... She had to...
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Intellectual Orgasm >> Part II
The toilet episode as told by Sri Laxmi affected me badly. Not that I had any reverence for Dr Joseph the ED which got a stun or any fondness for her which left some sting...
But it some how disturbed me…
That hard feeling inflated when the ED called me to tell me his pronouncement that I will take over the Sales Management classes for MBA and Sri Laxmi will assist me.
Assist me? I expressed wonder
Yes.. the ED said… You can use her for assignments, paper correction etc…
But she is here to teach… I protested … how can I?
But she should learn the tricks of the trade and it is the management’s decision that she will be assisting one of the existing professors till she does…... a grin was shown in the ED’s face
Oh yeah… I said to myself.. it is the management's decision… how dare can I even think it as something which has to be opposed? Blasphemy!!!
WHY ME? Was my question again but it refused to come out.. ( as usual ) and it stayed there in my eyes, my lips and may be even in my nerve endings… As if he had read it, seen it and felt it Dr Joseph continued…
And between you…. I know… he smiled yet again… there is a chemistry.. it is good ..Together I assume that you can produce good synergy… the students will love your pairing up…
I started sweating…
Chemistry and Physics?
ASSUME?
or
ASS U ME?
Synergy…? What the fuck?
What was he? Executive director of a B school or a bloody pimp?
What was he trying to say??
What the hell? Why the students will love our pair? Was it a film discussion that was happening between Dr Joseph, the Director and Sukesh Menon the Hero..…?
Think about it.. Dr Joseph said in a tone that signaled an intended wrapping up of the meeting….
He knows that I have told you that… bloody womanizer … Srilaxmi told me in the canteen later when the decision was made known to her…
Its funny .. she laughed and said… its like…. She kept on laughing…
Stop it… I said… and what’s there to laugh… we are not bloody students here.. and listen I don’t want to be part of a gossip and rumour here…
She sat flabbergasted and staggering for words…
Let us take it up.. the challenge ..she said finally.. than trying to wriggle out… what u say? ….I will also feel comfortable that way….
But I cannot have a third person sitting in my class… I mean I never had that… it’s like… I will become conscious… I will loose myself… I argued…
At GIM but, things were all predictated …
It will happen if it was desired by the TOP… As did the toilet incident when the ED saw her in the faculty room alone by 8 in the morning, called her for a discussion to his cabin, left to the toilet in between where he slipped and fell and when she rushed in to see, hearing the clamor, he clasped hold of her hands with lust oozing out like he had an orgasm by the mere touch and when she ran out, he pleaded SORRY with a sheepish face and apology written large over his wrinkled face…
These old men…. she had lamented… he is like my father for me… huh…
Walking back to the faculty room, I made sure that I walked alone, now determined not to be seen together with the girl who from then was going to be my teaching assistant.
Why do you see me as a third person? she had asked me as I stood up, with a stare...
Chemistry !!!
The old horse had called it…
He has seen it… Many would have seen it…the colleagues, the students, the canteen staff, the garden keepers, the spies, the cameras, the walls...
OOF !!!
Why I did not see it…?
I kept asking, as the hot sun over the GIM sky burned my skin and I almost ran to reach the main building….
And who the bloody hell named it Chemistry?
But it some how disturbed me…
That hard feeling inflated when the ED called me to tell me his pronouncement that I will take over the Sales Management classes for MBA and Sri Laxmi will assist me.
Assist me? I expressed wonder
Yes.. the ED said… You can use her for assignments, paper correction etc…
But she is here to teach… I protested … how can I?
But she should learn the tricks of the trade and it is the management’s decision that she will be assisting one of the existing professors till she does…... a grin was shown in the ED’s face
Oh yeah… I said to myself.. it is the management's decision… how dare can I even think it as something which has to be opposed? Blasphemy!!!
WHY ME? Was my question again but it refused to come out.. ( as usual ) and it stayed there in my eyes, my lips and may be even in my nerve endings… As if he had read it, seen it and felt it Dr Joseph continued…
And between you…. I know… he smiled yet again… there is a chemistry.. it is good ..Together I assume that you can produce good synergy… the students will love your pairing up…
I started sweating…
Chemistry and Physics?
ASSUME?
or
ASS U ME?
Synergy…? What the fuck?
What was he? Executive director of a B school or a bloody pimp?
What was he trying to say??
What the hell? Why the students will love our pair? Was it a film discussion that was happening between Dr Joseph, the Director and Sukesh Menon the Hero..…?
Think about it.. Dr Joseph said in a tone that signaled an intended wrapping up of the meeting….
He knows that I have told you that… bloody womanizer … Srilaxmi told me in the canteen later when the decision was made known to her…
Its funny .. she laughed and said… its like…. She kept on laughing…
Stop it… I said… and what’s there to laugh… we are not bloody students here.. and listen I don’t want to be part of a gossip and rumour here…
She sat flabbergasted and staggering for words…
Let us take it up.. the challenge ..she said finally.. than trying to wriggle out… what u say? ….I will also feel comfortable that way….
But I cannot have a third person sitting in my class… I mean I never had that… it’s like… I will become conscious… I will loose myself… I argued…
At GIM but, things were all predictated …
It will happen if it was desired by the TOP… As did the toilet incident when the ED saw her in the faculty room alone by 8 in the morning, called her for a discussion to his cabin, left to the toilet in between where he slipped and fell and when she rushed in to see, hearing the clamor, he clasped hold of her hands with lust oozing out like he had an orgasm by the mere touch and when she ran out, he pleaded SORRY with a sheepish face and apology written large over his wrinkled face…
These old men…. she had lamented… he is like my father for me… huh…
Walking back to the faculty room, I made sure that I walked alone, now determined not to be seen together with the girl who from then was going to be my teaching assistant.
Why do you see me as a third person? she had asked me as I stood up, with a stare...
Chemistry !!!
The old horse had called it…
He has seen it… Many would have seen it…the colleagues, the students, the canteen staff, the garden keepers, the spies, the cameras, the walls...
OOF !!!
Why I did not see it…?
I kept asking, as the hot sun over the GIM sky burned my skin and I almost ran to reach the main building….
And who the bloody hell named it Chemistry?
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