That was the last day of the annual campus placement season. GIM was no IIM and hence there was no placement week and no day zero’s and day one’s. It still was far better than many thousands of also ran B schools which never saw a corporate stepping in to select students for jobs… the last day the number of students attending the recruiting programme was quite less (others having got placement offers already)
I had just returned from my last but one class where contented faces gave me quite a respite….. I didn’t care whether they where relieved that finally it is over or whether they were actually in love with my classes… Cheerful professors sat, stood and shared jokes in the common area of the faculty room…for most, their teaching plans were hitting the last lines and in a day or two the teaching shops will close shutter and leave students for their study leave….
After the camaraderie and patch up that followed the big fight, it was all serene.. For a long time of a week, GIM looked like an ideal place to work.. People took care of their business, and I was slowly getting attuned to the change that Anand always prophesied would come.. Meeting happened between me and the HQ about my taking over the corporate relations team,( under Jesus of course) and after every meeting I got convinced why I should not walk into that trap. I but couldn’t say a no , in spite of the awareness that most of the problems in life came from either saying a yes too fast, or saying a no too late.. In my case the NO was an issue..
The announcement is coming today Prof Sukesh Menon… said Anand as we sat in the common area, sipping tea…
I knew… even with the fight and fury among my co prof’s in the back ground, my worry was the summoning to the Kings cabin…
The corporate relations team is being widened…. Prof Sukesh Menon will now be in charge of the 3 eye cell… said Anand as if he was the kings’ drummer…
Anand had gone mad. He didn’t even care that Ram was there just next to us, and as I dreaded he turned to me and said…. You know why? Prof Agarwal who was handling it has resigned … it is supposed to be secret … this guy left on incompatibility reason …….
I sat with a question mark blooming on my face …
With?... I asked quite a stupid question… at GIM all such areas as corporate relation fell under the direct regime of Jesus and the faculty who “coordinated “ it under him often has nothing much to do…At least that is what I understood till then ….
And you are simply walking in… said Ram as if he was reading a condolence message… he didn’t say that I was the first outsider to ever have had the good fortune to do this job (thankfully) !
Simply… !! HUH.. how dare he say that…I mumbled... I didn’t walk in simply….when I met them, I nodded and approved all the theory as to why it was “important for my career to also take care of the industry interaction part along with my teaching and whatever research I was doing”…
I smiled in endorsement of all the pep talk as to how good it would be to have a team of my great self, Jesus and the others in the I-I team.. I was all in concord to the gorgeous picture of GIM and its perfect I-I team. The only gap was mine and only I could fill it… The VC made the cake and Jesus topped it with his “you are my brother” icing… I hated such cakes but I ate them too often without any protest…
So that means…. ? I asked naively looking at Anand, as if he decided things, (but only after Ram left the place)…..
Anand didn’t blame my stupidity… I guess he was used to it by then,,,….
That means you are chosen because they think you have some compatibility with Jesus…
Jesus… I called out inadvertently...
How can be such a serious area handled with such laxity… I wondered as words fell out without my consent…
Laxity is your assumption suk.. said Anand and he sounded real… They are playing a game.. like chess ..until you can foresee some three moves at least in advance you possibly cannot survive…
I was flabbergasted .. I didn’t see so much of postulation and hypothesis behind my meeting the management and then again, I didn’t know them as Anand knew them …
The power to ideate, fantasise and assume makes man different from other animals.. said Anand…
Shut up.. I said….. you sound like you are the next Ram here… why do you see only negative… ?
Well dude,,,,, what is a positive without a negative? He asked…
I didn’t reply… I couldn’t win him in arguments …
You cannot defeat me possibly by your tit for tat…. I still said …
I don’t have to…. said Anand… you are doing it yourself…
Anand always told me - not every smile springs from a smile… at GIM for various reasons, smiles looked like smiles for me and if at all I read between the lips, I read it wrong…
I was being moved in the chess board ..I saw kings and queens who planned and executed strategy.. I saw brave soldiers who fought and died battles for some one else… I heard a lot of sound and fury, saw a lot of blood and dust!
But what the hell was a joker doing in the chess board?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
GIM is back ...
After three months of silence that now looks strange to me, the GIM world is back.. read the new post here in some time...
Friday, September 25, 2009
The birthday boy - Part II
The debate wasn’t yet over! It had just begun ,but how would one predict the future at that point of time when from the Kings chamber people came out ,all in smiles and shaking hands…
It was not an angry sermonizing from the majesty’s side with all of us including the mighty samurais who fought, in thoughtful listening… the king took a “Look you are all professors, who am I to advise you” tone, which I thought showed him as shaken…
Professor Ram was asked to speak to which he said he was thankful( as if he was giving a thanks giving speech after having got the Best teacher award) and went on to describe how for Professor Mathew everything what others did, he did in particular,was wrong…
Everything? ......asked Jesus with a kid like face.. His black face was an abode of expressions and he was a first-rate actor..
One day Anand Mohan applied some body spray before he was walking to a class… said Ram…Prof Mathew shouted at him for that….
People looked into the oil tanker as if he was a gang rape accused sitting in the trial room..
Anand was sitting next to me and he nodded his head in acceptance.. yeah My HOD did that .. his nod said…
He makes fun of my articles and research papers and terms it well packed nonsense… said Ram, making the crowd laugh.. I am sure the terminology went well even with the king and his left and rights, as I could see a giggle running amok for a second and then bhoomm… evaporating…
Professor Mathew Cherian remained soundless, quite oddly, given his character he should have by now stood up and put another brawl…
It is a problem even if we have some loud talk.. said Ram, this time looking at me… I mean it is a faculty room; interactions are bound to happen… the management does not expect us the teachers to work in water tight compartments do you?
The management didn’t reply… did they expect us or didn’t they? No one said and Ram didn’t seem to expect a reply either….
The HOD looked like some one, a moron who despised people talking to each other, a tyrant who detested free flow of ideas, voice, noise and people, a despot who even hated the smell of denim..
“What a mischievous sprite!!!!” I was sure people would have branded him…
It was interesting… the whole process.. At GIM such things were new.. the fighting among the faculty was new because there was a common enemy always – the HQ – with whom every one fought at least in the war zones inside their own minds…. The trial was even more amusing where every one sat, people spoke and every one listened….
What you think will happen?...... Anand asked me…
I shrugged.. I missed my note pad where I expressed better than I did in my face…. I was not an evangelist after all!!!
I told you things will change… Apple cart is running…
This is not your change.. I ridiculed him… this is mere accidence...
Think before you talk Suk… Anand smiled… the fight was an accident, not the reaction to it…
He probably had a point…
What an amazing birthday for you dude.. he said and smiled ….
Professor Mathew refused to talk when he was asked to… I felt glad that he didn’t..the dirty me in me, giggled as the old man sat there ,oil dripping from his face , and with an odd feel of remorse and revenge in his face, like a strange cocktail that adventurous drunkards experiment with….
You should raise such issues in a proper forum Professor Ram.. said the VC pitching in… I hadn’t seen him for a long time in action, old age was catching up in his face and in his speech as well,,,, ……don’t you agree that it was a flaw on your side to have flared up on such minor irritants?
I thought Ram would explode yet again… Minor irritant is a term that would have made even me detonate.. Ram but remained smiling… He wasn’t the same Ram who reacted for everything in his own predictable way… no one was the same.. not even me… IS this the change that Anand talks about?
I guess this issue needs a serious attention… said Anand standing up and stirring my silent bucket of thoughts…
This fucker is so unpredictable, I thought….
He didn’t look like Moses the savior, he didn’t stand in a posture that made him look like David.. he was now bald and his frame much bony than that of the past…
This meeting is indication enough that the management is fully considerate of the consequences of what happened today… he said in clear tone that made every one listen….. under the roof of this great institution, under the eyes of our students, when teachers fight like street dogs…
He paused and looked at Dr Joseph the ED (who sat stressed beyond recovery) and said .. Even though I was answering to an accusation I think I went over board when I fought with you sir… I sincerely apologise…
Now this was the Googly…I always think that I knew this guy like the concepts of marketing that I teach and when I underline the thinking he mutates into something new…
He was still standing when I saw his eyes clogged and his words fell on the table like hot drops of blood…
This is a just a symptom, like bleeding nose for a cancer patient.. The sooner you detect the reason the better it is for the system…
Pain and more pain ripped through the faces in the room.. this was one of the instances where silence was a torture , more than words could ever portray ….
He had a smile as he sat, the pain in his eyes refusing to blend with, or even accept the smile in his lips…
I didn’t clearly see what happened next, I knew that Prof Ram had shook hands with Prof Mathew ..
I saw tears, I heard laughter and when I touched reality, Anand Mohan looked like David Copperfield, the Magician …
It was not an angry sermonizing from the majesty’s side with all of us including the mighty samurais who fought, in thoughtful listening… the king took a “Look you are all professors, who am I to advise you” tone, which I thought showed him as shaken…
Professor Ram was asked to speak to which he said he was thankful( as if he was giving a thanks giving speech after having got the Best teacher award) and went on to describe how for Professor Mathew everything what others did, he did in particular,was wrong…
Everything? ......asked Jesus with a kid like face.. His black face was an abode of expressions and he was a first-rate actor..
One day Anand Mohan applied some body spray before he was walking to a class… said Ram…Prof Mathew shouted at him for that….
People looked into the oil tanker as if he was a gang rape accused sitting in the trial room..
Anand was sitting next to me and he nodded his head in acceptance.. yeah My HOD did that .. his nod said…
He makes fun of my articles and research papers and terms it well packed nonsense… said Ram, making the crowd laugh.. I am sure the terminology went well even with the king and his left and rights, as I could see a giggle running amok for a second and then bhoomm… evaporating…
Professor Mathew Cherian remained soundless, quite oddly, given his character he should have by now stood up and put another brawl…
It is a problem even if we have some loud talk.. said Ram, this time looking at me… I mean it is a faculty room; interactions are bound to happen… the management does not expect us the teachers to work in water tight compartments do you?
The management didn’t reply… did they expect us or didn’t they? No one said and Ram didn’t seem to expect a reply either….
The HOD looked like some one, a moron who despised people talking to each other, a tyrant who detested free flow of ideas, voice, noise and people, a despot who even hated the smell of denim..
“What a mischievous sprite!!!!” I was sure people would have branded him…
It was interesting… the whole process.. At GIM such things were new.. the fighting among the faculty was new because there was a common enemy always – the HQ – with whom every one fought at least in the war zones inside their own minds…. The trial was even more amusing where every one sat, people spoke and every one listened….
What you think will happen?...... Anand asked me…
I shrugged.. I missed my note pad where I expressed better than I did in my face…. I was not an evangelist after all!!!
I told you things will change… Apple cart is running…
This is not your change.. I ridiculed him… this is mere accidence...
Think before you talk Suk… Anand smiled… the fight was an accident, not the reaction to it…
He probably had a point…
What an amazing birthday for you dude.. he said and smiled ….
Professor Mathew refused to talk when he was asked to… I felt glad that he didn’t..the dirty me in me, giggled as the old man sat there ,oil dripping from his face , and with an odd feel of remorse and revenge in his face, like a strange cocktail that adventurous drunkards experiment with….
You should raise such issues in a proper forum Professor Ram.. said the VC pitching in… I hadn’t seen him for a long time in action, old age was catching up in his face and in his speech as well,,,, ……don’t you agree that it was a flaw on your side to have flared up on such minor irritants?
I thought Ram would explode yet again… Minor irritant is a term that would have made even me detonate.. Ram but remained smiling… He wasn’t the same Ram who reacted for everything in his own predictable way… no one was the same.. not even me… IS this the change that Anand talks about?
I guess this issue needs a serious attention… said Anand standing up and stirring my silent bucket of thoughts…
This fucker is so unpredictable, I thought….
He didn’t look like Moses the savior, he didn’t stand in a posture that made him look like David.. he was now bald and his frame much bony than that of the past…
This meeting is indication enough that the management is fully considerate of the consequences of what happened today… he said in clear tone that made every one listen….. under the roof of this great institution, under the eyes of our students, when teachers fight like street dogs…
He paused and looked at Dr Joseph the ED (who sat stressed beyond recovery) and said .. Even though I was answering to an accusation I think I went over board when I fought with you sir… I sincerely apologise…
Now this was the Googly…I always think that I knew this guy like the concepts of marketing that I teach and when I underline the thinking he mutates into something new…
He was still standing when I saw his eyes clogged and his words fell on the table like hot drops of blood…
This is a just a symptom, like bleeding nose for a cancer patient.. The sooner you detect the reason the better it is for the system…
Pain and more pain ripped through the faces in the room.. this was one of the instances where silence was a torture , more than words could ever portray ….
He had a smile as he sat, the pain in his eyes refusing to blend with, or even accept the smile in his lips…
I didn’t clearly see what happened next, I knew that Prof Ram had shook hands with Prof Mathew ..
I saw tears, I heard laughter and when I touched reality, Anand Mohan looked like David Copperfield, the Magician …
Saturday, September 19, 2009
UFO>>>>!!!
I returned with a heavy heart, (well! a heavier heart) than I left when the King called me… petrified like a cattle in the meat shop I was in a dawdling crawl to the kings abode but in return I ran, literally… what happened there is but a different story altogether…
I returned to the faculty room to witness a huge noisy hubbub.. I could hear shouting from a corner and could hear Ram’s voice…I could see a crowd and that included some students..
You are an impossible psycho…....came up the voice of Prof Ram.. and you better get treated before you totally rot this place….
Now this was too much, I mean..... it was not at all a clue at the GIM faculty room…it could be any one on the other side.. almost every one there, could fit into that title...... Impossible psycho…
Do you know whom are you talking to…… I saw as I walked (or ran? ), the well oiled face of Prof Mathew Cherain, My HOD..
I hadn’t had any moment’s gap to think whom to support… I needed no gap to judge, in a flip of a second that it would be the oily jerk that would have created the ruckus…
I am the HOD.. screamed the man from his cabin.. he was shaking like a drunk facing a storm ….
The story is public …..retorted Ram in such big decibel that will put even airports to shame….… even the gate watcher knows how creeps like you make it to the top…
Dr Joseph , the ED was seen rushing from nowhere frenetically, seemingly to save his aide-de-camp … his face was more distorted than normal and had turned crimson…
He, looked like was called to fight the fire that was on…
What the hell are you all doing here? …. he shouted at us- the on lookers…Anand and me in the front row…
ED seemed to have forgotten that 'when shows are on, crowd will gather',,,,
People went back a little but stayed put, the show was so entertaining to let it go..
What is this ? ….I asked Anand hoping to hear the story from its beginning…I was like some one who walked into a cinema post interval... the climax wasn’t spicy without knowing how the story developed…
Will tell you… this was brewing for some time now.. said Anand with a wicked smile… volcanoes better erupt than hold back..
The HOD looked like an overflowing oil tank….. slipping and flowing now and then ,here and there.. worlds failing to match his fiery facial expressions…
Now this was new for me.. the most revered senior professor at GIM fighting with a greasy lunatic… when the one professional I adored, was in battle with a qualified schemer , I knew for sure who would be the reason…
What is his problem.. argued Ram with the ED who tried to pacify the war lords.. … why the hell he has to poke his nose into my affairs.. ?
And his dirty ass into almost every ones.. said Anand with a stupid grin…
I laughed and laughed a little loud…
The ED turned to us, leaving the battle front..
Now aren’t you ashamed..? he asked me and Anand.. you are enjoying this nonsense..…
We were startled, I mean I for sure was.. I didn’t had the time to see and analyse Anand and his face,,, I just didn’t get enough time to even form my defense before be jumped on us again…
Sir.. would you stop it… Anand raised his voice to the old man who looked like he was about to eat us alive… Now if YOU cannot control your colleagues fighting that is because YOU fed it.. YOU groomed and nurtured it.. That is your headache.. Don’t try to put a show on our expense.. You are no bloody KING here…
What? …..Taken aback, but not to give up the old man barked bizarrely like an angry dog would when thrown stones at it..… What did you say…?
The war front had changed… the crowd now got a new show to watch.. I don’t remember what Ram and Mathew Cherian did at that moment because in this new flank attack that Dr Joseph had opened, I was also a party…
I said what you heard.. said Anand smiling.. if the faculty are fighting and when you ask them to stop ,if they don’t stop, that is because you have given them the wrong leadership by example.. You have been impotent and incompetent as their boss… now just because you think we will obey and never question don’t try to attack us… the same guys who pay you ,pay us as well…isn’t that clear?
Dr Joseph and his red face look like a broken tomato.. Why not? ....Hit so hard, it had to smash…
Stunned stillness provided a strange background to this uncanny anti climax.. No one talked and every one retired to their cabins and pigeon holes, waiting for the next step…
I saw Dr Jesus coming in, I knew it was going to happen but compared to what I thought would happen, he went directly to Ram’s cabin .. Heads that didn’t dare to show up till then slowly came up..
Buzz… Anand came in my chat box online……
You don’t talk if we are called.. he wrote.. I will do the honours…
I knew he was quite disbelieving about my conversation skills in testing times, that too with the bosses…Anand had this.. he was always certain and cheerful.. may be that is why I wanted to be him ….
I had a smile while I waited…
We will have a meeting… announced Jesus after his talk with Prof Ram standing at the centre of the large room where the faculty sat, lived, played, shared jokes, gossiped, read, prepared, made cut copy and paste research and now fought as well … in another 10 minutes in the conference hall… I request all you ladies and gentlemen to be there…
He walked out with the intended pun looming at the troposphere and Jesus looked like an alien who just came out of a UFO that was parked in the garden outside…
The traces of my birthday cake were still lying scattered here and there, laughing at me and the whole system…
I returned to the faculty room to witness a huge noisy hubbub.. I could hear shouting from a corner and could hear Ram’s voice…I could see a crowd and that included some students..
You are an impossible psycho…....came up the voice of Prof Ram.. and you better get treated before you totally rot this place….
Now this was too much, I mean..... it was not at all a clue at the GIM faculty room…it could be any one on the other side.. almost every one there, could fit into that title...... Impossible psycho…
Do you know whom are you talking to…… I saw as I walked (or ran? ), the well oiled face of Prof Mathew Cherain, My HOD..
I hadn’t had any moment’s gap to think whom to support… I needed no gap to judge, in a flip of a second that it would be the oily jerk that would have created the ruckus…
I am the HOD.. screamed the man from his cabin.. he was shaking like a drunk facing a storm ….
The story is public …..retorted Ram in such big decibel that will put even airports to shame….… even the gate watcher knows how creeps like you make it to the top…
Dr Joseph , the ED was seen rushing from nowhere frenetically, seemingly to save his aide-de-camp … his face was more distorted than normal and had turned crimson…
He, looked like was called to fight the fire that was on…
What the hell are you all doing here? …. he shouted at us- the on lookers…Anand and me in the front row…
ED seemed to have forgotten that 'when shows are on, crowd will gather',,,,
People went back a little but stayed put, the show was so entertaining to let it go..
What is this ? ….I asked Anand hoping to hear the story from its beginning…I was like some one who walked into a cinema post interval... the climax wasn’t spicy without knowing how the story developed…
Will tell you… this was brewing for some time now.. said Anand with a wicked smile… volcanoes better erupt than hold back..
The HOD looked like an overflowing oil tank….. slipping and flowing now and then ,here and there.. worlds failing to match his fiery facial expressions…
Now this was new for me.. the most revered senior professor at GIM fighting with a greasy lunatic… when the one professional I adored, was in battle with a qualified schemer , I knew for sure who would be the reason…
What is his problem.. argued Ram with the ED who tried to pacify the war lords.. … why the hell he has to poke his nose into my affairs.. ?
And his dirty ass into almost every ones.. said Anand with a stupid grin…
I laughed and laughed a little loud…
The ED turned to us, leaving the battle front..
Now aren’t you ashamed..? he asked me and Anand.. you are enjoying this nonsense..…
We were startled, I mean I for sure was.. I didn’t had the time to see and analyse Anand and his face,,, I just didn’t get enough time to even form my defense before be jumped on us again…
Sir.. would you stop it… Anand raised his voice to the old man who looked like he was about to eat us alive… Now if YOU cannot control your colleagues fighting that is because YOU fed it.. YOU groomed and nurtured it.. That is your headache.. Don’t try to put a show on our expense.. You are no bloody KING here…
What? …..Taken aback, but not to give up the old man barked bizarrely like an angry dog would when thrown stones at it..… What did you say…?
The war front had changed… the crowd now got a new show to watch.. I don’t remember what Ram and Mathew Cherian did at that moment because in this new flank attack that Dr Joseph had opened, I was also a party…
I said what you heard.. said Anand smiling.. if the faculty are fighting and when you ask them to stop ,if they don’t stop, that is because you have given them the wrong leadership by example.. You have been impotent and incompetent as their boss… now just because you think we will obey and never question don’t try to attack us… the same guys who pay you ,pay us as well…isn’t that clear?
Dr Joseph and his red face look like a broken tomato.. Why not? ....Hit so hard, it had to smash…
Stunned stillness provided a strange background to this uncanny anti climax.. No one talked and every one retired to their cabins and pigeon holes, waiting for the next step…
I saw Dr Jesus coming in, I knew it was going to happen but compared to what I thought would happen, he went directly to Ram’s cabin .. Heads that didn’t dare to show up till then slowly came up..
Buzz… Anand came in my chat box online……
You don’t talk if we are called.. he wrote.. I will do the honours…
I knew he was quite disbelieving about my conversation skills in testing times, that too with the bosses…Anand had this.. he was always certain and cheerful.. may be that is why I wanted to be him ….
I had a smile while I waited…
We will have a meeting… announced Jesus after his talk with Prof Ram standing at the centre of the large room where the faculty sat, lived, played, shared jokes, gossiped, read, prepared, made cut copy and paste research and now fought as well … in another 10 minutes in the conference hall… I request all you ladies and gentlemen to be there…
He walked out with the intended pun looming at the troposphere and Jesus looked like an alien who just came out of a UFO that was parked in the garden outside…
The traces of my birthday cake were still lying scattered here and there, laughing at me and the whole system…
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The birthday boy - Part I
Why do we celebrate birthdays? ..... asked Anand while I was engrossed in that day's Business line….
It was my birthday and no one at GIM knew it…. now this question woke me up from the illusion that no one knew it…
I do not … I said unflappably …. So may be I wouldn’t know…
Anand laughed as he came and sat near to me in the common room.. it was the first tea break of the day and the faculty room was full of talk and laughter…
You didn’t answer me but ..insisted my friend…
I do not know… I think it is just to declare ones self importance.. existence… may be like brands advertise…
There you go… he said….. so GIM is implementing this new style of advertising from today…. The management would be hereafter celebrating its staff’s birthday officially…
I didn’t say a WOW but an awe escaped through my larger than proportionate mouth, to nowhere….
HR policies being reframed… said Anand with conviction looking at my 'not so appreciative' face… the change agent in him wouldn’t die…
By the way suk…. Happy birthday… he said and caught my hands... his eyes sparkled even though the doses of medicines and the therapy had made him a poor looking cousin of his past… you could have told me at least…
But I don’t… I protested feebly….
Happy birthday professor Sukesh… said someone from their cabin to my astonishment….. I saw Ram coming in and many others even as I tried to retire to my pigeon hole cabin…. I saw a group of office boys from the HQ coming in and taking the centre table at the sitting place and putting a larger canteen type table there with a white cloth over it… it looked like a drama set scene to scene transformation, from garden to the palace interiors and from the palace to the market place.. within seconds flowers came in… the king size chairs arrived and so did the king and his court… a large cake appeared on which my name was written ….I was caught in the fanfare, where people smiled ,made noise and rejoiced.. I still didn’t come to terms with the happening inside the faculty room that afternoon…
Anand was seen here and there among the crowd and as Jesus and Manohar came in there was a sudden silence…
Every one stood around the cake… And the King spoke,,,,,
Our employees are our friends… he said looking into the cake and then to each of our faces for a second each… here there are no superiors and sub ordinates…
The VC , ED and the others in the top management team nodded.. When the king spoke, they were all by habit attuned to this nodding no matter what he said….
I switched off and instead kept scanning the crowd.. most of them were surprised and shocked like me, some looked and stared at me as if I was hosting the show, still others seemed jealous at my propulsion to the centre of fame …. I knew that this would be the new game floor and I wasn’t prepared for that….
When the speech was over, Jesus said a prayer and after which I was asked to cut the cake… the first piece was stuffed into my mouth and then the creamy sticky mass was cut into smaller pieces and send around …
We all had had birthdays ..said some one sarcastically ,making sure that the top had left the room… but some are more equal than others…
I was in a smolder …. Pain and agony ran untamed as I sat in my cabin …
The tit bits and residuals of the cake was spread all over but my worry was the grimy looks and the puny faces that the whole show had left as residue…
Happy birthday sir… people kept on saying the whole day... students , staff, colleagues and others… in the lift , at the canteen , in the library and even at the toilet… I just wanted the day to be over soon.. the day when I had told Anand that I do not celebrate birthdays…
Professor Ram was waiting for me, walking nervously up and down outside my pigeon hole when I returned from the loo …
Why do you think, the lot again fell on you? .....he asked the moment he saw me….
I didn’t know… I was worried as well why I am the chosen one always… why I am again the first outsider who had the honor to have the king arrive and sing songs on his birthday,,,,,
Be careful… said Ram… I smell a rat in this sudden celebrity status …
Cats always smell rats.. I said to myself but tried to look cool.... I didn’t want Ram to know of my anguish….
There is a talk among the folks… said Ram…. I don’t know how far that is true…
Now that was too much for my garb to fall… my habiliment worn off and I stood like a naked beggar… he could see me raw but I didn’t know how I looked like..
I am sure I would have looked shocked…my face would have gone pale and blank.. my lips would have dried up… I could see that in Ram’s face…. A sort of a dirty glee appeared there…
Ram had this… he knew how to spin a yarn of suspense and clasp one in it…I was for sure caught in curiosity …
Jhansi Williams appeared on the back ground….
Sir you are wanted by the chairman .. she said and disappeared…
I didn’t look into Ram’s face , I just walked off tongue-tied….
It was my birthday and no one at GIM knew it…. now this question woke me up from the illusion that no one knew it…
I do not … I said unflappably …. So may be I wouldn’t know…
Anand laughed as he came and sat near to me in the common room.. it was the first tea break of the day and the faculty room was full of talk and laughter…
You didn’t answer me but ..insisted my friend…
I do not know… I think it is just to declare ones self importance.. existence… may be like brands advertise…
There you go… he said….. so GIM is implementing this new style of advertising from today…. The management would be hereafter celebrating its staff’s birthday officially…
I didn’t say a WOW but an awe escaped through my larger than proportionate mouth, to nowhere….
HR policies being reframed… said Anand with conviction looking at my 'not so appreciative' face… the change agent in him wouldn’t die…
By the way suk…. Happy birthday… he said and caught my hands... his eyes sparkled even though the doses of medicines and the therapy had made him a poor looking cousin of his past… you could have told me at least…
But I don’t… I protested feebly….
Happy birthday professor Sukesh… said someone from their cabin to my astonishment….. I saw Ram coming in and many others even as I tried to retire to my pigeon hole cabin…. I saw a group of office boys from the HQ coming in and taking the centre table at the sitting place and putting a larger canteen type table there with a white cloth over it… it looked like a drama set scene to scene transformation, from garden to the palace interiors and from the palace to the market place.. within seconds flowers came in… the king size chairs arrived and so did the king and his court… a large cake appeared on which my name was written ….I was caught in the fanfare, where people smiled ,made noise and rejoiced.. I still didn’t come to terms with the happening inside the faculty room that afternoon…
Anand was seen here and there among the crowd and as Jesus and Manohar came in there was a sudden silence…
Every one stood around the cake… And the King spoke,,,,,
Our employees are our friends… he said looking into the cake and then to each of our faces for a second each… here there are no superiors and sub ordinates…
The VC , ED and the others in the top management team nodded.. When the king spoke, they were all by habit attuned to this nodding no matter what he said….
I switched off and instead kept scanning the crowd.. most of them were surprised and shocked like me, some looked and stared at me as if I was hosting the show, still others seemed jealous at my propulsion to the centre of fame …. I knew that this would be the new game floor and I wasn’t prepared for that….
When the speech was over, Jesus said a prayer and after which I was asked to cut the cake… the first piece was stuffed into my mouth and then the creamy sticky mass was cut into smaller pieces and send around …
We all had had birthdays ..said some one sarcastically ,making sure that the top had left the room… but some are more equal than others…
I was in a smolder …. Pain and agony ran untamed as I sat in my cabin …
The tit bits and residuals of the cake was spread all over but my worry was the grimy looks and the puny faces that the whole show had left as residue…
Happy birthday sir… people kept on saying the whole day... students , staff, colleagues and others… in the lift , at the canteen , in the library and even at the toilet… I just wanted the day to be over soon.. the day when I had told Anand that I do not celebrate birthdays…
Professor Ram was waiting for me, walking nervously up and down outside my pigeon hole when I returned from the loo …
Why do you think, the lot again fell on you? .....he asked the moment he saw me….
I didn’t know… I was worried as well why I am the chosen one always… why I am again the first outsider who had the honor to have the king arrive and sing songs on his birthday,,,,,
Be careful… said Ram… I smell a rat in this sudden celebrity status …
Cats always smell rats.. I said to myself but tried to look cool.... I didn’t want Ram to know of my anguish….
There is a talk among the folks… said Ram…. I don’t know how far that is true…
Now that was too much for my garb to fall… my habiliment worn off and I stood like a naked beggar… he could see me raw but I didn’t know how I looked like..
I am sure I would have looked shocked…my face would have gone pale and blank.. my lips would have dried up… I could see that in Ram’s face…. A sort of a dirty glee appeared there…
Ram had this… he knew how to spin a yarn of suspense and clasp one in it…I was for sure caught in curiosity …
Jhansi Williams appeared on the back ground….
Sir you are wanted by the chairman .. she said and disappeared…
I didn’t look into Ram’s face , I just walked off tongue-tied….
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Experiential humbug- part II
After the flop show of the alumni meet, no heads rolled, no fault finding missions were launched where oily faces and dirty giggles sat around and passed the buck.......
The father, the son and their holy spirits were all too benevolent on women....even when they erred and screwed up royally, they were treated with chivalry.....
Sri Laxmi was as young as the guys and girls who passed out in hundreds from GIM every year; some were even older than she was….. As the convener, she was taken non seriously by insiders and outsiders and the alumni… That was mistake number one ....
She took it lightly (worse!) and assumed that at GIM the HQ will take care of and she will just have to smile, shake hands with the hundreds that will throng the meet and deliver speeches and sound very nostalgic…That was mistake number two…
No one communicated properly to the alumni, some were invited, some were not, some got long mails, some got short ones, and the data base was to be blamed. No one ever FOUND OUT that it was not the alumni’s job the make and maintain a proper data base.. That was mistake number three….
And people hated GIM, most of them who left GIM would never want to come back ,no matter how beautiful and young was the convenor who invited was .. her starry eyes could not that easily replace the horror that they lived in their eyes... no one realised it and that was mistake number four....
Why the hell…? ....
I threw the note pad on which I was jotting down the reasons why the meet failed… no one blamed anyone, worse no one talked about it and the day next was just another day, except for the welcome banners that hung here and there and the gloomy faced students who were made to sit a whole day listening to dreary discourses and self eulogy ……but then gloom in there faces was an everyday phenomenon like the deep fried banana's in the GIM canteen...
So the conclusion is that when the inspection team is here we all should together work for the accreditation….team work matters…… it’s our common dream… said Dr Joseph…
Anand sat next to me in the conference hall and seemingly knew that I had left my body there and my mind was wandering….
He smiled and wrote on my note pad… GIM is trying international accreditation…The team is coming…. Another show to be put up…
I woke up to the real world from my one man commission ,finding fault with why the alumni meet bombed like a big fart and yet why it didn’t smell ….
Is it?....... I asked loud in a fit of fury mixed with anxiety topped with suspicion and seasoned with apathy,,,,,
Dr Joseph stopped his speech and paused for a second before asking… Yeah it is Professor Sukesh… Why? ....... you have any doubts…?
No sir… I muttered… I couldn’t tell him that it was just a co incidence and I was not replying to his insincere blather on team work…
He went back and listed on what was to be done by each faculty and others when the team comes calling...…
I could hear the likes of Prof Ram and others (who still thought of change and change agents) debating, suggesting, fighting, compromising, convincing, and arguing from the front rows..
I could see women (most of them the juniors) looking bored and worn-out from this cacophony to which they had no reason to connect to....
I could smell acids from hungry stomachs… it was a typically atypical sight…
I could feel team work…. Two teams were in action – the actives and the passives…
Every meeting in the conference room of GIM had this setting.. Half the crowd spoke.. the other half didn’t, the management will have a set agenda, which will remain intact after all the debate and disagreement which the first half will be bothered and the unconnected second half will not be, the first half would look into the clock and their watches wanting more time for the meeting, the second half would do the same but in desperation to flee…
Hungry Kya ? … Anand asked me…
It was about 1 pm and the hard sunny day it was ,I had a huge appetite …
Dominos? ... I asked in reply and we both laughed….
It seems Professor Sukesh Menon and Prof Anand Mohan has something valuable to contribute… suddenly said Dr Joseph (who noticed that we were not listening to his talk).
I was taken aback by this googly… it was unexpected….
Very true sir… announced Anand as he stood up….. I was even more shocked by this response…
I just have one question… what is new? said Anand....
What? .... Dr Joseph asked portentously….
This is like a school play enacted year after year… for those who have been here during the last visit by the same commission, it is the same…. The plot… the characters and even the dialogues… announced Anand with the same charm and power with which he had stood up like Moses the saviour, the last time when such a meeting was held.....
I didn’t hear the roar of the red sea this time…but could see the blue faces on the stage…..
The women (still unconnected) stared at Anand who stood there,waiting for an answer….
I flashed a smile…. At Anand and then to the ED’s face which had turned Red from Blue…..
Bloody bastards … he seemed to have said…
Same to you ,you ugly rotten creep… I said with impunity…
The father, the son and their holy spirits were all too benevolent on women....even when they erred and screwed up royally, they were treated with chivalry.....
Sri Laxmi was as young as the guys and girls who passed out in hundreds from GIM every year; some were even older than she was….. As the convener, she was taken non seriously by insiders and outsiders and the alumni… That was mistake number one ....
She took it lightly (worse!) and assumed that at GIM the HQ will take care of and she will just have to smile, shake hands with the hundreds that will throng the meet and deliver speeches and sound very nostalgic…That was mistake number two…
No one communicated properly to the alumni, some were invited, some were not, some got long mails, some got short ones, and the data base was to be blamed. No one ever FOUND OUT that it was not the alumni’s job the make and maintain a proper data base.. That was mistake number three….
And people hated GIM, most of them who left GIM would never want to come back ,no matter how beautiful and young was the convenor who invited was .. her starry eyes could not that easily replace the horror that they lived in their eyes... no one realised it and that was mistake number four....
Why the hell…? ....
I threw the note pad on which I was jotting down the reasons why the meet failed… no one blamed anyone, worse no one talked about it and the day next was just another day, except for the welcome banners that hung here and there and the gloomy faced students who were made to sit a whole day listening to dreary discourses and self eulogy ……but then gloom in there faces was an everyday phenomenon like the deep fried banana's in the GIM canteen...
So the conclusion is that when the inspection team is here we all should together work for the accreditation….team work matters…… it’s our common dream… said Dr Joseph…
Anand sat next to me in the conference hall and seemingly knew that I had left my body there and my mind was wandering….
He smiled and wrote on my note pad… GIM is trying international accreditation…The team is coming…. Another show to be put up…
I woke up to the real world from my one man commission ,finding fault with why the alumni meet bombed like a big fart and yet why it didn’t smell ….
Is it?....... I asked loud in a fit of fury mixed with anxiety topped with suspicion and seasoned with apathy,,,,,
Dr Joseph stopped his speech and paused for a second before asking… Yeah it is Professor Sukesh… Why? ....... you have any doubts…?
No sir… I muttered… I couldn’t tell him that it was just a co incidence and I was not replying to his insincere blather on team work…
He went back and listed on what was to be done by each faculty and others when the team comes calling...…
I could hear the likes of Prof Ram and others (who still thought of change and change agents) debating, suggesting, fighting, compromising, convincing, and arguing from the front rows..
I could see women (most of them the juniors) looking bored and worn-out from this cacophony to which they had no reason to connect to....
I could smell acids from hungry stomachs… it was a typically atypical sight…
I could feel team work…. Two teams were in action – the actives and the passives…
Every meeting in the conference room of GIM had this setting.. Half the crowd spoke.. the other half didn’t, the management will have a set agenda, which will remain intact after all the debate and disagreement which the first half will be bothered and the unconnected second half will not be, the first half would look into the clock and their watches wanting more time for the meeting, the second half would do the same but in desperation to flee…
Hungry Kya ? … Anand asked me…
It was about 1 pm and the hard sunny day it was ,I had a huge appetite …
Dominos? ... I asked in reply and we both laughed….
It seems Professor Sukesh Menon and Prof Anand Mohan has something valuable to contribute… suddenly said Dr Joseph (who noticed that we were not listening to his talk).
I was taken aback by this googly… it was unexpected….
Very true sir… announced Anand as he stood up….. I was even more shocked by this response…
I just have one question… what is new? said Anand....
What? .... Dr Joseph asked portentously….
This is like a school play enacted year after year… for those who have been here during the last visit by the same commission, it is the same…. The plot… the characters and even the dialogues… announced Anand with the same charm and power with which he had stood up like Moses the saviour, the last time when such a meeting was held.....
I didn’t hear the roar of the red sea this time…but could see the blue faces on the stage…..
The women (still unconnected) stared at Anand who stood there,waiting for an answer….
I flashed a smile…. At Anand and then to the ED’s face which had turned Red from Blue…..
Bloody bastards … he seemed to have said…
Same to you ,you ugly rotten creep… I said with impunity…
Monday, July 20, 2009
the home coming !!!
Anand and his home coming went unnoticed in the hullabaloo of the alumni meet. After the initial pleasantries, he went straight to the auditorium where he sat with the other teachers who were not seemingly perturbed by the scant attendance of the alumni in the alumni meet.
Prof Ram was seen walking in between the front rows cracking jokes and pulling legs and big laughter was heard. I preferred to stay out, not because I didn’t want to be part of the fun, but because I was in the reception team and my place was at the huge portico, where Dr Joy’s large photograph hung, with a smile. There was not a big turn around to receive and when my team told me that totally 6 people had registered it was ten minute past 9 30 and the prayer song could be heard.
Dr Joy had nothing much to say except the things which he says everywhere he has a captive audience and every time he is given a mike,,,,,,
No wonder why people don’t turn out…. Said some one in my team and the rest of them giggled… I feigned to be deaf and preferred to walk up and down the long corridors of GIM……
Unfettered and unafraid I was for I was sure that the cameras were'nt seeing me, with the top brass locked in the hall where the King was waxing eloquent on how and why alumni should maintain good relations with its alma matter. Nothing, I heard about the other way round… Nothing I heard about why for any B school, its alumni was one of its building blocks… He would have known it, but it was his trait, and that ran in the entire family …. Outdated and arcane they may be for the others, but sacred and hallowed for him.
Lucky you… said an SMS from Anand… you are saved from this ordeal…..
I didn’t reply, I smiled and returned to the reception table where the girls in my team started reading some film magazine which they produced from no where (GIM taught this- planning to perfection) and the guys cruised in their mobile phones and other gadgets which they could use inside the campus only for that day just because they are in the organizing team.
Is this the alumni meet reception? ....asked some one suddenly, whom none of us had noticed walking in…
There stood a guy, small and lean with top-heavy lanky legs, and outsized specs occupying a large part of his small face. He looked tense and looked here and there with fear, suspicion and angst …
He sure was an alumnus of GIM!!!
Welcome …. I said with a smile, which he would never have seen at GIM….
He shook hands quite diffidently ….
My team got into action as a team of starved hyenas has got its prey… He gave me his business card which read
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra
Vice President-Operations
Barclays bankPLC
1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
United Kingdom
I looked again into his face, the large specs trying to hide his large sparkling eyes but I could see success, a sea roaring inside the small frame of the guy who looked more like a comedian than a hero.
Please come in..................... I led him to the hall where Dr Joseph,the ED was behind the mike, laughing at his own joke and the audience as usual refusing to share his grubby giggle.
I took the guest to the two rows where the 6 or 7 alumni sat scattered and apparently jaded…
The programme had just started and yet!!! GIM was good at this again, to bore people to the core…
Seeing the guy, Dr Jesus came rushing from his seat, and hugged him as if he got back his long lost brother…
I saw the old guard of GIM hurrying to cuddle ,clasp and clinch the small frame of the visitor…
I noticed silence on the stage where Dr Joseph waited for the drama to be over to continue with his boring speech. Murmur spread in the crowd, largely students in their formal attire, blazers and ties and all the gear…..
I stood there unable to decide what to do next… leave the hapless guy to the merciless hugging crowd of GIM or take him to his seat so that moron on stage could resume his sermon….
It is his fate… I pacified myself as I walked out from the large intimidating hall to even large corridors of GIM …
The guys of my team joined me in my canteen trip while I asked the girls to stay back to receive some one incase they come…
Why is it sir, such a low turnout?..... One of the kids asked me in canteen…
I paused, took a break from my banana fry and hot tea… the question was simple but the answer was not… I mean, as a teacher at GIM I couldn’t and wouldn’t discuss with them the issues that really made people refuse to come back to their alma matter….
Would you come back if we call you..Say two years from now..? I asked him a counter question, in an attempt to pass the monkey….
He laughed and didn’t shrink as I thought he would… instead he chuckled…
To be frank Sukesh sir… said another guy …none of us want to…
I looked at the guys face where audacity ran amok… it was a rare sight in GIM …
We just want to leave this place, for whatever good that this place has done to us…said another one even as the first guy still cackled….
It wasn’t breaking news for me for sure… GIM was tough to its kids… discipline in a strange form ruled the place and was applied in disproportionate quantities among students… all were equal but some were more equal than others….
I guess, with me that day I had a group of just EQUAL guys;;;;
My mobile vibrated…
A message
Anand mohan
Suk… were ru… come and listen… alumni and their plain speak….
I didn’t want to sit and listen to discourses which had no sense of reality but now it seems the season of plain speaking had arrived…
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra was on stage when I went into the hall with my entire team….we stood at the darkness of the back rows… discipline and decorum largely never reached the dimness of the back rows…
I mean we hated this place so much so that we even had a count down calendar in our hostel rooms… the speaker said to a stunned audience… I didn’t know who all where there in the front rows but was sure shocked at the first sentence that fell on my ears. I could see sparkle in the eyes of the guys who had told me the same, in the canteen some five minutes back.
I mean the pressure that GIM put on us was so tremendous and so merciless that I was sure that GIM would never make it into my list of fond memories… he went on in a strange baritone that was a mix of all emotions… he choked, and yet he was smiling, he didn’t look the same weak frame that walked in to the GIM main building some time back….
My guys flashed a smile.. See- we- told- you grin, I must say …
But when we went on to face life, I must now admit that the pressures that we got used to here made life look simple… no bias was a bias, sleep less nights weren’t enough, no shouting was a shouting and surprises usually didn’t work with us…. and no waiting was waiting we have done it enough outside the directors rooms here,,,…. Thanks to GIM,,,,
............He said even as a half reluctant crowd semi applauded as if they didn’t quite knew what to do…
I have not come back to praise GIM… it could go a long way… this meet may be the first step…and with my appreciation let me also share my admiration to whoever has conceived this impossibility….
when I am back here I remember the old song which said....
You're that innocence
That serenity.....That long lost part of me
You're like a Sunday morning, pleasin' my eyes...
You're a mid-summer's dream under a star-soaked sky...
That peaceful, easy feelin' at the end of a long, long road..
Oh, you're like comin' home
The words were simple but had tremendous power.. it went around the hall, reverberated and landed like an atom bomb....
The crowd applauded, this time in full measure as I walked out and saw Anand in the corridor….
Appreciation, admiration… ahem ahem… I said as I hugged him…
How I hope..he said looking at the large smiling image of the king…. this guys realized that it is not brick and mortar that makes organizations…
Prof Ram was seen walking in between the front rows cracking jokes and pulling legs and big laughter was heard. I preferred to stay out, not because I didn’t want to be part of the fun, but because I was in the reception team and my place was at the huge portico, where Dr Joy’s large photograph hung, with a smile. There was not a big turn around to receive and when my team told me that totally 6 people had registered it was ten minute past 9 30 and the prayer song could be heard.
Dr Joy had nothing much to say except the things which he says everywhere he has a captive audience and every time he is given a mike,,,,,,
No wonder why people don’t turn out…. Said some one in my team and the rest of them giggled… I feigned to be deaf and preferred to walk up and down the long corridors of GIM……
Unfettered and unafraid I was for I was sure that the cameras were'nt seeing me, with the top brass locked in the hall where the King was waxing eloquent on how and why alumni should maintain good relations with its alma matter. Nothing, I heard about the other way round… Nothing I heard about why for any B school, its alumni was one of its building blocks… He would have known it, but it was his trait, and that ran in the entire family …. Outdated and arcane they may be for the others, but sacred and hallowed for him.
Lucky you… said an SMS from Anand… you are saved from this ordeal…..
I didn’t reply, I smiled and returned to the reception table where the girls in my team started reading some film magazine which they produced from no where (GIM taught this- planning to perfection) and the guys cruised in their mobile phones and other gadgets which they could use inside the campus only for that day just because they are in the organizing team.
Is this the alumni meet reception? ....asked some one suddenly, whom none of us had noticed walking in…
There stood a guy, small and lean with top-heavy lanky legs, and outsized specs occupying a large part of his small face. He looked tense and looked here and there with fear, suspicion and angst …
He sure was an alumnus of GIM!!!
Welcome …. I said with a smile, which he would never have seen at GIM….
He shook hands quite diffidently ….
My team got into action as a team of starved hyenas has got its prey… He gave me his business card which read
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra
Vice President-Operations
Barclays bankPLC
1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
United Kingdom
I looked again into his face, the large specs trying to hide his large sparkling eyes but I could see success, a sea roaring inside the small frame of the guy who looked more like a comedian than a hero.
Please come in..................... I led him to the hall where Dr Joseph,the ED was behind the mike, laughing at his own joke and the audience as usual refusing to share his grubby giggle.
I took the guest to the two rows where the 6 or 7 alumni sat scattered and apparently jaded…
The programme had just started and yet!!! GIM was good at this again, to bore people to the core…
Seeing the guy, Dr Jesus came rushing from his seat, and hugged him as if he got back his long lost brother…
I saw the old guard of GIM hurrying to cuddle ,clasp and clinch the small frame of the visitor…
I noticed silence on the stage where Dr Joseph waited for the drama to be over to continue with his boring speech. Murmur spread in the crowd, largely students in their formal attire, blazers and ties and all the gear…..
I stood there unable to decide what to do next… leave the hapless guy to the merciless hugging crowd of GIM or take him to his seat so that moron on stage could resume his sermon….
It is his fate… I pacified myself as I walked out from the large intimidating hall to even large corridors of GIM …
The guys of my team joined me in my canteen trip while I asked the girls to stay back to receive some one incase they come…
Why is it sir, such a low turnout?..... One of the kids asked me in canteen…
I paused, took a break from my banana fry and hot tea… the question was simple but the answer was not… I mean, as a teacher at GIM I couldn’t and wouldn’t discuss with them the issues that really made people refuse to come back to their alma matter….
Would you come back if we call you..Say two years from now..? I asked him a counter question, in an attempt to pass the monkey….
He laughed and didn’t shrink as I thought he would… instead he chuckled…
To be frank Sukesh sir… said another guy …none of us want to…
I looked at the guys face where audacity ran amok… it was a rare sight in GIM …
We just want to leave this place, for whatever good that this place has done to us…said another one even as the first guy still cackled….
It wasn’t breaking news for me for sure… GIM was tough to its kids… discipline in a strange form ruled the place and was applied in disproportionate quantities among students… all were equal but some were more equal than others….
I guess, with me that day I had a group of just EQUAL guys;;;;
My mobile vibrated…
A message
Anand mohan
Suk… were ru… come and listen… alumni and their plain speak….
I didn’t want to sit and listen to discourses which had no sense of reality but now it seems the season of plain speaking had arrived…
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra was on stage when I went into the hall with my entire team….we stood at the darkness of the back rows… discipline and decorum largely never reached the dimness of the back rows…
I mean we hated this place so much so that we even had a count down calendar in our hostel rooms… the speaker said to a stunned audience… I didn’t know who all where there in the front rows but was sure shocked at the first sentence that fell on my ears. I could see sparkle in the eyes of the guys who had told me the same, in the canteen some five minutes back.
I mean the pressure that GIM put on us was so tremendous and so merciless that I was sure that GIM would never make it into my list of fond memories… he went on in a strange baritone that was a mix of all emotions… he choked, and yet he was smiling, he didn’t look the same weak frame that walked in to the GIM main building some time back….
My guys flashed a smile.. See- we- told- you grin, I must say …
But when we went on to face life, I must now admit that the pressures that we got used to here made life look simple… no bias was a bias, sleep less nights weren’t enough, no shouting was a shouting and surprises usually didn’t work with us…. and no waiting was waiting we have done it enough outside the directors rooms here,,,…. Thanks to GIM,,,,
............He said even as a half reluctant crowd semi applauded as if they didn’t quite knew what to do…
I have not come back to praise GIM… it could go a long way… this meet may be the first step…and with my appreciation let me also share my admiration to whoever has conceived this impossibility….
when I am back here I remember the old song which said....
You're that innocence
That serenity.....That long lost part of me
You're like a Sunday morning, pleasin' my eyes...
You're a mid-summer's dream under a star-soaked sky...
That peaceful, easy feelin' at the end of a long, long road..
Oh, you're like comin' home
The words were simple but had tremendous power.. it went around the hall, reverberated and landed like an atom bomb....
The crowd applauded, this time in full measure as I walked out and saw Anand in the corridor….
Appreciation, admiration… ahem ahem… I said as I hugged him…
How I hope..he said looking at the large smiling image of the king…. this guys realized that it is not brick and mortar that makes organizations…
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Sound of Silence !
Anand , called me when I came out of the Kings Chamber to inform of his plan to come back to GIM .I saluted the man for his spirit for I knew that he still had traces of the disease that dreaded him, left on his face and body. His hair had all gone, his skin lost its texture, but he was Anand, as gleeful and spirited as ever,,,, he still had time to recuperate but he wanted to join back.
Back in the faculty room when frowning faces flowed with a strange silence setting the tone as if announcing an impending disaster and I still smiling and walking around in confidence having defeated the other team in the first round, Sri Laxmi called me to the canteen….I could see ED and the HOD closeted, and regrouping as would a group of injured animals. I preferred not to see it when I walked out but the my eyes captured the image before I joined Sri Laxmi who was waiting…
She was looking too very feminine that day.. she always had it -the effeminate effulgence but her vibrancy often hid it… That day but she wore timidity over her beauty and stood in the garden waiting for me….
Your man is coming back… I said with glee… you should be jumping with joy….
She didn’t smile, instead she told me how sad she was for his new looks…
The charm of a man is in his character… I said as if I really believed it... I knew that for some one like her, his looks also mattered…Why her? Looks did matter….
I know that Sukesh sir… she said as we got into the canteen hall which was empty and lifeless.
We sat in a corner table after ordering our regular stuff.
Then what is it that you don’t know?... I asked…
My parents now want me to marry some one else… she said with a drop of tear oozing out of her eyes that spoke volumes…
And what do you want to do..? I didn’t wait to ask….
I value my relations more than anything else… she said…
I still didn’t get my answer… not that I didn’t know that when wanted, women had this unique ability to talk symbolisms but then I wanted her to tell me directly…
She didn’t….
Don’t tell me that it’s your parents who decide… I said sarcastically
I do it … and Anand is mine..she said smiling even when her eyes drizzled…
Uffff … I sighed… then what is the problem….?
She went into silence again…I preferred to remain the same..
When I couldn’t understand her silence, what will I do with her words…?
I am the new alumni relationship co ordinator… she told me as I gobbled banana fries that was one of the very few experiences that people at GIM would love to come back for.
May be they know how much you VALUE your relations… I said with a laugh…. Right person for the right job....personality job fit theory…
She showed her naughty face…
And for the alumni meet next week they have made you the co coordinator now… I got amused… with just a week to go…?
And you didn’t ask why me?... she laughed… I haven’t completed even a batch of teaching and I am the chosen one,,,
May be the King and co thinks its good that way… you don’t know them and they don’t know you… it’s a great way to kick start a relation… I said…
She beamed ,her clean and well placed rows of teeth in display … She could have been in acting, I thought….
I kept wondering at this ability of women to swing their mood as they pleased…
I also kept thinking that if for the alumni meet, the former students didn’t turn up in expected numbers; will she be plotted against?
May be it was just a paradox that Anand came back to GIM, the day when GIM at last decided to hold its first Alumni meet. It was Anand’s brain child that the meet finally took shape and against all odds and 101 reasons that the eccentric management of GIM had against such an idea. I remember how tough it was for the guy with denim smell to go from cabin to cabin and convince every jug head as to how and why it is important for a B School to cultivate its alumni and have good relations with them…
Anand walked slowly from his car and I ran towards him at the first sight. I was in the reception committee of the alumni meet and our job was to stand at the portico and register the names of the alumnus who will grace the occasion. The guys and girls of my team were all well set, well dressed and well behaved… roses and incense were in place, sweets to honour the guests who came back to their alma matter hence nostalgic, and a lot of smiles glittered… Every one smiled, even the ED and the HOD (God knows WHY!!!!)
It looked perfect and every single element was there except the alumni… None of them turned up and it was about 9 30, just half an hour to the show where Dr Joy will light the lamp and tell the GATHERING how important for GIM its ALUMNUS were…
With no one to receive, garland and give sweets to, my team got tired, their smiles disappeared .. the girls in particular seemed regretting for all the efforts that they have taken in improving their looks, having gone vain…
That was the moment when I saw Anand, walking from the canteen side, after parking his car. He wasn’t the same in elegance, he walked frail, looked thinner than I saw him last at his home and wore a cap to keep away glaring eyes from his bald head. When he shook hands and when I hugged him but, I felt relieved… a lot of my pressure oozed out…. He still had the smell of denim and the smell of a winner…
How’s the operation applecart going? He asked me with a smile that had all the charm that was entirely his…
I guess I have upset the whole applecart.. I said even as we walked to the main building of GIM….
He stood there for a minute and said… hey Suk....the key to change,is to let go of your fear….
I stood there even as he walked, and by the time I realised that I was standing there alone, the music had begun ….
So much of sound and yet a lot of silence ....
The show had begun ….
Back in the faculty room when frowning faces flowed with a strange silence setting the tone as if announcing an impending disaster and I still smiling and walking around in confidence having defeated the other team in the first round, Sri Laxmi called me to the canteen….I could see ED and the HOD closeted, and regrouping as would a group of injured animals. I preferred not to see it when I walked out but the my eyes captured the image before I joined Sri Laxmi who was waiting…
She was looking too very feminine that day.. she always had it -the effeminate effulgence but her vibrancy often hid it… That day but she wore timidity over her beauty and stood in the garden waiting for me….
Your man is coming back… I said with glee… you should be jumping with joy….
She didn’t smile, instead she told me how sad she was for his new looks…
The charm of a man is in his character… I said as if I really believed it... I knew that for some one like her, his looks also mattered…Why her? Looks did matter….
I know that Sukesh sir… she said as we got into the canteen hall which was empty and lifeless.
We sat in a corner table after ordering our regular stuff.
Then what is it that you don’t know?... I asked…
My parents now want me to marry some one else… she said with a drop of tear oozing out of her eyes that spoke volumes…
And what do you want to do..? I didn’t wait to ask….
I value my relations more than anything else… she said…
I still didn’t get my answer… not that I didn’t know that when wanted, women had this unique ability to talk symbolisms but then I wanted her to tell me directly…
She didn’t….
Don’t tell me that it’s your parents who decide… I said sarcastically
I do it … and Anand is mine..she said smiling even when her eyes drizzled…
Uffff … I sighed… then what is the problem….?
She went into silence again…I preferred to remain the same..
When I couldn’t understand her silence, what will I do with her words…?
I am the new alumni relationship co ordinator… she told me as I gobbled banana fries that was one of the very few experiences that people at GIM would love to come back for.
May be they know how much you VALUE your relations… I said with a laugh…. Right person for the right job....personality job fit theory…
She showed her naughty face…
And for the alumni meet next week they have made you the co coordinator now… I got amused… with just a week to go…?
And you didn’t ask why me?... she laughed… I haven’t completed even a batch of teaching and I am the chosen one,,,
May be the King and co thinks its good that way… you don’t know them and they don’t know you… it’s a great way to kick start a relation… I said…
She beamed ,her clean and well placed rows of teeth in display … She could have been in acting, I thought….
I kept wondering at this ability of women to swing their mood as they pleased…
I also kept thinking that if for the alumni meet, the former students didn’t turn up in expected numbers; will she be plotted against?
May be it was just a paradox that Anand came back to GIM, the day when GIM at last decided to hold its first Alumni meet. It was Anand’s brain child that the meet finally took shape and against all odds and 101 reasons that the eccentric management of GIM had against such an idea. I remember how tough it was for the guy with denim smell to go from cabin to cabin and convince every jug head as to how and why it is important for a B School to cultivate its alumni and have good relations with them…
Anand walked slowly from his car and I ran towards him at the first sight. I was in the reception committee of the alumni meet and our job was to stand at the portico and register the names of the alumnus who will grace the occasion. The guys and girls of my team were all well set, well dressed and well behaved… roses and incense were in place, sweets to honour the guests who came back to their alma matter hence nostalgic, and a lot of smiles glittered… Every one smiled, even the ED and the HOD (God knows WHY!!!!)
It looked perfect and every single element was there except the alumni… None of them turned up and it was about 9 30, just half an hour to the show where Dr Joy will light the lamp and tell the GATHERING how important for GIM its ALUMNUS were…
With no one to receive, garland and give sweets to, my team got tired, their smiles disappeared .. the girls in particular seemed regretting for all the efforts that they have taken in improving their looks, having gone vain…
That was the moment when I saw Anand, walking from the canteen side, after parking his car. He wasn’t the same in elegance, he walked frail, looked thinner than I saw him last at his home and wore a cap to keep away glaring eyes from his bald head. When he shook hands and when I hugged him but, I felt relieved… a lot of my pressure oozed out…. He still had the smell of denim and the smell of a winner…
How’s the operation applecart going? He asked me with a smile that had all the charm that was entirely his…
I guess I have upset the whole applecart.. I said even as we walked to the main building of GIM….
He stood there for a minute and said… hey Suk....the key to change,is to let go of your fear….
I stood there even as he walked, and by the time I realised that I was standing there alone, the music had begun ….
So much of sound and yet a lot of silence ....
The show had begun ….
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Experiential Humbug- Part I
At GIM one could hear of reforms quite often and I was party to one of the programmes that aimed at changing the GIM system..but the problem at GIM was that it was peculiarly bureaucratic…. It all started with good intentions and began well but as the old saying goes, the smallest deed is better than the grandest intention and it often got screwed at various levels. The same happened with the EMEP show..
The great Experiential Management Education Programme- the brain child of the ice cool HQ chambers, which the likes of Prof Ram called as Humbug, which the audacity of Anand had prompted me to take up as the great opportunity, which fell on me as a result of God-knows-who’s – plot, which got to start with a lot of trumpet blast and display just to die a sudden death as corporate theatres and debate sessions gave way to the academic pressures … As Ram had put it “when we don’t have sufficient time to finish classes you should have known that this will become a burden for you….” Easier said than done… HUH!!!
When the day the top brass called me finally to announce the death of the EMEP programme which they put it as “shelving for the time being” and the outsider that I was, I was the last one to be formally told. Every one else discussed it, laughed at it (in secrecy of course) and passed stupid grins at me as if I was a criminal caught with illicit liquor.
Jesus and Manohar sat next to next in the King’s chamber where I was summoned. VC and his files were in attendance and so were a couple of senior Professors. Ram was missing but Dr Joseph the ED was there as the Snowy dog of the Tintin series, present in every frame.
Every time I stepped into the larger than life place, I shuddered and shivered for no reason.
After the intro and the shelving for the time being phraseology by the VC, all the faces looked at me seemingly expecting me to blurt out, react or at least respond. But I preferred to be silent. I knew the trap; I sensed it on every face. The large photograph of Jesus the lord was the only one which at GIM remained the same, the same compassion and solace beamed, the same comfort and serenity in display. All others either stared, or scowled, some looked confused, some at times bewildered, often amused, some smiled, and some kept gazing at the ceiling as if Pablo Picasso had painted it and just left. I could see the trouble in the Kings face that for all his verbosity now looked silent and it was strange…
It is a failure that we didn’t take the EMEP programme to its desired levels of success… said the VC … clearly in what to me looked like the GIM way of orchestrated accusation.
I just wanted to know who will make the WE sound YOU and point the finger at me..
Manohar? He had nothing to do with me.. virtually nothing…
Jesus..? Will he? After all I was like his younger brother… will he?
Or any other professors? ... who looked like odd men out in the gathering..
Or Dr Joseph?… he could be the chosen one and he could be happy to put the first nail on me…. I could see a dirty bunch of hairs that rose to the occasion, from his huge ears..
Will it be Prof .Mathew Cherian my HOD, the oil faced jerk who had a lot of axe to grind…
Jesus sat a bit forward and leaned on to his dad’s table. Silence ensued as Jesus has this unique ability to convey a lot when he spoke and a lot more when he didn’t…
You were the convenor of the EMEP programme Professor Sukesh Menon and when it has failed … he said in an outlandish direct assault which was so atypical of him…. you should be answering..
I didn’t react because I couldn’t react.
Was it because it was Jesus who was the aggressor? Or was it because the total aggression was unfounded and biased? Or a combination of both…?
I kept looking at Jesus in disbelief, guess I still had a feeling that it wasn’t he, or even if it was he it wasn’t he who was talking ..he was just reading out a dialogue from a script that some one had penned in this absurd drama….
I hated Anand for the confidence that he bestowed on me to take up the job, I hated Ram for praising the first outsider who got SUCH a task at GIM… I hated myself for being so gullible, for walking into this trap with such appalling naiveté ….
You could have said if you were not interested….said the ED, smiling and looking at the HOD… together they looked like Shakuni and Duryodhan ,the plotters in Mahabharata…. Hate fumed in their eyes and I suddenly saw myself as the hapless Draupadi who got trapped in the Kaurava court!
No one wanted the EMEP, may be no one except the management, the students didn’t take the spirit of it as it was seen as another programme which was planned and send down by the top, the faculty hated it for the same reason plus the extra work for no BENEFIT as they saw it , the management forgot it after the launch for they had better things to do and for me it was hot potato that I could neither swallow nor throw away ….
I guess you can give an answer … said the King in whose hands he had an egg shaped paperweight which was an antique piece that came with him after one of his travels. He played with it as if he didn’t want to look at my face even when he talked…
Yes sir… I said suddenly…. I can… the answer is simple…. Every time a programme like this is planned, its closure is planned as well. To my knowledge that is why here things don’t work the way it should be.
Eye brows went up and disbelief spelled with oil and anger… I wasn’t being valiant in the large room which threatened a simple being like me, but was just being an animal defending it self when driven to a corner….
Academic community is the worse when it comes to politics and back stabbing…. I said without doubt and with poise….. and here we have that in abundance.
You are deviating from the topic.. said the ED, annoyed and upset…
I raised my hands, disallowing him to finish, stared at his ugly face and pasted a firm look on his full to bursting eyes . Sure enough he went silent but not before looking into Prof Mathew his co plotter to take over.
I don’t know what they all tell you sir.. I said to the King and his son… outside the HQ its all a game.. whatever you plan they want it to fail and they will make sure that it is failed…
No one spoke….
I looked at Jesus, the real one who looked frozen like a child who forgot his next dialogue on stage…
I looked at Jesus, the one in the picture who still smiled at the dirty crowd with compassion….
Anything more sir? …. I asked
Nothing Sukesh.. Said the King, putting and end to the drama even as the crowd waited for an anti climax… you may go now….
I stood up with a smile which I never had the spine to smile, shook the big guy’s fatty hands, turned to my left , bowed at Jesus and Manohar and walked out.
My mobile vibrated….
Anand calling.. it said….
The great Experiential Management Education Programme- the brain child of the ice cool HQ chambers, which the likes of Prof Ram called as Humbug, which the audacity of Anand had prompted me to take up as the great opportunity, which fell on me as a result of God-knows-who’s – plot, which got to start with a lot of trumpet blast and display just to die a sudden death as corporate theatres and debate sessions gave way to the academic pressures … As Ram had put it “when we don’t have sufficient time to finish classes you should have known that this will become a burden for you….” Easier said than done… HUH!!!
When the day the top brass called me finally to announce the death of the EMEP programme which they put it as “shelving for the time being” and the outsider that I was, I was the last one to be formally told. Every one else discussed it, laughed at it (in secrecy of course) and passed stupid grins at me as if I was a criminal caught with illicit liquor.
Jesus and Manohar sat next to next in the King’s chamber where I was summoned. VC and his files were in attendance and so were a couple of senior Professors. Ram was missing but Dr Joseph the ED was there as the Snowy dog of the Tintin series, present in every frame.
Every time I stepped into the larger than life place, I shuddered and shivered for no reason.
After the intro and the shelving for the time being phraseology by the VC, all the faces looked at me seemingly expecting me to blurt out, react or at least respond. But I preferred to be silent. I knew the trap; I sensed it on every face. The large photograph of Jesus the lord was the only one which at GIM remained the same, the same compassion and solace beamed, the same comfort and serenity in display. All others either stared, or scowled, some looked confused, some at times bewildered, often amused, some smiled, and some kept gazing at the ceiling as if Pablo Picasso had painted it and just left. I could see the trouble in the Kings face that for all his verbosity now looked silent and it was strange…
It is a failure that we didn’t take the EMEP programme to its desired levels of success… said the VC … clearly in what to me looked like the GIM way of orchestrated accusation.
I just wanted to know who will make the WE sound YOU and point the finger at me..
Manohar? He had nothing to do with me.. virtually nothing…
Jesus..? Will he? After all I was like his younger brother… will he?
Or any other professors? ... who looked like odd men out in the gathering..
Or Dr Joseph?… he could be the chosen one and he could be happy to put the first nail on me…. I could see a dirty bunch of hairs that rose to the occasion, from his huge ears..
Will it be Prof .Mathew Cherian my HOD, the oil faced jerk who had a lot of axe to grind…
Jesus sat a bit forward and leaned on to his dad’s table. Silence ensued as Jesus has this unique ability to convey a lot when he spoke and a lot more when he didn’t…
You were the convenor of the EMEP programme Professor Sukesh Menon and when it has failed … he said in an outlandish direct assault which was so atypical of him…. you should be answering..
I didn’t react because I couldn’t react.
Was it because it was Jesus who was the aggressor? Or was it because the total aggression was unfounded and biased? Or a combination of both…?
I kept looking at Jesus in disbelief, guess I still had a feeling that it wasn’t he, or even if it was he it wasn’t he who was talking ..he was just reading out a dialogue from a script that some one had penned in this absurd drama….
I hated Anand for the confidence that he bestowed on me to take up the job, I hated Ram for praising the first outsider who got SUCH a task at GIM… I hated myself for being so gullible, for walking into this trap with such appalling naiveté ….
You could have said if you were not interested….said the ED, smiling and looking at the HOD… together they looked like Shakuni and Duryodhan ,the plotters in Mahabharata…. Hate fumed in their eyes and I suddenly saw myself as the hapless Draupadi who got trapped in the Kaurava court!
No one wanted the EMEP, may be no one except the management, the students didn’t take the spirit of it as it was seen as another programme which was planned and send down by the top, the faculty hated it for the same reason plus the extra work for no BENEFIT as they saw it , the management forgot it after the launch for they had better things to do and for me it was hot potato that I could neither swallow nor throw away ….
I guess you can give an answer … said the King in whose hands he had an egg shaped paperweight which was an antique piece that came with him after one of his travels. He played with it as if he didn’t want to look at my face even when he talked…
Yes sir… I said suddenly…. I can… the answer is simple…. Every time a programme like this is planned, its closure is planned as well. To my knowledge that is why here things don’t work the way it should be.
Eye brows went up and disbelief spelled with oil and anger… I wasn’t being valiant in the large room which threatened a simple being like me, but was just being an animal defending it self when driven to a corner….
Academic community is the worse when it comes to politics and back stabbing…. I said without doubt and with poise….. and here we have that in abundance.
You are deviating from the topic.. said the ED, annoyed and upset…
I raised my hands, disallowing him to finish, stared at his ugly face and pasted a firm look on his full to bursting eyes . Sure enough he went silent but not before looking into Prof Mathew his co plotter to take over.
I don’t know what they all tell you sir.. I said to the King and his son… outside the HQ its all a game.. whatever you plan they want it to fail and they will make sure that it is failed…
No one spoke….
I looked at Jesus, the real one who looked frozen like a child who forgot his next dialogue on stage…
I looked at Jesus, the one in the picture who still smiled at the dirty crowd with compassion….
Anything more sir? …. I asked
Nothing Sukesh.. Said the King, putting and end to the drama even as the crowd waited for an anti climax… you may go now….
I stood up with a smile which I never had the spine to smile, shook the big guy’s fatty hands, turned to my left , bowed at Jesus and Manohar and walked out.
My mobile vibrated….
Anand calling.. it said….
Friday, June 19, 2009
Strategic withdrawal !
It was the weekly counseling day. The students of the Finance specialisation had a very peculiar problem to rise in the counseling sessions.....(The new HOD had introduced this reform where each faculty was assigned a group of students whom they will spend a full session with inside the campus and COUNSEL them…. Often it ended up as complaint sessions where the faculty would just hear things that they could in no way control or change….. For me even that didn’t happen as there was a fear… after all I was the Management’s left hand man…
No faculty ever complained of this Tuglak style reform and no student too, for them it was like a paid holiday….
Very few of their faculty was permanent, said the kids of finance repeatedly ,and the core was mostly drawn from various companies locally and hence when others were in classes they dragged on in the awful canteen or in the students area and when others went back to hostels or with their girl/boy friends for some outing, they sat in classes pretending to be in love with all the jargons and high funda that flew left and right their heads but never into it...And those faculty who joined as full timers either didn’t knew what it meant when they joined and ran away in between( when they realised it) leaving their jobs ,leaving behind more names in the long list of faculty who quit GIM or simply continued defying all notions of a faculty's survival and existence being directly proportional to student likeability ........
The game went on and so did Dr Subhajit Agarwal ,who was with GIM for the past 7 months much to the chagrin of the 'being taught' students of the Finance stream but to the delight of the Management for having employed some one who had the right people in Delhi .....
When I was in the common area with Prof Ram and a host of others chatting about simple nothings in life he came in with a smile and joined us… Ram with his uncanny ability to drag unnecessary people into unnecessary conversation, pulled him into a debate about "why not all good researchers are good teachers or some crap like that".. Sensing danger, I escaped and was walking out when I could still hear loud debates as if at the end of this debate, the King will come down and reward the winner…. ...
For the students he and his like were a tragedy, and no debate could change it, they simply couldn’t understand what he was talking about, not the hard finance, but the simple English....
For the faculty colleagues of his he was a comedy,( me and Anand laughed like hell the first day we met him) .......they wanted some one to giggle at and about, and to prove their point that the HQ (of late) recruited with intentions other than teaching ability in mind....
For the business of business education he was a disgrace, for someone who has written 23 cases and published many a research papers, would look like an asset in paper but in practice he was an NPA... a non performing asset who soon, for GIM was becoming a liability....
You know something… Asked Sri Laxmi who came opposite in the long corridor.. as I was walking out and my destination was the library…
I looked her enquiringly…
Library? .. she asked
I nodded in affirmation, and waited for her to open the news bulletin…
She kept mum as we walked down the stairs…. The classes were all in full swing and it reverberated in the quadrangles…
Demand and supply.. Inflation and deflation… Strategy and blue oceans…. The lessons echoed and created a funny ensemble
I feel hungry ..Sri Laxmy said with an unusual smile…. Heard that our canteen has some real good Chicken curry…
WTF?.............. I mumbled even while staring at her…
Library at GIM was a huge place…… partly HUGE by design but partly also because it was empty all the time, except when they took photos for the college brochure or promotion material when the kids in blazers were made to sit like robots and pretend to read from gigantic books that they never knew ever existed and would never again come in tryst with in life…
Will you listen to me if I tell you something?… she asked as I dragged a chair to sit and as she was already seated…
Women had this; they knew to ask the most unanswerable questions and yet asked them with all the innocence in their faces… How I hoped I could locate the FAQ genes in their brain and crush it…
I smiled, hoping she would understand that better than my spoken words…
Will you.. ? she insisted…
Depends… I said with anger brewed in apathy
Then I will not say…. She acted like a kid who was in her pre school…
Get lost..!!! I almost said but swallowed it when I saw the flutter in her eyes.. I could ignore her tantrums in exchange for the info that she seems to be having and was dying to divulge to me…
I will ..I said… You can trust me…
She didn’t buy it …. It wasn’t her fault.. it always happened.. my eyes defeated my intentions too often than even I could imagine,,,,,
HOD thinks that you need to be axed… she said suddenly even while I was wondering what it would be…I heard him talking to Dr Jesus….
Ever since the enquiry report , which tried to shoot the suspected en masse, went back from my table to the HOD’s with a strong rejoinder and with no signature of mine, he hated me…
But axe?....... I sat bewildered…
I was with Jesus when this call came … she told me in a hush tone…. I grasped the major part of the conversation from the way Jesus responded… it was you… your name… your behaviour….your arrogance.... your…
Excuse me… I stopped her… enough!!!…
Hello.. she laughed.. I’m not saying this… I’m just saying what I heard…
But how you know it was Prof Mathew Cherian… it could be any one… after all it’s the world of academics… every one hates everyone else… I argued
Oh no… Jesus hung the phone and asked me… How is Prof Mathew Cherian? Isn’t that proof enough…? ... she said as her eyes sparkled...
I had a larger than usual opening in place where till the other moment I had my mouth….
Exactly..she laughed… I had the same feeling....I also kept my mouth open… I didn’t know what to say…..
PLOTS… I garbled…. Bloody conspirators ….
Now the promise part… Will you? ..........She asked me nonchalantly and why not.. It was least of her problems that all this was happening to me….
Just play it cool… be normal… if you react this guys can smoke you out…. She advised. of course she didnt care whether I liked the advise....
I flashed a smile… It was competition and I taught Marketing …..
Strategic withdrawal is definitely and option!!!
I had to “give up weaker territories and reassign my resources to stronger territories” as per Kotler…
For me ,the next stop was Jesus… in crisis and in war who else but the good shepherd himself?
No faculty ever complained of this Tuglak style reform and no student too, for them it was like a paid holiday….
Very few of their faculty was permanent, said the kids of finance repeatedly ,and the core was mostly drawn from various companies locally and hence when others were in classes they dragged on in the awful canteen or in the students area and when others went back to hostels or with their girl/boy friends for some outing, they sat in classes pretending to be in love with all the jargons and high funda that flew left and right their heads but never into it...And those faculty who joined as full timers either didn’t knew what it meant when they joined and ran away in between( when they realised it) leaving their jobs ,leaving behind more names in the long list of faculty who quit GIM or simply continued defying all notions of a faculty's survival and existence being directly proportional to student likeability ........
The game went on and so did Dr Subhajit Agarwal ,who was with GIM for the past 7 months much to the chagrin of the 'being taught' students of the Finance stream but to the delight of the Management for having employed some one who had the right people in Delhi .....
When I was in the common area with Prof Ram and a host of others chatting about simple nothings in life he came in with a smile and joined us… Ram with his uncanny ability to drag unnecessary people into unnecessary conversation, pulled him into a debate about "why not all good researchers are good teachers or some crap like that".. Sensing danger, I escaped and was walking out when I could still hear loud debates as if at the end of this debate, the King will come down and reward the winner…. ...
For the students he and his like were a tragedy, and no debate could change it, they simply couldn’t understand what he was talking about, not the hard finance, but the simple English....
For the faculty colleagues of his he was a comedy,( me and Anand laughed like hell the first day we met him) .......they wanted some one to giggle at and about, and to prove their point that the HQ (of late) recruited with intentions other than teaching ability in mind....
For the business of business education he was a disgrace, for someone who has written 23 cases and published many a research papers, would look like an asset in paper but in practice he was an NPA... a non performing asset who soon, for GIM was becoming a liability....
You know something… Asked Sri Laxmi who came opposite in the long corridor.. as I was walking out and my destination was the library…
I looked her enquiringly…
Library? .. she asked
I nodded in affirmation, and waited for her to open the news bulletin…
She kept mum as we walked down the stairs…. The classes were all in full swing and it reverberated in the quadrangles…
Demand and supply.. Inflation and deflation… Strategy and blue oceans…. The lessons echoed and created a funny ensemble
I feel hungry ..Sri Laxmy said with an unusual smile…. Heard that our canteen has some real good Chicken curry…
WTF?.............. I mumbled even while staring at her…
Library at GIM was a huge place…… partly HUGE by design but partly also because it was empty all the time, except when they took photos for the college brochure or promotion material when the kids in blazers were made to sit like robots and pretend to read from gigantic books that they never knew ever existed and would never again come in tryst with in life…
Will you listen to me if I tell you something?… she asked as I dragged a chair to sit and as she was already seated…
Women had this; they knew to ask the most unanswerable questions and yet asked them with all the innocence in their faces… How I hoped I could locate the FAQ genes in their brain and crush it…
I smiled, hoping she would understand that better than my spoken words…
Will you.. ? she insisted…
Depends… I said with anger brewed in apathy
Then I will not say…. She acted like a kid who was in her pre school…
Get lost..!!! I almost said but swallowed it when I saw the flutter in her eyes.. I could ignore her tantrums in exchange for the info that she seems to be having and was dying to divulge to me…
I will ..I said… You can trust me…
She didn’t buy it …. It wasn’t her fault.. it always happened.. my eyes defeated my intentions too often than even I could imagine,,,,,
HOD thinks that you need to be axed… she said suddenly even while I was wondering what it would be…I heard him talking to Dr Jesus….
Ever since the enquiry report , which tried to shoot the suspected en masse, went back from my table to the HOD’s with a strong rejoinder and with no signature of mine, he hated me…
But axe?....... I sat bewildered…
I was with Jesus when this call came … she told me in a hush tone…. I grasped the major part of the conversation from the way Jesus responded… it was you… your name… your behaviour….your arrogance.... your…
Excuse me… I stopped her… enough!!!…
Hello.. she laughed.. I’m not saying this… I’m just saying what I heard…
But how you know it was Prof Mathew Cherian… it could be any one… after all it’s the world of academics… every one hates everyone else… I argued
Oh no… Jesus hung the phone and asked me… How is Prof Mathew Cherian? Isn’t that proof enough…? ... she said as her eyes sparkled...
I had a larger than usual opening in place where till the other moment I had my mouth….
Exactly..she laughed… I had the same feeling....I also kept my mouth open… I didn’t know what to say…..
PLOTS… I garbled…. Bloody conspirators ….
Now the promise part… Will you? ..........She asked me nonchalantly and why not.. It was least of her problems that all this was happening to me….
Just play it cool… be normal… if you react this guys can smoke you out…. She advised. of course she didnt care whether I liked the advise....
I flashed a smile… It was competition and I taught Marketing …..
Strategic withdrawal is definitely and option!!!
I had to “give up weaker territories and reassign my resources to stronger territories” as per Kotler…
For me ,the next stop was Jesus… in crisis and in war who else but the good shepherd himself?
Friday, May 1, 2009
Commercial Break !!!
Vacation for my kids, leave and travel, and my brother getting married !!! this time I have enough and more excuses for not blogging !!! be happy for sometime until I am back !!!!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Trial and Tribulation... Part II
Dr Joy had bought another new car, which stood proud like the owner himself in the huge portico of GIM, where only the family was supposed to drive into, get down and get in from their cars and even park there. This new one was a BMW 3 series, which was worth 35 Lakhs as per the hush hush that went around. I was walking in to start the day when I saw this black beauty that was parked and the admiring faces that loitered around…
Sir .. why don’t you buy one sir? ….one mischievous student asked a bit loud,may be for fun, but which hurt the ego of some one for whom the basic model of a Maruthi itself was a burden….
I smiled and walked off as if such material comforts didn’t matter to a teacher. A teacher is above all such silly things in life….
A hard expression to show in face, particularly for an amateur actor!
As I passed the reception, walking into the stair, Dr Joy smiled from his huge pic- contempt was written all over his face, from the folds of which a scorn slowly unraveled.
I hated the man and the total dispensation, for the kind of luxury that they indulged in, throwing the lesser mortals into a burning hot pot of resentment and jealousy.
The Class representative came to my pigeon hole cabin when I was refreshing the power points of the day, arranging the ads to be shown, after asking Jhansi Williams to take print out of the case let that was to be discussed that day.. Time was running out and here was this guy who stood behind me with a stupid smile…
Yes man….??.... I looked at him
He didn’t talk, instead scratched his head as if the answer was there…
I have a class now…. I said …
He still didn’t reply, nor did he plan to go…
Are you planning a quiz today sir..? ..he asked after enough testing my patience…
I was not, but when he asked I inadvertently shook my head in conformance…
How did you know?? …
He flashed a victorious smile… He knew everything at GIM… at least better than me… he knew that I was going to conduct a surprise test, which EVEN I didn’t know.. Wasn’t it great?
If yes what? .....I asked him…
Some guys are absent sir…. In fact 5 of them… so if you….
I had never seen such a request at GIM.. they were never supposed to be absent and if they were it was at their risk- entirely…
So if I?
Sir it will affect their internal marks… he said with a hell lot of shilly-shallying, half of which was adulterated
I stood up, and he went two steps back…
How dare you come and ask me this? … I shouted…. How dare you….
The faculty room reverberated… heads came up the half cabins… and this guy started shuddering…
I knew I could have handled it better but I was frustrated, my ego was hurt, My Maruthi sized self esteem baloon had got pricked by a BMW sized pin…..
Get out… I said and he simply vanished….
I sat there looking at the computer screen which had all the ads and power points lined up, my teaching folder for the day which was waiting to be copied into my pendrive….
This is a fucking profession… I wrote in my note pad…. With angry lines underlining the concept…Anand had said it right….
The last day when I met him at his home,he had told me… Those who can do will do, others will teach!!!
I walked out of the large faculty room to the corridor and the corner from where the sea was visible… how I wish I could be a sea, a wave, or at least a drop in it, which was seamless, at times thoughtless and when desired be real as well….
I called Anand to discuss the issue. After the last evening visit, when a recuperating Anand Mohan looked healthier than a healthy me…. He smiled more lavishly than ever, saw life in all its hues and colours and more vividly than ever, he was again a solace… I just wished for his come back and he assured of it soon….
Laughter was his answer… he went on and on with his laugh for the BMW story, which but surprisingly didn’t hurt my ego….
You should be happy Suk… he told me finally…. The moral of the story is that “happy bosses, peaceful sleep guaranteed”!!!
I wasn’t quite convinced but could handle the class with less temperament and even with a smile at the CR who sat there possibly expecting a fully loaded gun and blood bath….
After the class he even said a thank you (for not conducting the test, because he requested)
I didn’t tell him that no tests that were intended… I just walked out with a smile, thinking of the approbation that he is going to win from the daredevils who bunked the day’s classes.
I was at Prof Ram’s cabin showing him an article which I managed to write (one word for all the google search, cut, copy, paste, re word, re phrase and all the stuff behind a faculty researched article). Ram had a sneering look which I fully deserved for the 4 pages of hard work which lay frozen at his table and yet I didn’t like his stare….
I didn’t talk and when he was about to his intercom rang…
Yeah…he said.. Now? ...he asked…. Done !.... he committed and kept the receiver back to its cradle…
Your HOD wants to meet you in his cabin… NOW … said Ram and gave me back the paper bunch…
Let it be here sir..… please help me in making it better….. I said and walked to the HOD’s cabin.. I wanted to turn back and look into Rams face, but I could see it even without…
The final report is ready… Said Prof Mathew Cherian…. Now both of us have to sign it and I can send it to the management.
He extended a neatly printed and bounded book to me, which looked like a final project report….
Enquiry report on the indisciplinary activities undertaken by a section of students on… bla bla bla.. It read….
You need to sign only on the last page… he said with impatience….
I need to… I looked at him distrustfully and he read it….
You don’t have a pen…? He asked me.
I need to read it sir… I said without looking into his face….
A drop of oil fell on the table??
May be his table was oily as his face was which I didnt adventure to look at that pont of time but I knew he was slipping……
I stood up and said before walking out… With your permission, I am taking it...
Here again I wanted to look back, but didn’t for I knew the kind of ugly face my HOD had!!!
Sir .. why don’t you buy one sir? ….one mischievous student asked a bit loud,may be for fun, but which hurt the ego of some one for whom the basic model of a Maruthi itself was a burden….
I smiled and walked off as if such material comforts didn’t matter to a teacher. A teacher is above all such silly things in life….
A hard expression to show in face, particularly for an amateur actor!
As I passed the reception, walking into the stair, Dr Joy smiled from his huge pic- contempt was written all over his face, from the folds of which a scorn slowly unraveled.
I hated the man and the total dispensation, for the kind of luxury that they indulged in, throwing the lesser mortals into a burning hot pot of resentment and jealousy.
The Class representative came to my pigeon hole cabin when I was refreshing the power points of the day, arranging the ads to be shown, after asking Jhansi Williams to take print out of the case let that was to be discussed that day.. Time was running out and here was this guy who stood behind me with a stupid smile…
Yes man….??.... I looked at him
He didn’t talk, instead scratched his head as if the answer was there…
I have a class now…. I said …
He still didn’t reply, nor did he plan to go…
Are you planning a quiz today sir..? ..he asked after enough testing my patience…
I was not, but when he asked I inadvertently shook my head in conformance…
How did you know?? …
He flashed a victorious smile… He knew everything at GIM… at least better than me… he knew that I was going to conduct a surprise test, which EVEN I didn’t know.. Wasn’t it great?
If yes what? .....I asked him…
Some guys are absent sir…. In fact 5 of them… so if you….
I had never seen such a request at GIM.. they were never supposed to be absent and if they were it was at their risk- entirely…
So if I?
Sir it will affect their internal marks… he said with a hell lot of shilly-shallying, half of which was adulterated
I stood up, and he went two steps back…
How dare you come and ask me this? … I shouted…. How dare you….
The faculty room reverberated… heads came up the half cabins… and this guy started shuddering…
I knew I could have handled it better but I was frustrated, my ego was hurt, My Maruthi sized self esteem baloon had got pricked by a BMW sized pin…..
Get out… I said and he simply vanished….
I sat there looking at the computer screen which had all the ads and power points lined up, my teaching folder for the day which was waiting to be copied into my pendrive….
This is a fucking profession… I wrote in my note pad…. With angry lines underlining the concept…Anand had said it right….
The last day when I met him at his home,he had told me… Those who can do will do, others will teach!!!
I walked out of the large faculty room to the corridor and the corner from where the sea was visible… how I wish I could be a sea, a wave, or at least a drop in it, which was seamless, at times thoughtless and when desired be real as well….
I called Anand to discuss the issue. After the last evening visit, when a recuperating Anand Mohan looked healthier than a healthy me…. He smiled more lavishly than ever, saw life in all its hues and colours and more vividly than ever, he was again a solace… I just wished for his come back and he assured of it soon….
Laughter was his answer… he went on and on with his laugh for the BMW story, which but surprisingly didn’t hurt my ego….
You should be happy Suk… he told me finally…. The moral of the story is that “happy bosses, peaceful sleep guaranteed”!!!
I wasn’t quite convinced but could handle the class with less temperament and even with a smile at the CR who sat there possibly expecting a fully loaded gun and blood bath….
After the class he even said a thank you (for not conducting the test, because he requested)
I didn’t tell him that no tests that were intended… I just walked out with a smile, thinking of the approbation that he is going to win from the daredevils who bunked the day’s classes.
I was at Prof Ram’s cabin showing him an article which I managed to write (one word for all the google search, cut, copy, paste, re word, re phrase and all the stuff behind a faculty researched article). Ram had a sneering look which I fully deserved for the 4 pages of hard work which lay frozen at his table and yet I didn’t like his stare….
I didn’t talk and when he was about to his intercom rang…
Yeah…he said.. Now? ...he asked…. Done !.... he committed and kept the receiver back to its cradle…
Your HOD wants to meet you in his cabin… NOW … said Ram and gave me back the paper bunch…
Let it be here sir..… please help me in making it better….. I said and walked to the HOD’s cabin.. I wanted to turn back and look into Rams face, but I could see it even without…
The final report is ready… Said Prof Mathew Cherian…. Now both of us have to sign it and I can send it to the management.
He extended a neatly printed and bounded book to me, which looked like a final project report….
Enquiry report on the indisciplinary activities undertaken by a section of students on… bla bla bla.. It read….
You need to sign only on the last page… he said with impatience….
I need to… I looked at him distrustfully and he read it….
You don’t have a pen…? He asked me.
I need to read it sir… I said without looking into his face….
A drop of oil fell on the table??
May be his table was oily as his face was which I didnt adventure to look at that pont of time but I knew he was slipping……
I stood up and said before walking out… With your permission, I am taking it...
Here again I wanted to look back, but didn’t for I knew the kind of ugly face my HOD had!!!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Share of the Booty !!!
It was a cool morning…
Unusually cold for a summer day but it was.. it had rained all night soothing the hot earth which for days burned like a furnace…. the merciless sun that ruled till the last evening disappeared… clouds loomed as if the night wasn’t enough and it still drizzled, drops fell from no where into the cool gloomy terrain of GIM and made it wet….
GIM stood like an old man caught in the rain, drenched and quivering....
When the call from the top came, I was in the class teaching humour in advertising, the theory of it interspaced with video ads for which the kids waited than for the theory behind it. I left the class with an ad on air, half way through promising to return ……
Dr Joy and Jesus …. said the office boy who came to call me… and many others.. they are all waiting….
Waiting for me? Eh ?… now what was so pressing that I was called leaving behind a class that was in semi ecstasy…?
The enquiry report?
EMEP?
What was it…?
At the Kings Chamber it looked like the ‘who is who’ of GIM… the top brass and all the teachers… top to bottom…. The gossipers, the peeping toms, the complaint boxes, the oil wells, the drooling jacks, the FM radio’s, the fashion queens, the dare devils, the sexists ….
It looked like a village circus….
I was searching for Sri Laxmi…. Now that the great secret was out, and it didn’t happen to be my area of interest, my eyes wandered…
This has happened because of all of us .. all of you … said the VC with clean face lines that said that he didn't mean it, standing up , and adjusting his trousers which was oozing down….
In appreciation…. added Dr Joy… we have decided to institute a best faculty award and also give a stupendous salary rise to the ten best faculty members at GIM…
Now that was of interest to me… I’m here ……I’m here… my undisciplined mind cried…
Share of the booty… alibaba style.. said Ram…
Some people found fault in every thing… I thought even while I smiled, as if I agreed and I didn’t want the share….
The details of which will be communicated to you shortly…. said Dr Joy with delight dancing in his huge face….
They are confused between obesity and growth.... I pity them.. said Ram as we walked out... No one else seemed to pity at that point of time.
Smiles and hopes flew out of the room and spread like wild fire all across the faculty rooms and the common area, where under the camera, discussion began all out…
Sri Laxmi walked to me in the corner of the library where I found a refuge and sat with a renewed interest to be among the top ten.. You never know how the management at GIM arrived at the magical ranking…. What if the usage of library was one factor??
Missed you yesterday… she said as she sat opposite to me...
My stomach was empty; still I couldn’t digest what she just said….. I didn’t show it but, instead said…. I am sorry had that stupid enquiry….
You teach communication and advertising…. right sir?.. she asked me with sarcasm…
I didn’t reply…. I got the voice of the question and from my silence she got the answer…
How is Anand…? I asked…
He is fine… it’s the primary stage… curable… and you know him… he is quite brave,,,,, she laughed with energy that seemed fake to me…
Did she say YOU KNOW HIM>>>???
By now I knew everything about them, their love, and their families’ opposition and upon her insistence how he came and met Jesus to charm him and get an offer right away…..
Still..... did I know him?
I could see her pain, and her vain attempts to look courageous.. she was in love with a brave man for sure, but he possibly had to teach her more….
I will meet him today… I said after a long pause… I had hoped to ease the situation…
Her large eyes bloomed….
You could have given him a call …. She said
It is hard for me.. Sri Laxmi… I said with my voice drooping……. I cannot imagine Anand in his present state …
Clouds loomed in her face as the morning sky….drops fell but it burned me like a furnace….….
She tried to hide it from me…. After a moment of imprudence she gave up … may be she realised that hands don’t cover hearts…
I didn’t try to stop her…..
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Trial and Tribulation... Part I
I taught advertising that semester. It was my most comfortable domain which I could teach even if I were woken up at the middle of the night and asked to. Not that GIM did it, but did things pretty close to it. Classes ran from 7 30 to 7 30 and often had clashes due to lack of planning quite often, absence of Jesus (remember at GIM even a small swapping had to go through the laborious process of getting the Director’s consent) ,a faculty suddenly going on leave was among a host of reasons that upset the complicated matrix of class allotment. I was just back after one such class that was dumped on me and was planning to relax at my pigeon hole after that third class of the day, which was a case discussion that was left half way through for want of time, when ED called me.
After the advent of the new HOD, the ED rarely did call the Marketing faculty, including me and that was a relief. When the phone rang and his voice came through I was a bit surprised, a bit shocked and a bit curious as to the intentions of that out of the blue bell ringing.
If you remember…. he told me in his cabin without even looking into my face… there was an enquiry that was constituted after the student unrest….
I suddenly went back to the rainy day when students ran mayhem in GIM… I also remembered the day when Anand and I walked into the enquiry trap, him blissfully ignorant and me frighteningly suspicious ….
But Anand has gone….. I thought….
Just because Anand Mohan has left…. The ED said, this time fixing his dirty stare on my eyes, and reading my mind from my eyes….. you cannot run away from the job you were committed with…
Run away was a bad way to put it I thought, but then I was in no position to correct it…. When he called, Sri Laxmi had just left my cabin, leaving me heavy hearted, sharing a lot of joy and pain, shedding a lot of tears and glee, clearing me of my assumptions that I was so very loutishly nourishing in mind…
I chose to stand silent…
It was clear that he had made his war plan and just wanted some one at the other side… He had dug out an issue and chose me, the nearest sitting dumbo for the honours…. I was, but in no mood to fall victim to his post lunch past time hunt and stood there as if at that point of time, I would obey anything he ordered.
Visibly disillusioned he said …..
Along with Prof Mathew Cherian, you will start the enquiry process today…. and added with his matchless laugh that evicted more gases than any volcano and produced more sounds than a thunderstorm…. The VC expects a report by Monday next….
But sir… I said with hesitation even as he kept laughing… I have never conducted and enquiry before….and Prof Mathew joined just now… he wouldn’t know the actual….
Don’t tell me what to do Sukesh Menon…. shouted the old man with a sudden fury… if you have a doubt about the qualifications of your HOD and what to do , you can go and meet the VC now, or if you are clear allow me to brief him about this….
He didn’t ask me to go but turned his chair to his phone and started calling some one in what I took as a message to go….I showed faces at his ass and walked out of his cabin and out of the faculty room in absolute annoyance.
I kept wondering…. from where, where on earth did GIM hunt and bring such rare specimen?
Prof Ram was there in the corridor when I walked down; he joined me even without asking me where I was going. It was assumed that Sukesh Menon when left the faculty room visibly stressed would go but to the canteen,,, where else?
How do you conduct an enquiry? ......I asked Prof Ram while we passed the reception area from where Dr Joy with a smile hung from the biggest photograph in the world.
Ram looked at me with a funny glance, asking me to elaborate on my question… I told him the whole episode which happened and my worry about the new team mate….
It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the enquiry of the obscure …said Ram with a smile, quoting from some one he read….
Yeah … I mean….. how true… I said even as we got seated in the canteen, which looked deserted with only a few footfalls that were unusual at that time of the day.
I am planning to leave it to Prof Mathew and play second fiddle…. I said… that way I guess I can be safe…
How long ?..... demanded Ram… and safe is a relative concept… what have you achieved so far by being safe?
Very pertinent question…. I thought, even as I kept staring at Ram’s face as he drank his tea and mine still waiting….
Did he sound like Anand? Or was it just a feeling? …..….
I missed him….
My mobile vibrated and then went silent….
1 message…
Sri Laxmi…..
You said you would like to meet Anand.. Today I am planning to. Would you be interested? If yes come to the main gate some 15 minutes before 5….I will wait for 5 minutes….Thank you in advance…
I sat there reading that direct communication over and over again as if I didn’t understand … My heart started pounding with no logic…. I could see Ram looking at me spiritedly and to my mobile phone.. I am such an idiot who showed it all on his face …
I couldn’t wait …as time simply refused to snail, as the clock bizarrely crept , and as the post lunch silence let loose a siesta in almost all the cabins , I sat impatiently tapping the mouse and playing with my sand clock…. How I hope I had the time machine…
Just when the clock ticked 4, my phone rang…..
Mathew here… came the grumpy voice and I could feel oil flowing out of my receiver….
Yeah sir,,,, I pretended reverence
We need to sit for the enquiry…. He broke into my affectation and said …. I am meeting the management now and will need you when I am back…
But sir… even before I could launch my rejoinder he had gone…..
It was pitching dark when I finally got out of GIM that evening… Prof Mathew had left after the first sitting of the enquiry commission, the trial and tribulation, which but turned out to be the best of all the farces that I had seen at GIM…
I stood there alone, as mist came down covering the huge building and the garden impairing my vision, as darkness sang some sad song into my ears , and as some numbness gripped my legs, refusing to take me to my car at the parking bay………
My mobile had gone dead, out of charge, when I finally decided, sitting in the car that I should talk to Anand...
After the advent of the new HOD, the ED rarely did call the Marketing faculty, including me and that was a relief. When the phone rang and his voice came through I was a bit surprised, a bit shocked and a bit curious as to the intentions of that out of the blue bell ringing.
If you remember…. he told me in his cabin without even looking into my face… there was an enquiry that was constituted after the student unrest….
I suddenly went back to the rainy day when students ran mayhem in GIM… I also remembered the day when Anand and I walked into the enquiry trap, him blissfully ignorant and me frighteningly suspicious ….
But Anand has gone….. I thought….
Just because Anand Mohan has left…. The ED said, this time fixing his dirty stare on my eyes, and reading my mind from my eyes….. you cannot run away from the job you were committed with…
Run away was a bad way to put it I thought, but then I was in no position to correct it…. When he called, Sri Laxmi had just left my cabin, leaving me heavy hearted, sharing a lot of joy and pain, shedding a lot of tears and glee, clearing me of my assumptions that I was so very loutishly nourishing in mind…
I chose to stand silent…
It was clear that he had made his war plan and just wanted some one at the other side… He had dug out an issue and chose me, the nearest sitting dumbo for the honours…. I was, but in no mood to fall victim to his post lunch past time hunt and stood there as if at that point of time, I would obey anything he ordered.
Visibly disillusioned he said …..
Along with Prof Mathew Cherian, you will start the enquiry process today…. and added with his matchless laugh that evicted more gases than any volcano and produced more sounds than a thunderstorm…. The VC expects a report by Monday next….
But sir… I said with hesitation even as he kept laughing… I have never conducted and enquiry before….and Prof Mathew joined just now… he wouldn’t know the actual….
Don’t tell me what to do Sukesh Menon…. shouted the old man with a sudden fury… if you have a doubt about the qualifications of your HOD and what to do , you can go and meet the VC now, or if you are clear allow me to brief him about this….
He didn’t ask me to go but turned his chair to his phone and started calling some one in what I took as a message to go….I showed faces at his ass and walked out of his cabin and out of the faculty room in absolute annoyance.
I kept wondering…. from where, where on earth did GIM hunt and bring such rare specimen?
Prof Ram was there in the corridor when I walked down; he joined me even without asking me where I was going. It was assumed that Sukesh Menon when left the faculty room visibly stressed would go but to the canteen,,, where else?
How do you conduct an enquiry? ......I asked Prof Ram while we passed the reception area from where Dr Joy with a smile hung from the biggest photograph in the world.
Ram looked at me with a funny glance, asking me to elaborate on my question… I told him the whole episode which happened and my worry about the new team mate….
It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the enquiry of the obscure …said Ram with a smile, quoting from some one he read….
Yeah … I mean….. how true… I said even as we got seated in the canteen, which looked deserted with only a few footfalls that were unusual at that time of the day.
I am planning to leave it to Prof Mathew and play second fiddle…. I said… that way I guess I can be safe…
How long ?..... demanded Ram… and safe is a relative concept… what have you achieved so far by being safe?
Very pertinent question…. I thought, even as I kept staring at Ram’s face as he drank his tea and mine still waiting….
Did he sound like Anand? Or was it just a feeling? …..….
I missed him….
My mobile vibrated and then went silent….
1 message…
Sri Laxmi…..
You said you would like to meet Anand.. Today I am planning to. Would you be interested? If yes come to the main gate some 15 minutes before 5….I will wait for 5 minutes….Thank you in advance…
I sat there reading that direct communication over and over again as if I didn’t understand … My heart started pounding with no logic…. I could see Ram looking at me spiritedly and to my mobile phone.. I am such an idiot who showed it all on his face …
I couldn’t wait …as time simply refused to snail, as the clock bizarrely crept , and as the post lunch silence let loose a siesta in almost all the cabins , I sat impatiently tapping the mouse and playing with my sand clock…. How I hope I had the time machine…
Just when the clock ticked 4, my phone rang…..
Mathew here… came the grumpy voice and I could feel oil flowing out of my receiver….
Yeah sir,,,, I pretended reverence
We need to sit for the enquiry…. He broke into my affectation and said …. I am meeting the management now and will need you when I am back…
But sir… even before I could launch my rejoinder he had gone…..
It was pitching dark when I finally got out of GIM that evening… Prof Mathew had left after the first sitting of the enquiry commission, the trial and tribulation, which but turned out to be the best of all the farces that I had seen at GIM…
I stood there alone, as mist came down covering the huge building and the garden impairing my vision, as darkness sang some sad song into my ears , and as some numbness gripped my legs, refusing to take me to my car at the parking bay………
My mobile had gone dead, out of charge, when I finally decided, sitting in the car that I should talk to Anand...
Friday, March 13, 2009
Ghost of the past !!!
I was sitting unoccupied at the faculty common area when Jesus called me via Jansi William, the faculty assistant. It would have been the last thing I would have liked to do at that point of time, meeting up with the bosses and listen to their pointless brouhaha… But choice was always a question and at GIM, was never available in abundance.
Enroute to the HQ ,I passed Sri Laxmi’s cabin where she sat, looking into some book but not reading from it…. she was probably posing to work for the benefit of the cameras hung from all the nook and corners…..but then how did I know it ?
… I didn’t know.. I just assumed… I was trying to draw pictures as to what would be going through her mind ….as I walked I saw Prof Mathew Cherian coming opposite to me with a smile which I saw but didn’t acknowledge as Anand and Sri Laxmi ruled my mind….…that was the case ever since I got back from the canteen to the main building of GIM and the comforts, to the centralized AC, the music and the soothing peace that it offered, as compared to the dust and din of a ruthless outside world. I didn’t know how I walked back but I remember the blurred vision with which I did, I know for sure that water drops clogged my eyes refusing to fall down but refusing to be taken back either… I knew that I became weak and the large frame that I had wasn’t balancing with the small and feeble mind that I seemed to possess… Anand was a pleasure and then a pain, and when I was trying to forget him as the past, at that hot summer afternoon he suddenly woke me up and never left me to sleep thereafter…..
Professor Sukesh… Professor Mathew called me and I crash landed….He was standing hazardously close to me…
HQ? .. he asked me ….
Yeah Sir… Dr Jesus has called me… I said dryly…
For what ?.. he asked me with inquisitiveness oozing out of his oily face….
Well… I stood there searching for words… I couldn’t tell him that for Jesus that was a preoccupation that when he gets bored of all the women of his harem, he will invite men… for small talks, tea and biscuits, forced humor and a lot of talk about Jesus(the real one!) and his miracles… Father, Son and the Holy Spirit….
Don’t know sir….I said instead…
I have heard that you are a pet of the bosses.. especially the director…but that is past…he said with a scorn even as my eyes bulged out…hope hereafter at least you will learn to respect hierarchies….
He just walked after vomiting that filth, which God knows originated where… I was least interested in the source and even the content…. I knew one thing…another enemy is here at GIM for me and that too just above me in the hierarchy…. As if the ghosts of the past weren’t enough, this new one from the present just walked past me….
I stood there for a while, wondering whether to proceed to meet Jesus or get back and work as per the HOD’s command…… at GIM the question seemingly had no alternative answers… After so many years of teaching management, if I do not know the difference between the boss and an ass, what the heck was me good for…?
Jesus was surrounded by women, who were laughing in mirth as if he was Mr Bean and a show was going on…
I stood there outside his cabin, seeing the fun gun sprouting across the room through the large glass door…. Jesus gestured me to get in, and I went in to be standing there as all the seats were full with women…… Madam Secretary was still laughing quite animatedly, but when she saw my ugly face popping into the cabin she suddenly stopped, as if she was some heroine and I was the rapist villain…
Jesus understood my predicament when I said…. Should I come back later sir…if you are busy,,,,,
Did I add a bit of sarcasm in that…? Did that sound genuine enough,,,??
No no….. he said… please you sit…. And that was indication enough for the women’s society to push off….
Have you read the monk…. He asked me when finally the cabin was left to us… me and Jesus…
The what…? I exclaimed…
The Monk who sold his Ferrari…or Think and grow rich… said Jesus… by Napoleon hill….
I was wondering at his motive… is this going to be an afternoon session on books that he read and I didn’t, and hence I should… or just a free display of gyan, or another evangelist session…? Or was there something else which for my mortal eyes wasn’t visible…….?
Yeah have read…. I said, looking into his eyes with suspicion that wasn’t easy to hide especially when one faced Jesus the evangelist….but why now?
Before you make assumptions you should think… you tend to hyper react… which is not good… Said the man with a smile… I know you wouldn’t agree now, but if you sit and think you will know…
I was cornered… I couldn’t connect… Jesus was often like women,,,, he saw things which others never did, he heard things which others never did, and he talked things which others never did and never did understood….
Can I know the context sir…. I pleaded as I was genuinely worried…
The oily face of my new HOD from where hatred mixed with jealousy and oil poured out in an interesting mixure,who threatened me unabashedly, suddenly ran amok in my mind ….
It is simple Sukesh.. you are like my brother…. Said Jesus, for a millionth time, which meant nothing to me and to him… I knew that, probably he knew that as well…
I sat straight and alert to hear him… when was the last when I assumed things..? I wanted to know…
This is not fair…. Came a voice first and then shouting and grumbling Prof Ram suddenly and with no warning… He could have knocked at least, I thought…
Jesus didn’t panic as I did… I was taken aback but he had a smile as if he knew the advent of the old war horse…
What sir.. asked Jesus even as he gestured Ram to sit, in a chair next to me…
He threw a piece of paper into the table and said… please read this….
Jesus took it and read for a second and then gave it to me…
Read it Sukesh,please.... I forgot my glasses…. He said…
I took it and glanced through the paper for a minute.. it was a printout from GIM’s official webpage… it read….
We don’t follow the crowd, instead follow a different methodology. Theory, we do teach but not like what others do. GIM believes in practical learning and we….
Jesus gestured me to stop and so did I.…
Now what about that…? Asked Jesus impatiently…
Will you tell your executive director also to read this stuff…? ... demanded Ram with matching impatience…
I sensed danger and wanted to escape… Jesus read my wriggling in uneasiness and allowed me to go…..
Ram and his problems least bothered me…. When I reached back to my cabin, Sri Laxmi was sitting there waiting….
Now what was that..?
Another ghost from the past?
Enroute to the HQ ,I passed Sri Laxmi’s cabin where she sat, looking into some book but not reading from it…. she was probably posing to work for the benefit of the cameras hung from all the nook and corners…..but then how did I know it ?
… I didn’t know.. I just assumed… I was trying to draw pictures as to what would be going through her mind ….as I walked I saw Prof Mathew Cherian coming opposite to me with a smile which I saw but didn’t acknowledge as Anand and Sri Laxmi ruled my mind….…that was the case ever since I got back from the canteen to the main building of GIM and the comforts, to the centralized AC, the music and the soothing peace that it offered, as compared to the dust and din of a ruthless outside world. I didn’t know how I walked back but I remember the blurred vision with which I did, I know for sure that water drops clogged my eyes refusing to fall down but refusing to be taken back either… I knew that I became weak and the large frame that I had wasn’t balancing with the small and feeble mind that I seemed to possess… Anand was a pleasure and then a pain, and when I was trying to forget him as the past, at that hot summer afternoon he suddenly woke me up and never left me to sleep thereafter…..
Professor Sukesh… Professor Mathew called me and I crash landed….He was standing hazardously close to me…
HQ? .. he asked me ….
Yeah Sir… Dr Jesus has called me… I said dryly…
For what ?.. he asked me with inquisitiveness oozing out of his oily face….
Well… I stood there searching for words… I couldn’t tell him that for Jesus that was a preoccupation that when he gets bored of all the women of his harem, he will invite men… for small talks, tea and biscuits, forced humor and a lot of talk about Jesus(the real one!) and his miracles… Father, Son and the Holy Spirit….
Don’t know sir….I said instead…
I have heard that you are a pet of the bosses.. especially the director…but that is past…he said with a scorn even as my eyes bulged out…hope hereafter at least you will learn to respect hierarchies….
He just walked after vomiting that filth, which God knows originated where… I was least interested in the source and even the content…. I knew one thing…another enemy is here at GIM for me and that too just above me in the hierarchy…. As if the ghosts of the past weren’t enough, this new one from the present just walked past me….
I stood there for a while, wondering whether to proceed to meet Jesus or get back and work as per the HOD’s command…… at GIM the question seemingly had no alternative answers… After so many years of teaching management, if I do not know the difference between the boss and an ass, what the heck was me good for…?
Jesus was surrounded by women, who were laughing in mirth as if he was Mr Bean and a show was going on…
I stood there outside his cabin, seeing the fun gun sprouting across the room through the large glass door…. Jesus gestured me to get in, and I went in to be standing there as all the seats were full with women…… Madam Secretary was still laughing quite animatedly, but when she saw my ugly face popping into the cabin she suddenly stopped, as if she was some heroine and I was the rapist villain…
Jesus understood my predicament when I said…. Should I come back later sir…if you are busy,,,,,
Did I add a bit of sarcasm in that…? Did that sound genuine enough,,,??
No no….. he said… please you sit…. And that was indication enough for the women’s society to push off….
Have you read the monk…. He asked me when finally the cabin was left to us… me and Jesus…
The what…? I exclaimed…
The Monk who sold his Ferrari…or Think and grow rich… said Jesus… by Napoleon hill….
I was wondering at his motive… is this going to be an afternoon session on books that he read and I didn’t, and hence I should… or just a free display of gyan, or another evangelist session…? Or was there something else which for my mortal eyes wasn’t visible…….?
Yeah have read…. I said, looking into his eyes with suspicion that wasn’t easy to hide especially when one faced Jesus the evangelist….but why now?
Before you make assumptions you should think… you tend to hyper react… which is not good… Said the man with a smile… I know you wouldn’t agree now, but if you sit and think you will know…
I was cornered… I couldn’t connect… Jesus was often like women,,,, he saw things which others never did, he heard things which others never did, and he talked things which others never did and never did understood….
Can I know the context sir…. I pleaded as I was genuinely worried…
The oily face of my new HOD from where hatred mixed with jealousy and oil poured out in an interesting mixure,who threatened me unabashedly, suddenly ran amok in my mind ….
It is simple Sukesh.. you are like my brother…. Said Jesus, for a millionth time, which meant nothing to me and to him… I knew that, probably he knew that as well…
I sat straight and alert to hear him… when was the last when I assumed things..? I wanted to know…
This is not fair…. Came a voice first and then shouting and grumbling Prof Ram suddenly and with no warning… He could have knocked at least, I thought…
Jesus didn’t panic as I did… I was taken aback but he had a smile as if he knew the advent of the old war horse…
What sir.. asked Jesus even as he gestured Ram to sit, in a chair next to me…
He threw a piece of paper into the table and said… please read this….
Jesus took it and read for a second and then gave it to me…
Read it Sukesh,please.... I forgot my glasses…. He said…
I took it and glanced through the paper for a minute.. it was a printout from GIM’s official webpage… it read….
We don’t follow the crowd, instead follow a different methodology. Theory, we do teach but not like what others do. GIM believes in practical learning and we….
Jesus gestured me to stop and so did I.…
Now what about that…? Asked Jesus impatiently…
Will you tell your executive director also to read this stuff…? ... demanded Ram with matching impatience…
I sensed danger and wanted to escape… Jesus read my wriggling in uneasiness and allowed me to go…..
Ram and his problems least bothered me…. When I reached back to my cabin, Sri Laxmi was sitting there waiting….
Now what was that..?
Another ghost from the past?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Silence of vacuum!!!
GIM was a familiar place for me… the years of working there had made me known to GIM and GIM known to me so much so like my own home.. Not only the geography but also the populace, the smiles, the stares, the classified idiots, the politics, the economics and what not….
That is until I walked into the Kings cabin that day… Remember I had knighted myself NEW AND IMPROVED and with an impudent disdain had walked into the Kings cabin that evening,,,,
Welcome Sukesh Menon… announced Dr Joy when I walked in….
I wanted you to meet Professor Mathew Cherian , who will be joining us today… he said even as I was about to sit on a chair opposite to the King in his larger- than- the- oval -office cabin…
I hadn’t seen the guy until then, the sort of a semi old man with a notable face, a well combed extra oiled head and a dressing style that gave an impression at the very first glance.
Hello… he extended his arm to me and I did mine …..
He is professor Sukesh Menon.. said the King to the visitor…. teaching Marketing and also taking care of various other activities that are key to this B school….
I had a smile.. a real one this time that I was being praised by the king himself…
I was being acknowledged as the one who takes care of activities that were KEY to the B school..
By the way.. Sukesh… he would be the new head of the department of Marketing… Said the king as if a revelation…. You would be happy at this new arrangement….
Was I happy?
I didn’t know… I wasn’t unhappy for sure and even thought of the devil that was the ED and to whom the hapless faculty of GIM reported to….At least now there is this cushion called the HOD…..It was new to GIM… till that day the ED was the academic head and he was the bridge or the barrier (case to case it varied) between the faculty room and the HQ…
I still had a wonder pasted in my eyes as to why I was called to the king’s chamber… It surely would not be to introduce me to my new HOD ..Prof Mathew cherian…
How is the EMEP activity going? .. asked the King…
I wasn’t prepared for the question but had a ready made answer, now that the delegation was done and it was finally taking shape…
Since Anand mohan would not be available for some time, hope you would have made alternate arrangements … said the King ….
I didn’t like the statement…
Did he entrust me with the EMEP because Anand Mohan was with me and hence I could and would do it?
Was it for the abilities of Sukesh menon that he got the job or for his proximity to the man who had come, conquered and disappeared?
Yeah sir,,,, I said… but …
I know….. added the king in haste… I know it’s not easy to fill in the vacuum created by some one like Anand… but its fate,,, what can we do…?
He turned back and looked into the serene face of Lord Jesus Christ in a picture that hung from the wall. He sat there as if in meditation and even the guest, Prof Mathew joined him and I, with the silence deafening and threatening me sat there exchanging a not so serene glance at the lord…….
I have a lot of plans for you.. said the King as he came back to his bossy self… Lord Jesus still had the smile and tranquility in his face and I couldn’t help but keep seeing it…
We will discuss it in detail later… now can you take Prof Mathew to the faculty room?…
That again was new… it was the ED’s job to carry around any new entrants and introduce them to the rest of them… no one did any honours when people resigned and left GIM… either they left silent, or they did with lot of acrimony but honours were missing almost every time…
ME? … I asked in an unbelievably loud voice…
The king laughed, adjusting his large body in the larger than anyone's imagination chair which protested and grumbled and said…yeah .....you… I told you I have some plans for you….
Prof Mathew handed over a piece of paper to me on the way, which was his profile, his credentials, his travels, and degrees, his writings and articles and all the stuff which a typical arm chair academic will flaunt around with brazenness … I smiled with a spoof that was obvious to me but not to him which I could see from his grin …
I didn’t like the Royal messenger’s job but had to do it… the victorious look with which I carried myself into the chamber had lost in transit by the time I reached back the faculty room with the new HOD and his self advertising document which he expected me to read it to the unsuspecting crowd there…..
After leaving Prof Mathew with the mad crowd in the faculty room, who gathered around him like sniffer dogs would do at a crime spot, I left to oblivion… my own place where I took refuge whenever I felt a need to be alone…
The canteen,,,,
It was not empty… the kids were there everywhere…sitting, standing, running ,,…. At GIM that was the only place where they traveled back to their age and had fun, the tie and the formal attire still on…
Teachers in the canteen was not a comfortable sight for many, while some pretended that they hadn’t seen me, others did acknowledge the professor who walked in to spoil there 5 minutes of life between out of life and away from life classes where professors chalked and talked on business, management, ethics and what not….
I just wanted to be alone… and sooner than I expected the kids started running back. Ostensibly some inconsiderate and insensitive professor would be walking out of the faculty room full of fury and info that was waiting to be unloaded…
The tea and banana fry had lost its charm.. ever since I started hitting the GYM I was careful about what I ate…. Thanks to Anand…
Huh… why the hell should I thank him?… deep in my mind is there a fan still alive.. a fan who adored the star ,,,? Who got the smell of denim every time you think of him???
How is Anand sir? … asked some one who stood there right in front blocking my way and my vision….
The canteen manager flashed his pan coated teeth waiting for a reply…
Well… I dragged my foot as if I was searching for words.. I hadn’t got the question right.. and even if I had I wouldn’t know the answer….
Poor Anand sir… what a man he was…. The guy said as he walked back to his corner place where he strategically sat to collect money from the kids who came in groups and left in groups often strategically cheating the guy and putting his numerical and arithmetic abilities into severe testing…
God is so cruel..... he kept lamenting from his chair… Good people get the entire ordeal while the bad ones just grow and keep growing….
I couldn’t take the tea or the banana fry,,, it started tasting bitter… I couldn’t sit there either…
I AM NOT THAT BAD .. I wanted to shout…. But instead decided to walk out…
Cancer at this age… and for him… the guy looked into my face and said, when I paid and tried to move….
Did a sudden torrent of denim overwhelm me…?
Did I cry?
That is until I walked into the Kings cabin that day… Remember I had knighted myself NEW AND IMPROVED and with an impudent disdain had walked into the Kings cabin that evening,,,,
Welcome Sukesh Menon… announced Dr Joy when I walked in….
I wanted you to meet Professor Mathew Cherian , who will be joining us today… he said even as I was about to sit on a chair opposite to the King in his larger- than- the- oval -office cabin…
I hadn’t seen the guy until then, the sort of a semi old man with a notable face, a well combed extra oiled head and a dressing style that gave an impression at the very first glance.
Hello… he extended his arm to me and I did mine …..
He is professor Sukesh Menon.. said the King to the visitor…. teaching Marketing and also taking care of various other activities that are key to this B school….
I had a smile.. a real one this time that I was being praised by the king himself…
I was being acknowledged as the one who takes care of activities that were KEY to the B school..
By the way.. Sukesh… he would be the new head of the department of Marketing… Said the king as if a revelation…. You would be happy at this new arrangement….
Was I happy?
I didn’t know… I wasn’t unhappy for sure and even thought of the devil that was the ED and to whom the hapless faculty of GIM reported to….At least now there is this cushion called the HOD…..It was new to GIM… till that day the ED was the academic head and he was the bridge or the barrier (case to case it varied) between the faculty room and the HQ…
I still had a wonder pasted in my eyes as to why I was called to the king’s chamber… It surely would not be to introduce me to my new HOD ..Prof Mathew cherian…
How is the EMEP activity going? .. asked the King…
I wasn’t prepared for the question but had a ready made answer, now that the delegation was done and it was finally taking shape…
Since Anand mohan would not be available for some time, hope you would have made alternate arrangements … said the King ….
I didn’t like the statement…
Did he entrust me with the EMEP because Anand Mohan was with me and hence I could and would do it?
Was it for the abilities of Sukesh menon that he got the job or for his proximity to the man who had come, conquered and disappeared?
Yeah sir,,,, I said… but …
I know….. added the king in haste… I know it’s not easy to fill in the vacuum created by some one like Anand… but its fate,,, what can we do…?
He turned back and looked into the serene face of Lord Jesus Christ in a picture that hung from the wall. He sat there as if in meditation and even the guest, Prof Mathew joined him and I, with the silence deafening and threatening me sat there exchanging a not so serene glance at the lord…….
I have a lot of plans for you.. said the King as he came back to his bossy self… Lord Jesus still had the smile and tranquility in his face and I couldn’t help but keep seeing it…
We will discuss it in detail later… now can you take Prof Mathew to the faculty room?…
That again was new… it was the ED’s job to carry around any new entrants and introduce them to the rest of them… no one did any honours when people resigned and left GIM… either they left silent, or they did with lot of acrimony but honours were missing almost every time…
ME? … I asked in an unbelievably loud voice…
The king laughed, adjusting his large body in the larger than anyone's imagination chair which protested and grumbled and said…yeah .....you… I told you I have some plans for you….
Prof Mathew handed over a piece of paper to me on the way, which was his profile, his credentials, his travels, and degrees, his writings and articles and all the stuff which a typical arm chair academic will flaunt around with brazenness … I smiled with a spoof that was obvious to me but not to him which I could see from his grin …
I didn’t like the Royal messenger’s job but had to do it… the victorious look with which I carried myself into the chamber had lost in transit by the time I reached back the faculty room with the new HOD and his self advertising document which he expected me to read it to the unsuspecting crowd there…..
After leaving Prof Mathew with the mad crowd in the faculty room, who gathered around him like sniffer dogs would do at a crime spot, I left to oblivion… my own place where I took refuge whenever I felt a need to be alone…
The canteen,,,,
It was not empty… the kids were there everywhere…sitting, standing, running ,,…. At GIM that was the only place where they traveled back to their age and had fun, the tie and the formal attire still on…
Teachers in the canteen was not a comfortable sight for many, while some pretended that they hadn’t seen me, others did acknowledge the professor who walked in to spoil there 5 minutes of life between out of life and away from life classes where professors chalked and talked on business, management, ethics and what not….
I just wanted to be alone… and sooner than I expected the kids started running back. Ostensibly some inconsiderate and insensitive professor would be walking out of the faculty room full of fury and info that was waiting to be unloaded…
The tea and banana fry had lost its charm.. ever since I started hitting the GYM I was careful about what I ate…. Thanks to Anand…
Huh… why the hell should I thank him?… deep in my mind is there a fan still alive.. a fan who adored the star ,,,? Who got the smell of denim every time you think of him???
How is Anand sir? … asked some one who stood there right in front blocking my way and my vision….
The canteen manager flashed his pan coated teeth waiting for a reply…
Well… I dragged my foot as if I was searching for words.. I hadn’t got the question right.. and even if I had I wouldn’t know the answer….
Poor Anand sir… what a man he was…. The guy said as he walked back to his corner place where he strategically sat to collect money from the kids who came in groups and left in groups often strategically cheating the guy and putting his numerical and arithmetic abilities into severe testing…
God is so cruel..... he kept lamenting from his chair… Good people get the entire ordeal while the bad ones just grow and keep growing….
I couldn’t take the tea or the banana fry,,, it started tasting bitter… I couldn’t sit there either…
I AM NOT THAT BAD .. I wanted to shout…. But instead decided to walk out…
Cancer at this age… and for him… the guy looked into my face and said, when I paid and tried to move….
Did a sudden torrent of denim overwhelm me…?
Did I cry?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
New and Improved !!!
The post exam holidays came to an end so very soon that the kids who came back had the hangover so visibly written over their worried faces. They started coming in one by one and group after group, slowly trickling in to various hostels, some a day in advance and many in the last minute. Notices and instructions appeared at all the notice boards about the does and don’ts that GIM followed as rules and classes got spruced up and all the maintenance work was done. The building just needed its life blood, the kids of GIM to flow in and begin life.
The first day first class fell upon me.. in theory one would get them fresh but after a weeks holiday they were all clearly in no mood for a class- a week was too much for them to get tired and to little to get refreshed…
I had made the lesson plan, the list of readings, the list of assignments and evaluation plan, three days in advance and gave it to the ED( it was mandatory to submit the plan for his approval before the faculty proceeded with it to the first class) who sat over it and analysed it as pig would scan shit…. The ones whom he hated got the bulk of such scrutiny and needless to say Advertising management and sales promotion – my paper took a hell lot of time to get cleared….
Why is this syllabus different from that of this text book? ......He asked me like a police officer, pointing to a relic of a text book on his table…
What is this text book? ......I asked while taking it carefully, and slowly turning its pages afraid of the fact that it was as old as my grand dad and can collapse if I were harsh with it…
It is a classic book, the ideal syllabus and I was surprised that you haven’t included this in your course plan… he said, still the COP like echo added to his questions…
I guess you did study from this at your MBA days… I said with a tint of disdain, which he didn’t get. Instead he beamed and became even more eloquent on why THAT was a reason why I should be teaching from it…
Come on sir… its all gone.. I said with a smile that clearly spilled a can of red paint over his ugly face… your times were different, now it is all changed…
What you mean?..... He asked….
I mean that I have designed the course with my 7 years experience in the industry and with constant up gradation that is done with my corporate connections….....I said and remained silent
Dr Joseph didn’t speak.. Neither did he make any gestures.. I knew I had ill-treated his ego, but he called for it…he was one languorous jackass who never taught a course in the recent past but sat over everyone’s course plan as if he knew every thing of every subject.. Some one some where had to tell him to fuck off and in any case I was not in his good books…
As I left his room, I knew what he will do next … I sat in my cabin expecting a call from the lord of the rings, Dr Jesus, but which never happened…instead called me the King himself in what was literally a jolt…..
The King…? Calling a lesser mortal….?
When I passed through the HQ where the bosses sat in adjacent chambers deciding on the future of management education,Jesus was not there in his cabin… Manohar was there in his but watching some thing in his large LCD TV.. may be some third rate Tamil film which was his passion and probably from where he got inspiration for his funny hair style and his colorful attire, the VC’s chamber was dark- it seemed he didn’t turn up to office that day…and Madam secretary was there, as usual, proud and displaying vanity as if she was the kings wife and not his secretary.
Dr Joy called me… I said with a kind of arrogance and pride which I purposefully and momentarily crafted and oozed out to poke her ego balloon.
She fell for it and stared at me as if it was impossible...... I had a smirk which irritated her even more…
What is it regarding? She asked me….
How would I know,??,, you should ask your boss.. I said with a scorn even as I saw disbelief on her face which bloomed and then erupted… she would never have seen me like that.. why she?… No one had seen this me.. This new me…
In my heart of hearts I thanked just one guy…….who had injected this new found impunity into my blood.. no matter he wasn’t around, I still thought he is seeing me.. and when he is seeing me could I be looking the same old crouching and miserable academic potato?
New and improved Sukesh Menon, walked into the grand doors of the kings chamber mercilessly over a burst balloon which didn’t protest , not even for namesake….
The first day first class fell upon me.. in theory one would get them fresh but after a weeks holiday they were all clearly in no mood for a class- a week was too much for them to get tired and to little to get refreshed…
I had made the lesson plan, the list of readings, the list of assignments and evaluation plan, three days in advance and gave it to the ED( it was mandatory to submit the plan for his approval before the faculty proceeded with it to the first class) who sat over it and analysed it as pig would scan shit…. The ones whom he hated got the bulk of such scrutiny and needless to say Advertising management and sales promotion – my paper took a hell lot of time to get cleared….
Why is this syllabus different from that of this text book? ......He asked me like a police officer, pointing to a relic of a text book on his table…
What is this text book? ......I asked while taking it carefully, and slowly turning its pages afraid of the fact that it was as old as my grand dad and can collapse if I were harsh with it…
It is a classic book, the ideal syllabus and I was surprised that you haven’t included this in your course plan… he said, still the COP like echo added to his questions…
I guess you did study from this at your MBA days… I said with a tint of disdain, which he didn’t get. Instead he beamed and became even more eloquent on why THAT was a reason why I should be teaching from it…
Come on sir… its all gone.. I said with a smile that clearly spilled a can of red paint over his ugly face… your times were different, now it is all changed…
What you mean?..... He asked….
I mean that I have designed the course with my 7 years experience in the industry and with constant up gradation that is done with my corporate connections….....I said and remained silent
Dr Joseph didn’t speak.. Neither did he make any gestures.. I knew I had ill-treated his ego, but he called for it…he was one languorous jackass who never taught a course in the recent past but sat over everyone’s course plan as if he knew every thing of every subject.. Some one some where had to tell him to fuck off and in any case I was not in his good books…
As I left his room, I knew what he will do next … I sat in my cabin expecting a call from the lord of the rings, Dr Jesus, but which never happened…instead called me the King himself in what was literally a jolt…..
The King…? Calling a lesser mortal….?
When I passed through the HQ where the bosses sat in adjacent chambers deciding on the future of management education,Jesus was not there in his cabin… Manohar was there in his but watching some thing in his large LCD TV.. may be some third rate Tamil film which was his passion and probably from where he got inspiration for his funny hair style and his colorful attire, the VC’s chamber was dark- it seemed he didn’t turn up to office that day…and Madam secretary was there, as usual, proud and displaying vanity as if she was the kings wife and not his secretary.
Dr Joy called me… I said with a kind of arrogance and pride which I purposefully and momentarily crafted and oozed out to poke her ego balloon.
She fell for it and stared at me as if it was impossible...... I had a smirk which irritated her even more…
What is it regarding? She asked me….
How would I know,??,, you should ask your boss.. I said with a scorn even as I saw disbelief on her face which bloomed and then erupted… she would never have seen me like that.. why she?… No one had seen this me.. This new me…
In my heart of hearts I thanked just one guy…….who had injected this new found impunity into my blood.. no matter he wasn’t around, I still thought he is seeing me.. and when he is seeing me could I be looking the same old crouching and miserable academic potato?
New and improved Sukesh Menon, walked into the grand doors of the kings chamber mercilessly over a burst balloon which didn’t protest , not even for namesake….
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