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….

It was new… this assembly of the GIM intellectual capital at the Kings Chamber, big enough it was but that day it looked too small a place for all that ego to congregate…

Welcome friends…. announced Dr Joy sitting in his throne, flanked by his coterie left and right…..

Today is a special day for GIM…… he said spiritedly…

A hush of murmur went through the crowd….

Any guesses?..... He launched the question like a quiz master would do and the crowd sat there looking for clues to answer….

I didn’t need any clue and same was with Prof Ram who sat next to me in the back row….

The front rows threw answers, some of which bounced, some almost hit the target but not fully….

GIM is accredited by the national board for a period of 5 years and we have also become the largest B School in this part of the country…. declared the king, while the people around him flashed smiles and exchanged congratulations…

I couldn’t see the front rows, I mean the faces of the people seated at the front rows but could imagine how they would all look like…

Largest means more money…. said Ram… more money for the god damn spendthrift family… what is in it for others…?

I did smile but a faded one….

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…..

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...

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?