Go to Hell !

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

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

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

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

Some lived with it… some just left it….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The comment policy-

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

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

That is a request !!!

Intellectual orgasm>> part I

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

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

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

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

I AM A JOKER, LAUGH AT ME……

It announced piercingly….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ohh what are you then talking about… ? I exclaimed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your choice.. she retorted…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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