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 !!!!

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!!!

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…..