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 …
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