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!!!

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...

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….

Say’s law…

Anand and me had very few things in common and yet we complimented each other so very perfectly. Things but had changed after the discourse by Ram in the canteen. The friend that I found in Anand had suddenly died and the trust that I had slowly developed in him evaporated. Not that Srilaxmi was the issue (!) but the way he handled it was. I some how had got into an impression that as a friend he will and should share everything with me as did I , a fool whose heart lay open and anyone could access it like a free software. I but this time was sure about my insistence and determination… I need to repackage and reposition myself….

When Dr Joseph the ED called for a weekly meeting, this time with subject allocation for the upcoming semester as the agenda I decided not to take my notepad and not to be seated near Anand for sure. It was easy for me as the meeting room was just next to my cabin, the pigeon hole where I sat, under a camera. Anand was in his usual best walking from cabin to cabin, with jokes and camaraderie which came naturally to him. For once I despised it, as I sat there seeing it, the loudness of it, the emptiness of it. He didn’t go to one cabin and that was Sri Laxmi… thanks to Ram ,or else I would never had had noted it…

Bastard… I muttered even as I waited for him to come to me with his charm and wit…I wanted to tear him into pieces ….

The meeting began and this time I sat in the front row, even as Dr Joseph rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Ram sat next to me, but that was suitable in the changed circumstances.

It is decided based on our last meeting... said the ED… to introduce a couple of new subjects in the current semester and the respective faculty members are already working on them…

A murmur ,albeit a small one erupted from the 25 or so faculty members of GIM who sat with mixed set of reactions in their faces. The more experienced ones were more composed and apathetic but the relatively newer ones showed fear, hope and joy when names and subjects were announced.....

This made GIM a funny place -the demand supply game and GIM believed in Say’s law which famously said that the supply will take care of its demand…In simple terms the economics guy will get to teach Consumer Behavior and the operations guy will be asked to handle Marketing I …. I kept switched off from all the courses and people until he said my name… Mr Sukesh Menon this time will handle International Marketing and Mr Anand Mohan will handle Advertising and Promotion Management.

My paper.. given to Anand….? Said my mind as my heart beat went up…fuck the ED….

He hadn’t said that fully before I raised my hand, and shouted .Ram was aghast by my voice so much so that he almost fell off as I spoke.

With due respects sir… I said to the ED…. Can I know the reason for such a change… I mean the logic?

The ED scouted for a reason and for the right words to sell the reason to me… I got confident seeing his plight.. he ostensibly wasn’t prepared for this and I could read it from the old man’s face …and I had a kind of courage that sprang up as a surprise even to me, a shiver that spread to every cell... all the habiliments of a moderate psuedo loyal that I wore was torn off suddenly.

What reason do you want? He finally countered me with a question…

I smiled… a question for a question cannot be the answer!!!

The logic for this sudden shift… the course which I have handled for three years and perfected it, I need to know why it is taken off from me.. I asked

I knew that the crowd was getting restless at this abrupt defiance from an otherwise obedient me… and I knew that the ED knew that IF he had to give me logic, he would end up doing that to everyone who got a new and even worse, unrelated subjects to handle.

Who said you have perfected it? .....asked the ED in what I thought was a poor attempt to skirt away from the question…

I saw a smile in Anand and a couple of others, but by and large I saw support and sympathy in other faces which emboldened me.

What more you want than the student feed back? ….I asked even as I stood up… and I want you to discuss that in this meeting… and in any case that was not an answer to my question which you are trying to drift away from.

The ED looked insipid and anemic … I even thought that he will faint, if I could trust his looks at that point of time.

There is a point in what he is saying… said Prof Ram, and it was a support that I needed much in that battle.

Why not we allow people to pursue with their favorite areas, particularly when they have proven it? ....said some one else..

Mixing up will not help.. let us keep going with the status quo.. said another voice…

A big smile bloomed in me,a very confident one, a one which only a winner can afford, a rare one armed with which I looked back and fixed a glance at Anand.. he but, still had that same smile in his face as if he was unperturbed and all this was trivial for his larger than life persona…

I hated him….

The ED had to heed under pressure but not before putting in place a stare on my eyes before he did and allocate the new papers to the newer people..

I got my subject back and my victory which I snatched from the jaws of defeat . But one thing kept unsettling me…

That smile… The more I tried to decode it the more confusing it became…

Anand and his smile….

How can people smile even in the face of defeat?