The Rules of Differentiation!!!

Anand again went on leave for his periodic check ups and medication.. I couldn’t get him to advise me every time I wanted to..If I was allowed I would have secretly video taped all events and meetings and show him to read between the lines, hear the unspoken among all the spoken words and unknot each smile,,, … Students were away on their study leave ,only to be seen in one’s and two’s, here and there…

It was during one of those days the announcement came. The annual increments for the ten best faculty and the best teacher award (that the king had promised) were announced. I could hear murmur when (in an unusual style) an office note that passed from cabin to cabin by the hands of Jhansi William, declared the winner who was a dark horse that emerged from nowhere… I guessed the mumble was both about the person and the method of communication…

For the normal, it would be a search in to find their name in the list.. it was money and more over there was no point in being there if you couldn’t be in the first ten,,, But at GIM everyone weird and wonderful… people clamored and discussion started right in the spot .. the paper refused to move from cabin to cabin… it got lost some where but didn’t matter, everyone knew the content..

The fortunate ones smiled, the less fortunate ones garbled and the doubtful ones, with no pre agenda and notice, assembled at the common area of the faculty room…

I didn’t smile or stupor… I for sure knew that I wasn’t the best of teachers, but could have easily placed my self in the first ten.. Among the 40 odd teachers at the B school, but in reality,I was not in the first ten and I didn’t complain.. I didn’t bother to read the list again… for me it was only the case of a missing name- mine…

Sri Laxmi joined me at the canteen… I knew she will start the topic..Why? What? Did you know and all the stuff.. But she didn’t .. she sat like that was no news at all…

Women always amuse me by their strange demeanor … you could never predict them… She didn’t ask or talk anything and strangely I felt odd.. I wanted her to initiate the talk so that I could lash out.. may be growl at the mammoth system like a dog barking on darkness … she but chose to remain like a mobile phone.. ring only when she is not expected to, and not to ring when she is badly anticipated to… Miserable !!!

Your problem is simple.. she said at last, leading to the topic…see me.. I am not worried because I didn’t expect.. where there is no desire , there is no despair..

She had a “am I not great” look in her eyes which glistened.. her stupid philosophy didn’t entreat me to reply but her logic did…. Where is she and where is ME?

What the heck? ............I almost shouted… I didn’t desire for anything.. and even if I did what is the harm..? I know I deserve it…

She giggled…. Sir you know what.. you are contradicting … you didn’t desire it but you know you deserve it and now you have gone desperate …

I didn’t speak, for loss of words for sure and the sight of good old Prof Ram coming in to the canteen…

He walked straight to us… I knew you would be here.. he announced even as he was only half way through…

It didn’t take a genius to guess my where about in times of stress.. stress.. Why should I be stressed.. WTF? ..........I kept telling my boiling mind…

Don’t you think that the whole thing is a sham..?

Ram said as he sat, with a smile of having proven his postulate of "Nothing will change in GIM"…

You mean the award..? asked Sri Laxmi as if she didn’t know the art of speculation…

Of course….. Said Ram with a thump on the table… what is the criteria, I am asking?

Asking whom… ? .....I said to myself…
Me, who only know to run to the canteen revengefully to eat banana fries when driven to a corner ?
Or this stupid girl who never ever wanted to be a teacher in the first place?

He answered to that mind talk of mine… I know you are the wrong person but was wondering whether you still think that these guys can get anything right…

I told him a feeble NO but Ram as usual could see me.. why Ram, any one could read my face like a comic book…

I don’t want it to sound like – you didn’t give me the award so I rebel… said Ram.. but the criteria should be transparent…

Ram was in the list of Best Ten… so I guess he didn’t dispute that part… the criteria of the best teacher award was the only issue … HUH….. I said to myself and took another banana fry to eat…oil dripped from each piece like my HOD’s face…

Each banana fry, for me represented the sullied system.. I knew it is bad but I was in it….
I couldn’t fight it, hence I ate it…

I stood up even as Sri Laxmi looked perplexed and Ram clearly agitated…

Where are you going? … asked Sri Laxmi visibly shaken at my irreverence …

To my cabin.. I said with ridicule… I have to work hard.. I have to be in the number ten list at least next year…

I didn’t look back as I walked out with a thud which later on looked to me like too much of drama for the wrong cause, enacted to the wrong people… The apple cart that Anand used to talk about was upside down… I didn’t care what Anand would have said to this reaction…. Being an ardent fan of the likes of Stephen Covey –he would have said some absurd thing like “it’s how you react to an issue which makes the issue look important”

Suddenly even the theory of relativity that I used to rely on every time a student feed back is taken also looked invalid…Some strange rules of differentiation were being applied.. if f(x) = x n then ..HUH….. I never got it right….

Suddenly, I saw a plot… shady figures devising stratagem to unseat me… I saw slimy and oily shapes of all sizes descending down and dancing around my very existence.. Their holler and cry broke the silence,,, their long and foul tentacles stabbing through the gruesome darkness caught me….I didn’t want awards and increments… I cried….just let me go…. please…

If it was not for Jhansi William who woke me up ,I would have cried out loud….or did I?

Sir.. there is a meeting at the chairman’s cabin… every one has gone….she said looking at me as if she was a kid who just came out of a scary house and I was the operator...

I looked around.. no dirty creatures as in tooth paste ads… no heart breaking laughter.. no friends and foes.. I was all alone and for the first time I felt good ……for a change, silence and darkness didn’t threaten me, at least not as much as the maddening crowds that lived there....

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 …

UFO>>>>!!!

I returned with a heavy heart, (well! a heavier heart) than I left when the King called me… petrified like a cattle in the meat shop I was in a dawdling crawl to the kings abode but in return I ran, literally… what happened there is but a different story altogether…

I returned to the faculty room to witness a huge noisy hubbub.. I could hear shouting from a corner and could hear Ram’s voice…I could see a crowd and that included some students..

You are an impossible psycho…....came up the voice of Prof Ram.. and you better get treated before you totally rot this place….

Now this was too much, I mean..... it was not at all a clue at the GIM faculty room…it could be any one on the other side.. almost every one there, could fit into that title...... Impossible psycho…

Do you know whom are you talking to…… I saw as I walked (or ran? ), the well oiled face of Prof Mathew Cherain, My HOD..

I hadn’t had any moment’s gap to think whom to support… I needed no gap to judge, in a flip of a second that it would be the oily jerk that would have created the ruckus…

I am the HOD.. screamed the man from his cabin.. he was shaking like a drunk facing a storm ….

The story is public …..retorted Ram in such big decibel that will put even airports to shame….… even the gate watcher knows how creeps like you make it to the top…

Dr Joseph , the ED was seen rushing from nowhere frenetically, seemingly to save his aide-de-camp … his face was more distorted than normal and had turned crimson…

He, looked like was called to fight the fire that was on…

What the hell are you all doing here? …. he shouted at us- the on lookers…Anand and me in the front row…

ED seemed to have forgotten that 'when shows are on, crowd will gather',,,,

People went back a little but stayed put, the show was so entertaining to let it go..

What is this ? ….I asked Anand hoping to hear the story from its beginning…I was like some one who walked into a cinema post interval... the climax wasn’t spicy without knowing how the story developed…

Will tell you… this was brewing for some time now.. said Anand with a wicked smile… volcanoes better erupt than hold back..

The HOD looked like an overflowing oil tank….. slipping and flowing now and then ,here and there.. worlds failing to match his fiery facial expressions…

Now this was new for me.. the most revered senior professor at GIM fighting with a greasy lunatic… when the one professional I adored, was in battle with a qualified schemer , I knew for sure who would be the reason…

What is his problem.. argued Ram with the ED who tried to pacify the war lords.. … why the hell he has to poke his nose into my affairs.. ?

And his dirty ass into almost every ones.. said Anand with a stupid grin…

I laughed and laughed a little loud…

The ED turned to us, leaving the battle front..

Now aren’t you ashamed..? he asked me and Anand.. you are enjoying this nonsense..…

We were startled, I mean I for sure was.. I didn’t had the time to see and analyse Anand and his face,,, I just didn’t get enough time to even form my defense before be jumped on us again…

Sir.. would you stop it… Anand raised his voice to the old man who looked like he was about to eat us alive… Now if YOU cannot control your colleagues fighting that is because YOU fed it.. YOU groomed and nurtured it.. That is your headache.. Don’t try to put a show on our expense.. You are no bloody KING here…

What? …..Taken aback, but not to give up the old man barked bizarrely like an angry dog would when thrown stones at it..… What did you say…?

The war front had changed… the crowd now got a new show to watch.. I don’t remember what Ram and Mathew Cherian did at that moment because in this new flank attack that Dr Joseph had opened, I was also a party…

I said what you heard.. said Anand smiling.. if the faculty are fighting and when you ask them to stop ,if they don’t stop, that is because you have given them the wrong leadership by example.. You have been impotent and incompetent as their boss… now just because you think we will obey and never question don’t try to attack us… the same guys who pay you ,pay us as well…isn’t that clear?

Dr Joseph and his red face look like a broken tomato.. Why not? ....Hit so hard, it had to smash…

Stunned stillness provided a strange background to this uncanny anti climax.. No one talked and every one retired to their cabins and pigeon holes, waiting for the next step…

I saw Dr Jesus coming in, I knew it was going to happen but compared to what I thought would happen, he went directly to Ram’s cabin .. Heads that didn’t dare to show up till then slowly came up..

Buzz… Anand came in my chat box online……

You don’t talk if we are called.. he wrote.. I will do the honours…

I knew he was quite disbelieving about my conversation skills in testing times, that too with the bosses…Anand had this.. he was always certain and cheerful.. may be that is why I wanted to be him ….

I had a smile while I waited…

We will have a meeting… announced Jesus after his talk with Prof Ram standing at the centre of the large room where the faculty sat, lived, played, shared jokes, gossiped, read, prepared, made cut copy and paste research and now fought as well … in another 10 minutes in the conference hall… I request all you ladies and gentlemen to be there…

He walked out with the intended pun looming at the troposphere and Jesus looked like an alien who just came out of a UFO that was parked in the garden outside…

The traces of my birthday cake were still lying scattered here and there, laughing at me and the whole system…

The birthday boy - Part I

Why do we celebrate birthdays? ..... asked Anand while I was engrossed in that day's Business line….

It was my birthday and no one at GIM knew it…. now this question woke me up from the illusion that no one knew it…

I do not … I said unflappably …. So may be I wouldn’t know…

Anand laughed as he came and sat near to me in the common room.. it was the first tea break of the day and the faculty room was full of talk and laughter…

You didn’t answer me but ..insisted my friend…

I do not know… I think it is just to declare ones self importance.. existence… may be like brands advertise…

There you go… he said….. so GIM is implementing this new style of advertising from today…. The management would be hereafter celebrating its staff’s birthday officially…

I didn’t say a WOW but an awe escaped through my larger than proportionate mouth, to nowhere….

HR policies being reframed… said Anand with conviction looking at my 'not so appreciative' face… the change agent in him wouldn’t die…

By the way suk…. Happy birthday… he said and caught my hands... his eyes sparkled even though the doses of medicines and the therapy had made him a poor looking cousin of his past… you could have told me at least…

But I don’t… I protested feebly….

Happy birthday professor Sukesh… said someone from their cabin to my astonishment….. I saw Ram coming in and many others even as I tried to retire to my pigeon hole cabin…. I saw a group of office boys from the HQ coming in and taking the centre table at the sitting place and putting a larger canteen type table there with a white cloth over it… it looked like a drama set scene to scene transformation, from garden to the palace interiors and from the palace to the market place.. within seconds flowers came in… the king size chairs arrived and so did the king and his court… a large cake appeared on which my name was written ….I was caught in the fanfare, where people smiled ,made noise and rejoiced.. I still didn’t come to terms with the happening inside the faculty room that afternoon…

Anand was seen here and there among the crowd and as Jesus and Manohar came in there was a sudden silence…

Every one stood around the cake… And the King spoke,,,,,

Our employees are our friends… he said looking into the cake and then to each of our faces for a second each… here there are no superiors and sub ordinates…

The VC , ED and the others in the top management team nodded.. When the king spoke, they were all by habit attuned to this nodding no matter what he said….

I switched off and instead kept scanning the crowd.. most of them were surprised and shocked like me, some looked and stared at me as if I was hosting the show, still others seemed jealous at my propulsion to the centre of fame …. I knew that this would be the new game floor and I wasn’t prepared for that….

When the speech was over, Jesus said a prayer and after which I was asked to cut the cake… the first piece was stuffed into my mouth and then the creamy sticky mass was cut into smaller pieces and send around …

We all had had birthdays ..said some one sarcastically ,making sure that the top had left the room… but some are more equal than others…

I was in a smolder …. Pain and agony ran untamed as I sat in my cabin …

The tit bits and residuals of the cake was spread all over but my worry was the grimy looks and the puny faces that the whole show had left as residue…

Happy birthday sir… people kept on saying the whole day... students , staff, colleagues and others… in the lift , at the canteen , in the library and even at the toilet… I just wanted the day to be over soon.. the day when I had told Anand that I do not celebrate birthdays…

Professor Ram was waiting for me, walking nervously up and down outside my pigeon hole when I returned from the loo …

Why do you think, the lot again fell on you? .....he asked the moment he saw me….

I didn’t know… I was worried as well why I am the chosen one always… why I am again the first outsider who had the honor to have the king arrive and sing songs on his birthday,,,,,

Be careful… said Ram… I smell a rat in this sudden celebrity status …

Cats always smell rats.. I said to myself but tried to look cool.... I didn’t want Ram to know of my anguish….

There is a talk among the folks… said Ram…. I don’t know how far that is true…

Now that was too much for my garb to fall… my habiliment worn off and I stood like a naked beggar… he could see me raw but I didn’t know how I looked like..

I am sure I would have looked shocked…my face would have gone pale and blank.. my lips would have dried up… I could see that in Ram’s face…. A sort of a dirty glee appeared there…

Ram had this… he knew how to spin a yarn of suspense and clasp one in it…I was for sure caught in curiosity …

Jhansi Williams appeared on the back ground….

Sir you are wanted by the chairman .. she said and disappeared…

I didn’t look into Ram’s face , I just walked off tongue-tied….

Experiential humbug- part II

After the flop show of the alumni meet, no heads rolled, no fault finding missions were launched where oily faces and dirty giggles sat around and passed the buck.......

The father, the son and their holy spirits were all too benevolent on women....even when they erred and screwed up royally, they were treated with chivalry.....

Sri Laxmi was as young as the guys and girls who passed out in hundreds from GIM every year; some were even older than she was….. As the convener, she was taken non seriously by insiders and outsiders and the alumni… That was mistake number one ....

She took it lightly (worse!) and assumed that at GIM the HQ will take care of and she will just have to smile, shake hands with the hundreds that will throng the meet and deliver speeches and sound very nostalgic…That was mistake number two…

No one communicated properly to the alumni, some were invited, some were not, some got long mails, some got short ones, and the data base was to be blamed. No one ever FOUND OUT that it was not the alumni’s job the make and maintain a proper data base.. That was mistake number three….

And people hated GIM, most of them who left GIM would never want to come back ,no matter how beautiful and young was the convenor who invited was .. her starry eyes could not that easily replace the horror that they lived in their eyes... no one realised it and that was mistake number four....

Why the hell…? ....

I threw the note pad on which I was jotting down the reasons why the meet failed… no one blamed anyone, worse no one talked about it and the day next was just another day, except for the welcome banners that hung here and there and the gloomy faced students who were made to sit a whole day listening to dreary discourses and self eulogy ……but then gloom in there faces was an everyday phenomenon like the deep fried banana's in the GIM canteen...

So the conclusion is that when the inspection team is here we all should together work for the accreditation….team work matters…… it’s our common dream… said Dr Joseph…

Anand sat next to me in the conference hall and seemingly knew that I had left my body there and my mind was wandering….

He smiled and wrote on my note pad… GIM is trying international accreditation…The team is coming…. Another show to be put up…

I woke up to the real world from my one man commission ,finding fault with why the alumni meet bombed like a big fart and yet why it didn’t smell ….

Is it?....... I asked loud in a fit of fury mixed with anxiety topped with suspicion and seasoned with apathy,,,,,

Dr Joseph stopped his speech and paused for a second before asking… Yeah it is Professor Sukesh… Why? ....... you have any doubts…?

No sir… I muttered… I couldn’t tell him that it was just a co incidence and I was not replying to his insincere blather on team work…

He went back and listed on what was to be done by each faculty and others when the team comes calling...…

I could hear the likes of Prof Ram and others (who still thought of change and change agents) debating, suggesting, fighting, compromising, convincing, and arguing from the front rows..

I could see women (most of them the juniors) looking bored and worn-out from this cacophony to which they had no reason to connect to....

I could smell acids from hungry stomachs… it was a typically atypical sight…

I could feel team work…. Two teams were in action – the actives and the passives…

Every meeting in the conference room of GIM had this setting.. Half the crowd spoke.. the other half didn’t, the management will have a set agenda, which will remain intact after all the debate and disagreement which the first half will be bothered and the unconnected second half will not be, the first half would look into the clock and their watches wanting more time for the meeting, the second half would do the same but in desperation to flee…

Hungry Kya ? … Anand asked me…

It was about 1 pm and the hard sunny day it was ,I had a huge appetite …

Dominos? ... I asked in reply and we both laughed….

It seems Professor Sukesh Menon and Prof Anand Mohan has something valuable to contribute… suddenly said Dr Joseph (who noticed that we were not listening to his talk).

I was taken aback by this googly… it was unexpected….

Very true sir… announced Anand as he stood up….. I was even more shocked by this response…

I just have one question… what is new? said Anand....

What? .... Dr Joseph asked portentously….

This is like a school play enacted year after year… for those who have been here during the last visit by the same commission, it is the same…. The plot… the characters and even the dialogues… announced Anand with the same charm and power with which he had stood up like Moses the saviour, the last time when such a meeting was held.....

I didn’t hear the roar of the red sea this time…but could see the blue faces on the stage…..

The women (still unconnected) stared at Anand who stood there,waiting for an answer….

I flashed a smile…. At Anand and then to the ED’s face which had turned Red from Blue…..

Bloody bastards … he seemed to have said…

Same to you ,you ugly rotten creep… I said with impunity…

Experiential learning ...Part II

It was an angry morning.

Dark and dim sky stared down at lesser mortals who panicked at the sudden change on what would have been a sunny and sultry summer morning. It wasn’t pouring when I drove down from home to office but it was about to begin. It was only a matter of time. The heavens kept grumbling and shouting and it was pitch dark at 8 45 in the morning when vehicles queued up and scrambled at the huge gates of GIM.

It was exam day… the seniors writing their first exam of the third semester and the juniors writing their first exam of the first semester. GIM wore a look of gloom, to a degree due to the fuming sky but mainly due to exams which was always a tough affair.

Jansi Williams and her team of faculty assistants were busy in pasting role numbers room after room after which the peons will lock them and keep the students at bay till the first bell goes on air at 9 30 am. The kids sat, stood and walked with books, some teamed up discussing possible questions, some sat alone, some stared at the dark heaven hoping for divine intervention. Some assumed the role of teachers where they taught (more because in the process their concepts got clearer and less because the listener’s welfare was a concern) a few who cared to listen …Still others kept searching their laptops for power points and reading stuff the faculty would have provided long back when he or she taught but which got lost among other important things like hottest songs and spicy videos… No one sat idle or without reading or writing, as in GIM all said and done exams was not an easy phenomenon…

The list of invigilators was published a day in advance and I knew that I had to do the boring job of going around in the exam hall, around and around peeping into papers, gawk and gape at violators, be suspicious and above all pretend to be alert and stern as the cameras watched unkindly. I have always felt that exam time at GIM was testing time for the students of course but more so for the teacher who invigilated.

Faculty members please listen… came out Dr Joseph the ED, from his cabin to the common area of the faculty room…..

All heads turned and all eyes posted at the old man who stood in a stylish posture which he would have thought as similar to the James bond 007 but de facto looking like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura….

It is assumed that the seniors know all the rules, but it cannot be the same with the juniors… he declared.. the faculty members are asked to announce it before the commencement of the exam….

He listed out the rules,( which if all of them were to be broadcasted, would be taking half the time of the exam) and then said…… All the best to all of you…

Satirical he tried to be occasionally and most of the times it sounded like a gibe……To survive an exam season at GIM was tough for the taught and the teacher …..

Anand called me in intercom…

Hey Suk…. He said …. We are in adjacent halls… hall 5 and 6 in second floor…today we should finalise our plan for operation apple cart….

Well I needed to … after all GIM had chosen me as the anchor for its EMEP programme which will turn around the future of the MBA guys…and may be turn around GIM as well…

Exams when it began were as usual a mixture of hilarity and horror …. hilarity for the observer and horror for the partaker … I was in class 6 which was the last hall in the second floor and from where, the two rows of windows if opened we one could see the endless limits of the sea… The A/C was in full swing and windows couldn’t be left open as per the rules… GIM hated knowledge and noble thoughts that came from outside, understandably so, but fresh air too?

Walking up and down in a large class room for an entire stretch of 3 hours was not an easy task, particularly for the lazy academics that did no work physically as most of our work was intellectual, and using the brain (again that is a supposition, assuming that....
1. every teacher had brains or intellect as they call it,
2. it worked always and ....
3. the outcome was fruitful for the students at large…)

I did a lot of thinking during such sessions, walking up and down noting down stuff, ideas ,philosophy, verdicts, names, instances ,judgments and any such crap in my note pad.

My mobile vibrated …

1 message… it said

Anand Mohan ….

Breaking news …..Prof Latha is sent out from the exam hall by Jesus, for sitting and reading India Today … …. the SMS said…

I don’t remember who this Prof was… well I mean knew her who joined recently but wasn’t close to her, for want of time and interest … It was pointless in GIM… people came and went as in a railway platform… relations became a burden when they left…

Jesus walking in seeing the lady in her chair, relaxed with India Today, the kids in sharing info verbally via gestures and physically… some in a shock with his answer papers in the neighbors table, some with two question papers in his possession while the hapless neighbor has none…….

Annoyance, angst, alarm …. I tried to visualize the exam hall from where the faculty invigilator would have had to go out with head down, reluctant and disgraced ….

I walked even more briskly after the SMS… kept my note pad in table and feigned to be more vigilant, as the cameras beamed their eyes on the hall and also as I knew that Jesus will come out from nowhere with salvation and surprise to the suffering…

Anand never came from hall number 5 to 6 to discuss operation apple cart as he called it. I was relieved that he didn’t, as apple cart was not a darling project of mine (I know I was the chosen one though) and as I didn’t want to walk like an accused…

Hi sir… said Suhail khan who emerged from a hall after the exam, as I walked down with the answer sheets to be deposited at the exam coordinators office.

Hey how did you do your paper …. I asked him just for courtesy

Fine sir… he said but a smile was missing…

Any problems in your class sir..?

No why? …I felt it anomalous… oh yes…. may be he was referring to the prof who was caught updating her information on India today……Jesus was an idiot to reprimand a faculty in public…

Prof Anand caught three guys copying….. and they are debarred from writing further exams….. said Suhail Khan….

Anand will not do that …..was my first response but I kept it to myself…I wanted to see him….

He didn’t come to the faculty room for some time. Most of the prof’s had returned with their answer sheets… students were seen here and there; especially the studious ones who dared to do some post mortem of the QP with their teachers but Anand didn’t and his mobile phone was not reachable….

I went and stood at the main door of the faculty room to get hold of Anand the moment he comes in……

The dark skies still loomed … and all of a sudden power went off…GIM was engulfed in darkness… for a long minute it lingered and no one made any sound……then came down a thunder with ground breaking ferocity… the doors clang and I ran outside fearing an earthquake……then came a huge uproar from all the floors, in unbelievable unison, the students shouted /cried/sang and it reverberated across the corridors and walls…

Rains lashed down after hours of waiting and so did the guys in all the 6 floors of GIM… scattered they were and yet it all came together…..

The darkness was welcome, and even a deluge would be greeted with cheers…

GIM stood trembling in the thunder… it stood shivering in the rain, and as if ashamed, it kept its head low, slowly bowing unable to swallow the infamy….

Even in the thick of dimness I could feel the smell of denim and yet, I missed him….

The Outsider !

The hot tea and banana fries went in to make some change in me.. The hunk who never indulged in oily stuff ordered a vegetable sandwich (cheese free) and waited….I kept gulping the hot banana fry as he sat there watching me.. Advice was to follow… hit the gym… eat healthy.... bla bla bla…

But nothing happened…

He was unusually silent….

I guess Sukesh.. he said ,possibly unable to endure the dirty sounds that I was blatantly producing… the time has come…

I looked at him questioningly… time to hit the gym and compete with him in looks? Aura? Majesty?... huh!! no way…

Time to change things here…. Time to upset the apple cart…. Said Anand looking somewhere far through the window, and talking to the world…

I laughed… Banana fry could wait but these communist style utterances from a US educated, branded, neo colonialist, capitalist symbol of a man was quite bizarre and once in a life time chance to encounter with….

You mean in the GIM? change things here?… I laughed again as if he was kidding….

Yes in GIM… we can do it… this EMEP programme is a God send opportunity to do it….he uttered with an unyielding expression…

I didn’t smile… I didn’t even react… I couldn’t unravel this puzzle named Anand mohan…

I know .. he said quickly…. You are a statusquoist ….. and you remain so… but imagine what is the fun in passing off like a ship in the night…? Sukesh Menon….. just another academic? You want to be the role model of the hundreds of kids here… the aspiring young managers…

My banana fry got over and his sandwiches had arrived…. He kept talking while I tried to make both ends meet… connect the apparently unmatchable threads… this story had a hero for sure, but who is it..? Anand or me? This story had villains for sure? And is this guy one?

Suhail khan for instance… he was helpless and you stood there even more helpless… you should have helped him… you should have gone to Jesus and told him … Said Anand,,,,

I woke up… he was referring to the episode outside the HQ some days back… Suhail khan had shared with me his plight and predicament in this same canteen and later outside the HQ…

You pretended to be apathetic… and then he came to me… said Anand… and you know what he said… ?

I didn’t know… I just knew that Anand went to Jesus and saved Suhail from his troubles… and also knew that Suhail would be eternally obliged and would be worshiping Prof Anand Mohan as his hero…

Even Sukesh sir is not able to help me… Said Anand… I repeat.. Even Sukesh sir…

You know why that EVEN came there… asked Anand?

I didn’t know… and I kept quiet… today it was my day to listen and I decided to do it….

He admires you a lot… simple… The sandwiches were getting over and a fresh glass of carrot juice came….

Huh… I said in desperation… I don’t believe it… why should he? And ok… I accept it for argument sake… he does… even if he does, what do you expect me to do?

Help them… said Anand… in management teaching dude, the teacher is a model not only inside the class, even otherwise, particularly young ones like us.. most of them see them in us.. see a possible them in us…

Was it new to me?

I myself had been a student in a B school some years back and have admired some teachers, revered some like a fanatic fan, and have detested some with vengeance… But in a place like GIM was it all possible?

It is dude… EMEP will start after the exams scheduled for day after tomorrow… we will make a plan and that plan will change the GIM system… trust me man it will… he said with a smile, even as I paid the bill and walked out…

He quickly followed me… you didn’t say anything…

You know everything… I said with a smile… you even know what is in my mind… and what more you expect me to say… ?

Anand plucked a flower from the garden… Dr Joy was an avid admirer of flowers and plants and that made the GIM gardens a wonderful place…… remember Gray??… he asked me…..Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,….And waste its sweetness on the desert air….. remember?

I nodded…

I knew what he was hinting at but couldn’t commit…May be I would have if it was not for Prof Ram who came across the garden and stopped to talk to me…

Anand kept walking as I expected… walked some distance and turned back throwing the flower to me and to say…. I will wait… operation apple cart cannot launch without you….

I couldn’t reply, since Prof Ram was already there just opposite to me….

I am sorry…. Prof Ram said… for the EMEP thing… I didn’t know that it was thrust on you….

I smiled… here was the most senior of GIM professors, in the midst of this garden apologizing to a much junior professor, young enough to be his son….

No issues sir… I said touching his hands which he locked with mine ….

This is a good opportunity Sukesh… Said Prof Ram to me as my face opened wide and my eyes fluttered… it’s the first time that such a big responsibility has passed on to an outsider…

That was again a GIM parlance… Outsiders are those in GIM who didn’t subscribe entirely to the management philosophy there as compared to insiders who were hardcore loyals to the HQ. Prof Ram was an outcaste... far away even from outsiders...

I just smiled… Prof Ram walked to the canteen as I did into the GIM building…

The huge mansion stood there, staring at me, the outsider, the first one who made it……

Anand had almost convinced me… now Ram too…

Sukesh Menon was still frightened to seize the chance!

Experiential learning... part I

I went back, to the happy news that Anand Mohan was supposed to break to me the other day. I was appointed as the coordinator of the Experiential Management Education Process (EMEP) which was conceived and envisaged by the top with inputs from wizards like the ED and thrust upon me and the students of MBA. It was just the latest one in a series of programmes that was launched and withdrawn but the ones like me who was caught unawares were usually the victims. It was acceptable that when it was conceived the executor was never told but it was not tolerable that even when it was to be executed, the executor was kept in darkness, totally.

EMEP programme is designed for the wholesome management learning experience to be transferred to the pupil through various means that are non classroom type and to supplement the class room learning that will make perfect managers…

said the document which announced my coronation and when I stood there at the notice board reading it, I saw eyes, many pairs of them staring at me and my name in midst of the semantic jugglery which seemed to have been made to make the whole announcement look mystifying.

Happy eh…? Asked Prof Ram while I sat in the common area of the faculty room…

EMEP Menon… some one said… has arrived….

I didn’t respond.. I didn’t know what the whole thing was about… In fact I didn’t even remember what EMEP was… Jesus would have known it and so was ED but no one else… I for sure no…

The management recognizes talent… said some one smiling in sarcasm …. The right person for the right job…

Many others laughed in mirth… John Holland would be proud… the personality job fit theory is being proven right….

I hated the academic community for its propensity with which it prejudged people and the penchant with which it found delight in it … but I was one among them and may be in more than one occasion I have done the same as well.

I sat there with a smile just because I knew that boys don’t cry …

How I hoped that the cameras had recorded it all and Jesus had just walked in with a stick punishing the bad.

How I hoped that the notice just disappeared or gave some other name instead of mine as the coordinator of the EMEP show…

How I hoped that no one could read it till I make it clear from Dr Joseph the ED or even Jesus as to what this new thing was…

How I hoped that I could ask some one…..WHY ME?

The ED didn’t help much and talked without clear answers.. he specialized in vague and formless talk when he desired so and it was clear that my answer will not come from the old war horse…

EMEP will help them achieve what class rooms cannot… he told me… its is a pioneering method which so far no B school has adopted and we are going to create history of sorts…

It was not my answer… I mean… not for the worry I had and which I had put across to him as a question…. and in any case I didn’t want to create history…

The question mark in my face became more prominent and yet he said again…

It is about innovating new pedagogical tools which will complement the management learning and enhance the wide thinking and the open behaviour that management students should be having…

From his verbal diarrhea I could guess who would have written that notice which I read in the notice board and who would have suggested my name to Jesus… He hated me for no reason or for some reason which I couldn’t make out….the toilet episode with Sri Laxmi was a long forgotten one for me, even for Sri laxmi but I guess he still lived there.. inside his stinking toilet….

I had understood what he meant even though the long sentences didn’t make any sense.. I was there and was to take care of a show which will keep the students engaged in an extra curricular stuff during after noons.. I hadn’t had time for the curriculum and now this one…

I didn’t venture to see Jesus as I knew it wouldn’t make any difference… he will not present long winding sentences for sure, nor will he jargonize but he will keep you affianced in his mesmerizing speak which will make you stop thinking about what you are there for and leave the room with him hand in hand feeling so proud that the director of GIM saw you as so dear a friend…

This time I am not going to take it lying down… I swear… I told myself as I wrote it down in my note pad….

Then you will have to try doggy position… said a husky voice from behind…

What …? I turned around to see Anand in a blue shirt and cream trousers, with that classic smile flowing, and the smell of denim announcing his arrival. Any day he was the best dressed person inside the campus and if a voting was done he would for sure win, hands on…

I didn’t get you.. I said apathetically ….

Every time if you are taking it lying down, you cannot enjoy it… said Anand …try alternative positions…

I didn’t reply… I think I didn’t smile even… he didn’t expect any reply either… he went on…

What is your problem? He asked me… quickly adding… other than me???

I smiled this time.. all said and done, his being there gave a respite…

I told you ‘happy news’ is coming… fuck the world… now you are the chosen one… said Anand… Imagine what all we can do … every afternoon, the whole crowd is at our disposal…

I looked into his eyes… he had large striking eyes resolutely set in his handsome face- every inch of which was made to perfection, he stood in a pose which resembled Michelangelo’s David with with one leg holding his full weight and the other leg relaxed. A slight s-curve to the entire torso was his way of standing which made him different…

Stop admiring me… he said accompanied by a loud laugh… and reply…

Admiring my foot… I said in embarrassment … I did admire the guy and his vitality… but was troubled of the possible repercussions of his behaviour…

Can we take a stroll? ....He asked…

I wanted it, wanted badly to escape the gloomy comforts of the faculty room..
Escape its stillness that could kill…Its sound that was torturous …the cameras that make one smirk even in suffering…the populace who could peep over cabins fulsome in jealousy... abundant distrust that flew freely along with the conditioned air from the centralized AC plants…

I just wanted to go where there were no notice boards with words and words in print that meant nothing and no bosses who hurled shocks like stones that rained down along with dying comets!!!

Taste of indifference!

Sri Laxmi came and sat opposite to me the next afternoon disturbing my nap…
I was in deep slumber, first with head oscillating left and right and then later half of my huge body on the table and my head on the extended left arm..

I woke up hearing the big laugh… the gal sat there with more chuckles than I could afford at that point of time…

But I am what I am and she was what she was…. elegant as ever or even more, more pompous, more beautiful and more smiling…. like a dream which came descending down with all the heavenly charm..

Yes Madam … I said half awake… how can I help you?

If you remember … she said with her eyes firmly pasted on mine…we are co coordinators of the upcoming seminar… and you seem to be keeping away..

She had become bold… she was no longer the shy damsel who once was lost in the huge interiors of GIM.. she was no longer the same old scared little lass who cried and ran away from the class room unable to bear the kids of GIM…

Her curls of long hairs on both sides of her smooth face moved in tune with the soft breeze and with eyes of such an unsure bluish brown that seemed to have mixed with their whites by mistake, she sat there expecting an answer…

I had nothing much to say… It was a problem of getting the right words and the right content.. being politically right was important… I wanted to keep away from the seminar..My ego didn’t want to play second fiddle to an inexperienced junior girl but my chivalry wouldn’t allow me to be blunt to her with that fact….

May be I should have been an evangelist..…!!!

The phone rang…

Sukesh Menon here… I said

Hey dude… what’s that babe saying… asked Anand on the other side with a dirty laugh…

Huh… I just gasped…

Lucky guy dude…. Got the best babe in town…. he said suggestively...

I didn’t dare to tell him to behave like a professor… Mind your own business.. I whispered instead and kept the phone…

I am into so many other things Sri Laxmi… I murmered without allowing her eyes to lock in mine …. They seemed to be hiding more than what they revealed… or was it just because I saw it that way?

I took it up because they said you will be with me… she said … now I am lost… I don’t know what to do and what next......

Her paradigm shift seminar was none of my worry for sure but she was, her presence was… I wanted to send her off diplomatically…

THEY? Who is that THEY? ......I shot a query to take the discussion to my channel

The management… who else? And you thought I played a game with you to be a coordinator of a stupid seminar…her face blushed with rage….

It is not yet a stupid seminar my dear… I said to myself… if you are going to do it you will for sure make it one…

A smile did bloom in my face which (may be) for her stare appeared like a scorn…

I never knew that you can be so indifferent… she said as she stood up to go but added… Big people have big ego’s I know but I always felt that you are different…

Oh yeah… different and indifferent…. I mumbled as she walked away…

Indifferent? ….

Did she say that?

INDIFFERENT?

That is what Jesus too had told me in the lift the other day…

That was the management’s view point but how did she knew that??

I saw Suhail Khan outside the HQ that evening.. he had a sad look, and agony was looming over it…he looked stressed out and almost about to crumble… If I ask something I was sure he will succumb… wanting to avoid that I tried to walk away without recognising his presence…

He wasn’t ready for that but….

Sir…… Prof Anand is talking to Dr Jesus …. He announced… I guess I will be relieved ....

I tried to smile…

Anand?

The omnipresent James Bond was there every where... he was like snowy dog in tintin series... in every frame... HUH !!!!!…

Why is it that he had no sense of what to do where and what not to do where…? Next time when I get him free I should teach him the serenity prayer.. I kept planning ans that was when Anand Mohan came out of the HQ, cheery and beaming, tapped the guys shoulder and said…. Now you can go and meet him…and let it be the last time ok…

Suhail Khan admiringly looked into the Hunk’s big eyes… He caught the prof’s hands and started crying…

Come on man… Anand said holding him in a tight embrace… be bold… just go in….

I stood there as a silent spectator… This was one rare scene in GIM…. As Suhail went inside, Anand walked away not even acknowledging my being there…

Wasn’t that indifference?

He left a trace of the denim smell and it disturbed me a lot, but the unanswered questions that he left behind was more worrying......

No words in literature can express it fully… you should meet this guy once to know what I mean..

Oxymoronica !

Jesus had a double life.. one as the Director of GIM where he ruled over as the crown prince with occasional intercession from Manohar- his brother in law who was also a pretender to the throne, and the other one as an evangelist which was a passion and part time business …

The first role kept him dipped in opulence as he drove around flashy and costly cars, got connected through the latest devices and gizmos, flew in and out of town for no particular reason, spend evenings at hi society clubs to network, was seen in all the big parties with a flashy smile in his face and sizzling wine in his hand…

The second one was just opposite..... where he saw and dealt with poverty- face to face and preached God and his ways to the deprived…drew pictures of God’s mercy and miracle to the destitute and how easy was it to cross the suffering by adopting God by way of the cross…

From day one I was amazed by this balancing act… was he a lavish contradiction in himself or one great marvel that God had created?

An oxymoron that was incomparable, at least to my eyes…

At GIM no one well-liked Jesus as an administrator because he wasn’t one… in fact in his absence things went hassle free but no one did dare tell him the actuality and he got to hear only praise and his court was full of eulogists who composed songs on a daily basis and got rewarded for the same.

I was going through your personal files and CR… Jesus told me that evening when we met accidentally in the elevator …. It is cool … in fact amazing… but I guess you need to start taking writing seriously…

I kept mum… I knew that he likes listeners than talkers ….

Write articles like Professor Ram… or many others… He went on… as an academic if you want long standing it is a must….

I knew that it was true, in spite of the fact that the fact came from the wrong mouth… He knew everything or at least that is what one get to feel when he talks, but if he knew so much then how come he was such a poor administrator ?.. I doubted…

Sukesh …are you listening…?

Yes ….yes sir… In fact even I was thinking the same… this year with classes taking most of my time.. I couldn’t write much…

Oh classes… will be there always… that cannot be a reason for not writing… he cut me mercilessly as he walked out of the lift which had reached the ground floor and quickly turned back to add… I also hear that you have become a bit indifferent these days… I for sure will not believe that…. but be careful… I am not the only one on management…

Jesus had the knack choosing the right words …. He had done his bit…now the worrying job was mine…and damn me the worry box opened even as the lift doors closed with a tense me still trapped inside….

Prof Ram was no longer my consultant during worrying times.. not that I stopped trusting him but that I started receding into my cocoon… it seemed safe but you never know.. Any time a container of boiling water can welcome you… still it was safe as long as no one spotted the cocoon …

I took refuge in the canteen which wore an empty look with the kids away with study holidays and the staff all busy doing nothing in their respective offices….the intelligentsia or the Intellectual Capital which made one of the pillars of a B school would be all busy gossiping , sleeping or doing cut copy and paste research…. After all targets had to be met….

Remember me sir,,,? Came asking a familiar face…..

Oh yeah…. I said… half in delight to have seen a student’s face in a dry lonely canteen and half in embarrassment over my inability to remember student names…

Suhail Khan … he said with a smile… I am specializing in Operations and HR… I had told you once…

Well he had… I remembered.. in the lift again.. some time back….

Yeah yeah… I said with a stupid grin… I promise I will remember you next time…

You bet sir… he retorted …

Can I sit here sir? He asked….

Oh yes please… I invited him…. Have some tea …

I will have your favorite banana fry… he said still happy…

Hey … I asked with open eyes… how do you know that???

Who doesn’t know that sir…? What you are, is not what you think you are… sir… he said as if he was enacting the main role in some philosophical play on stage…. It is what others think you are…

Well I know you are doing HR but that doesn’t mean that you can make a simple banana fry look that complicated… I laughed at my humour …

Suhail khan but refused to laugh…. He sat there with a gaze fixed in my face….

Tell me Suhail… how I can help you?….I asked, in an attempt to take the conversation further…

You cannot help me sir… I don’t know who can but I need some one to help me… I badly need …..he said….

Now I have to admit that I really got tense… students and their affairs at GIM was entirely the HQ’s prerogative and no one meddled in it… no one even listened to it….and even if they did it didn’t make any difference… here I was in the middle of the canteen that hot evening, with a cup of tea and banana fry sitting with this young man who was nothing more than a stranger not knowing what to do next…

I am caught by Dr Jesus every time …. He said with his eyes getting wet….

Caught for what? I asked perplexed…

For all the wrong things… he bewailed

Like for eg…?

Some one was drinking in the hostel.. in some room upstairs…. Last night…. And by about 1. 30 in the night Dr Jesus came for a raid…. Caught many … I didn’t even know the happenings but this morning the story is like I am the leader…. He said in one breath…

1.30 in the night? I wondered….and why such an anti climax… if you were not there…

He started crying like a small kid, at GIM even though that was common....

How I hoped that I didn’t come to the canteen that evening….I knew what he wanted .. I also knew that I couldn’t help it….

My mobile rang… Anand Mohan calling ..it said…..

Hey dude…where are you? came the husky voice as loud as he could yell ,as if I am deaf…

Why? ......I asked in a fit of fury…

Come over ..there is a happy news for you…. He said in mirth and went off air…

Behave like a Professor!

Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival….

For me that was not a motto dictum….. I had inadvertently blurted out that to Sri Laxmi in a fit of anger but when it boomeranged on me from Anand Mohan it really caught me wild.. It did upset me and my thoughts…It slowly and surely swayed me like a coconut tree caught in the wind

Win or loose but play… ? should I or just stay away?

The semester was coming to an end and Dr Joseph- the ED called for a subject review meeting. Exams were just a week ahead and the kids had all gone for their study holidays. Teachers were free with the shutters down the teaching shops and to keep them busy was a big challenge for the top…

Why keep them busy?

Because the HQ thought that the academic community was the worst when it came to poli-tricking and left alone and idle the devils will all meander in rage … Even I thought the same, not because of my status as a pseudo loyal but I lived in that community and experienced the pains of a victim and the triumphs of the winner often.

We need to introduce new subjects.. said the ED… industry friendly things like Strategic HRM .. That seems to be kicking these days…

I will rename my subject as Strategic Brand Management .. said one Prof…

What do you call it now? Asked Anand Mohan who sat next to me in the meeting

Brand Management…..replied the prof….

Huh ….said Anand… and you call it industry friendly… ?

And probably keep the contents the same.. the same power points and teaching notes and even the same age old cases… said Prof Ram with sarcasm..

Strategic Sales Management… ? I wrote in my note pad… Huh… how funny ,,,, I said to myself as I scratched over it..….

This strategy term is misused… Said Prof Ram as if in pain that his patented chemical formula is misused by an unscrupulous horde of amateur scientists… any one and everyone seems to be dragging it ....

Strategy is no Draupadi.. said Anand Mohan with a laugh… Hey Dushasan….

In any case that is not the option that we have been looking for .. said the ED prevailing over the confusion..We need something new… concrete…some thing which when put across the industry will make heads turn…

Anand leaned over to my shoulders and said… they must say… hey that’s sexy…. How about a date?

I couldn’t help but laugh…

The contemporary issues in management has to be bought in…….said Prof Ram

Oh yes ….Oh yes,,,, cried the ED with a blush…you said it… we will have that ..we will freeze on that…

Freeze on what? .. asked many….

Contemporary issues… like say Contemporary issues in Banking…Contemporary issues in HR… wonderful !! … with the reddened face in full bloom the ED kept saying...

Holy shit .. said Anand… the other one was far better… the Strategic prefix….

I didn’t mean it… mumbled Ram… I just said it for example…

I kept laughing … and writing in my note pad… I didn’t want Dr Joseph to see my giggle but there was no escape…

He saw it and kept staring at it as if that was the issue there and not the contemporary issues in whatever bullshit…

I am serious ..said Dr Joseph..

And who is not?… questioned Anand…

Some people seem not to be.. said Dr Joseph with his gawk still fixed into my face… I knew that and kept drawing and writing in my note pad as if the target was not me.. it could be anyone else but me…

But if we are thinking of a revision we should think of something fruitful… really industry friendly…said Prof Ram….

I agree..said Anand even as he shared a wicked smile with me…and for that we need to talk to the industry.. it would be foolish to assume that we do some cosmetic changes and they will accept it graciously….

Precisely… joined Prof Ram

Now this was getting interesting for me… not the content.. I knew that this was a wasteful discussion leading to nothing.. things will remain the same.. but what amused me was the synergy… Ram and Anand was taking it forward like a preplanned strategy.. ooof… not the ‘S’ word again.. like a foot ball match ..pass the ball… ya got it.. I run… and again pass it to you.. got it.. you run… again pass it to me…

Ahem ahem.. I scribbled in my note pad again… the game is getting interesting!!!

Anand winked at me even as he peeped into my note pad and possibly read its contents…

You can write a book on this entire scrawl … he suggested.. and name it frustration !!

Get lost …I said… but I knew it made some sense, I also knew that his tantrums were becoming less irritating for me…

Behave like a professor..I said with a put on contempt …

He took his note pad and started writing…then drew lines over it and then again jotted over and over again…

Will you at least listen to the discussion Sukesh Menon? Asked Dr Joseph in a loud and acerbic tone which gave me a shock… the whole crowd turned to me as if they were seeing me for the first time…

Anand sat there serious, and looked like a professor with the rapt attention that he displayed and the contribution that he so very graciously bestowed during the discussion…

Will you at least listen? Did the old creep say that…?

I was set on fire even as the throng returned to the discussion mode.

Behave like a professor Dude… Anand wrote in his note pad and gave it to me…

Daggers and sheaths...part I

It was the D day for GIM…

Never before, had I seen so much of activity and bustle in the campus in my 4 years subsistence there. The team from Delhi would arrive and all was set to receive the guests who for GIM, for that day at least, was important than GOD. People were called back at war footing… It was like Pakistan had suddenly attacked and the border had to be refilled … The jawans were all geared up with guns and barrels,,, the Nags and Arjuns were deployed.. the formations were finalized.. the battle fronts were drawn and the weak links were identified…

When we walk, when we talk and when we smile… we had to be careful that day… It could be wrongly interpreted… It was not the life and death game for GIM but yes more seats for its MBA programme and more money… Even thoughts were monitored, I felt…. The cameras were always a cause of worry but that day it made everyone nervous and an uneasy calm prevailed….

The team had three people…

A fat middle aged man who looked like Eddie Murphy in the nutty professor, emerged from the Merc which was send for them specifically but the GIM management. He laughed with a roar seeing Dr Joy at the portico with his team… Jesus, the ED, the VC, Manohar and all their pen pullers and palanquin bearers. This man was not new to GIM; he was a regular and formed part of every team that came to GIM for Delhi, for INSPECTION…

The king knew how to play his card… I told myself as we all stood behind to greet the Gods who had just arrived in a Mercedes, with salvation in their bags…

Two other men also jumped out, but Eddie Murphy made them insignificant by his sheer size, the laugh and his familiarity with the place and its owners…Greets , smiles, bouquets, it looked like communist China and the Olympics they hosted… plastic smiles galore and all the down trodden were swept away to oblivion….

I would say it was a long wait for me and Prof Ram...

For me because I wanted the ritual to be over ..the customary meeting where we were counted for numbers like cattle’s are before they are taken to the butcher, asked questions- half of which they themselves answered and the other half no one could and did… it was all assumed..

For Prof Ram because he wanted to speak out (as usual)…

I don’t expect any support..he told me during the tea session, when the team was with the top brass of GIM locked in the comfort zones of the HQ…

I didn’t give and exact reply, I knew he didn’t expect one either.....I guess they have made up for the numbers… with this new guy Anand Mohan its now a perfect score board…. I said instead…

He is a close friend of Jesus… Ram whispered, leaning precariously close to me…one more spy …

I got a sudden smell of denim, from no where… Inspired from the new fellow and his charm, I had bought a bottle of denim the last evening, and had splashed it all over, but this one was different..

Oh …come on.... sir… I disagreed.. I mean, I couldn’t accept that version fully… a charming spy.. ? a secret agent… ? why not..? he had all the ingredients to be a James bond .. the allure, the physique , the style and…but sir… he is like .. he did his
MBA from UK… and a lot of international exposure…how can??

Hey Sukesh.. Prof Ram had a disbelief in his face… You are not that idiotic I know.. today, I guess you are making special efforts…

I laughed at that, but still couldn’t get the full meaning of that expression in his face…

What is your doubt? A well learned sophisticated man cannot be a friend of Jesus? Or is it that such a person cannot be a spy? Ram posed it to my startled eyes…

I just nodded my head… both were possible… in fact in GIM everything was possible…

Thank you ladies and gentle men… Eddie Murphy announced after the introduction of his own greatness as well as his team mates … he almost drew a halo on the white board and stood in front of it.. I mean.... he didn’t do it literally but could have and that would have been better…

From your faces, it is clear that all of you are happy… he took it on… but this is a formality and has to be recorded… so let us…

Another face reader... HUH...

It is an amazing campus, excellent infra structure, canteen, labs libraries and a management who has clear vision and a road map to reach that vision.. Strategically aligned to the needs of the day and………I switched of there … the jargons was unbearable for sure but more than that the one sided tirade was more horrendous ..

No complaints… I wrote in my note pad with disdain … it is going as expected…Perfect Precision...

But that is an assumption… a voice broke the silence that reigned in the other side of the room where the audience sat…

Prof Ram?.... I woke up in search of the voice ..

The whole crowd looked back, Jesus and ED including, Yes…they were also there in their capacity as faculty members…a murmur broke the silence and it took the team by awe…

Eddie Murphy looked upset and disconcerted, for being cut into during his intended lecture and also for the game plan being thwarted..

Anand Mohan stood up with a glow in his face and a smile, a fresh one in semi bloom in his lips … he looked like Moses leading the hapless people of Israel and the other side suddenly looked like the Egyptians, chasing to death an ill-fated crowd that was cornered and badly bruised …

The room was charged up suddenly … I saw a lot of electrified faces… shock ran across…

Sacrilege … I scribbled hastily in my note pad, even as I looked into Prof Ram’s face..

The first thing after this meeting, I thought was to ask for an apology… Ram had to do it…

The Red sea was roaring… Moses but, stood there- valiant and strong…….

The paradigm shi (f) t !

It is funny and even amusing that in life sometimes when we look back we find how outlandish we had behaved to certain situations which if had repeated, we would have done better. Alas! Life is not a DVD player, and there is no rewind or repeat buttons… it has to go on…

Looking back is the utmost one can do.. Or is it not?

In my case it was not.. The Sri Laxmi experience some how made me chary. Careful I always was, cautious I had been but there after I looked like a secret agent apprehensive about everyone, as if all were contriving and conspiring against me.. I looked nervous, all the time and spend my time at class and when I had no class, at some corner of the huge library delving deep into a better world, or in the scorching canteen gulping as many hot banana fries as I could .

Sri Laxmi of course remained as my teaching assistant but stopped coming to the class with me, as she got busy with the PARADIGM SHIFT seminar. Forming student teams, identifying prospective speakers and the like kept her running, most of the time from her pigeon hole to the HQ, where Jesus sat with resplendence. Jesus would have been a happy man… the Paradigm shift seminar had given him a reason, I mean an official reason to be with the most beautiful woman at GIM whenever he wished to.

Are you angry with me? Sri Laxmi had asked me after the drama in Jesus’ room.

I gawked at her with derision …

Life is a game… the better player you are the better is your chances of survival … I told her before admonishing her.

I cared the damn if she too was a spy!!!!

You would be seen as rebelling for the wrong reason ….said Prof Ram later during the lunch break where we usually had fun and frolic at the faculty lounge.

I mean..he added seeing my face which for him resembled a question mark … you will be looking like some one who is jealous that she is the convener of the seminar and you had been asked to help her with no official designation per se…

I protested… That was a new angle that this old man was adding into it…

Think about it … he told me before he left me alone but in an even worse condition…

I was in my cabin during one of those torturous days, when the news broke….

The inspection team from Delhi is coming tomorrow… the ED came out of his cabin to the larger faculty hall where we all sat in a row, in cabins that will even put an internet café to shame.

No grand mothers shall die, no one will fall sick…..he announced as if it was some joke, and he was the main joker of the show. Then as usual he started laughing at his own joke in his style with the giggle and gag going up and down with air escapes in between, making him blush and his thick bush of hair at both his earlobes in full erection out of excitement.

Another drama… Prof Ram told me over the cabin walls…

Ohh … lamented some women in chorus... the month end would have been bothering them.. What will the Delhi team feel when they see the GIM faculty in old and used sari and under make up?

Huh… I said to myself…. Life is about priorities…each one has their own !!!

The VC was out of town and that seemed to be the biggest worry for Dr Joseph the ED.

He expressed it overtly in a hastily convened faculty assembly at his chamber to discuss the do’s and don’ts during the one day performance that we all were expected to put up when the three member team from Delhi will walk around the GIM campus, talking to the
MBA guys and faculty, analyzing, eating and drinking, wearing a mask of absolute seriousness, with grave faces looking like dead men walking around , writing on small note pads, leaning on to the next guy and whispering whenever some on talks something in the meeting sending shivers down the spine of the speaker and ending it up, with a foregone conclusion…

GIM is next to heaven, if not the real one…

Farce!!!

I wrote in my note pad, as I sat in the third row corner very far from Prof Ram in what I thought was a conscious decision to avoid the scratch and scorn.

Sri Laxmi was in the front row, suggesting to me her new status.. a loyal she had become..

Incapability had to be compensated after all!.... my jealous mind found a logic and a dirty bliss in it…

It was that afternoon that this new fellow came in to the GIM faculty room.....

He was tall, unfairly handsome, impeccably well dressed, looking almost like a bollywood hunk who just decided to take a break from his shooting schedule and visit GIM....

I turned around at the smell of splashed denim and there he was, standing just behind me, with a beaming smile…

Hi Sukesh …he said with his left arm extended

I stood up with an ensemble of feelings, panicky I was but pleased I wanted to look as I extended my right arm to give the weakest handshake I had ever given.

I am Anand Mohan …he said in style and in a clear husky voice… your new colleague and friend…..joining the Marketing Department at the great GIM today.

Now that was new to me, I bet. The whole thing looked like another episode in the great GIM drama…

Ohhhh….the first reaction burped out quite suddenly from my open mouth even as bewilderment was in full bloom in my dull eyes

I know I know… he blissfully smiled ,as if in me he had met his long lost childhood friend… we are gonna be great company … I know…

I didn’t know the meaning then…
I didn’t know that he was the man who would change my life for ever, change the course of GIM and its inhabitants ….

We are gonna rock dude… he shook me fully with both his arms firmly on my shoulders and then left me after an affable tap on my cheeks…

The fragrance of denim lingered, the smile stayed behind, the charm simply refused to go even as he went to the ED’s cabin and started his formalities of joining.

Anand Mohan!!! I said to my self….Haven’t I seen this guy before?

Games people play !

Prof Ram and his letter (If you remember, I had said it…) made no impact at all. At least there was no visible after effect. He was not called for a discussion, as he expected .Nor was he even given a courtesy call from the King’ side saying that he acknowledged the receipt of the 16 page document.

Ram predictably was upset and most of the fire and fury at the ‘nauseating apathy’ of the top fell on me from the neighboring cabin. I couldn’t help but keep praying that I was shifted from my cabin to some corner where no cameras could prey on me, no spies could track me and no neighbour could spur their wrath and rage on a helpless me…

Ram walked up and down the faculty room, wanted to talk to the ED who was but busy dealing with some students who did some grave crime like riding the bike in side the campus ,Schumacher style or making some noise in the hostel room last night, and hence deserving capital punishment and had no time for Ram and his petty issues.

Jansi William the secretary at the faculty office came in to my cabin with slow and cautious steps..

Sir…. Dr Jesus wants to meet you… NOW… she said whisperingly

I had an intercom and yet… I kept wondering…. Well you never know… Jesus and his games…

At the prince’s cabin, where AC was in full blast I felt like I was in the North Pole. Jesus tried to look intellectual with a cool library in his cabin with all the latest management books in display (rarely read though) and with journals from HBR (My kinda stuff) to the International Journal of Management carefully scattered on his central table. Soft music was on the air and Jesus sat in his chair, too large for his short frame but again it gave him a feel, a confidence, a halo that I could almost see as I sat across him, every time.

Guess what!! he seemed to say as he kept on smiling when I sat in a much smaller chair kept for guests.

I had a smile, a faint one which reflected my anxiety at the sudden call

Sri Laxmi is supposed to join us … said Jesus as I sat there in his chilled room where he lived like a polar bear.

Sweat came out, for me at the hint.. I knew what the discussion was going to be…

He is going to ask me about the chemistry thing…

Fuck man ..I said to myself…All said and done ..Reputation was something ( may be the only thing) I had so far in GIM….

We are planning an international Marketing conference…. Said Jesus in a strange baritone cutting across my wandering thoughts…..You and Sri Laxmi will be coordinating it….

He expected me to grin and be grateful at his munificence … if he had, then I am sure he would have got disappointed.. Not that I felt good, I felt delighted that he had chosen me but why me and Sri Laxmi?

Why the bloody hell?

Again had he also seen the chemistry?

Does he also LOVE to see us together?

When Sri Laxmi came in, Jesus beamed like a toddler who got his rare chocolate. That was one thing with Jesus; he loved the company of women.

It’s now official …he declared to her with a wicked smile… I have told Sukesh about OUR plan …

She displayed a sumptuous smirk in return even as I stared at her face for the apparent duplicity that she had shown to me.

Sukesh is experienced and the best organizer we have.. said Jesus as I felt distracted and dejected at a ploy that was unraveling before my eyes….and with your charm this should be a bench mark event…

What is your suggestion? He asked me and I heard it…

Yes sir… true.. very true… words just stooped out without my consent…

I thought I taught at a B school... It looked like I had to change my belief now..

Yes.. you said it … said Jesus even as I kept staring the female…

Who said beauty and brains do not go together?I kept wondering...

A circular later on announced it to the world ..

It said …

Prof Sri Laxmi will be the coordinator for the up coming International conference in “The paradigm shift in Marketing and the altering consumer mind space”.

All are requested to give suggestions to make the program a grand success.

Signed..

Dr Jesus Joy
Director

I was thankful that my name was missing in the piece of paper that floated around from cabin to cabin, causing flutter and I could see many heads fuming, some curious, some taking it in a stride and some too exited to sit back and relax…

I banged my head on to my table, and waited for Sri Laxmi to come.. I knew she will... She had to...

Intellectual Orgasm >> Part II

The toilet episode as told by Sri Laxmi affected me badly. Not that I had any reverence for Dr Joseph the ED which got a stun or any fondness for her which left some sting...

But it some how disturbed me…

That hard feeling inflated when the ED called me to tell me his pronouncement that I will take over the Sales Management classes for MBA and Sri Laxmi will assist me.

Assist me? I expressed wonder

Yes.. the ED said… You can use her for assignments, paper correction etc…

But she is here to teach… I protested … how can I?

But she should learn the tricks of the trade and it is the management’s decision that she will be assisting one of the existing professors till she does…... a grin was shown in the ED’s face

Oh yeah… I said to myself.. it is the management's decision… how dare can I even think it as something which has to be opposed? Blasphemy!!!

WHY ME? Was my question again but it refused to come out.. ( as usual ) and it stayed there in my eyes, my lips and may be even in my nerve endings… As if he had read it, seen it and felt it Dr Joseph continued…

And between you…. I know… he smiled yet again… there is a chemistry.. it is good ..Together I assume that you can produce good synergy… the students will love your pairing up…

I started sweating…

Chemistry and Physics?

ASSUME?

or

ASS U ME?

Synergy…? What the fuck?

What was he? Executive director of a B school or a bloody pimp?

What was he trying to say??

What the hell? Why the students will love our pair? Was it a film discussion that was happening between Dr Joseph, the Director and Sukesh Menon the Hero..…?

Think about it.. Dr Joseph said in a tone that signaled an intended wrapping up of the meeting….

He knows that I have told you that… bloody womanizer … Srilaxmi told me in the canteen later when the decision was made known to her…

Its funny .. she laughed and said… its like…. She kept on laughing…

Stop it… I said… and what’s there to laugh… we are not bloody students here.. and listen I don’t want to be part of a gossip and rumour here…

She sat flabbergasted and staggering for words…

Let us take it up.. the challenge ..she said finally.. than trying to wriggle out… what u say? ….I will also feel comfortable that way….

But I cannot have a third person sitting in my class… I mean I never had that… it’s like… I will become conscious… I will loose myself… I argued…

At GIM but, things were all predictated …

It will happen if it was desired by the TOP… As did the toilet incident when the ED saw her in the faculty room alone by 8 in the morning, called her for a discussion to his cabin, left to the toilet in between where he slipped and fell and when she rushed in to see, hearing the clamor, he clasped hold of her hands with lust oozing out like he had an orgasm by the mere touch and when she ran out, he pleaded SORRY with a sheepish face and apology written large over his wrinkled face…

These old men…. she had lamented… he is like my father for me… huh…

Walking back to the faculty room, I made sure that I walked alone, now determined not to be seen together with the girl who from then was going to be my teaching assistant.

Why do you see me as a third person? she had asked me as I stood up, with a stare...

Chemistry !!!

The old horse had called it…
He has seen it… Many would have seen it…the colleagues, the students, the canteen staff, the garden keepers, the spies, the cameras, the walls...

OOF !!!

Why I did not see it…?

I kept asking, as the hot sun over the GIM sky burned my skin and I almost ran to reach the main building….

And who the bloody hell named it Chemistry?

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???

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….