The annual convocation day.
The big wigs of GIM in convocation attire- long robes with all its silk and golden brocades, the hoods, head caps and its golden tassel danglers, the paraphernalia and pomp which every one seem to mirth at , the marching tunes, the rows of students in black robes with golden borders which but by design stood way behind the ones their teachers and the management wore , the smiles , the hugs, the relief in faces that were about to escape, the contented parents, the dinner waiting, the photographs, and the long speeches that was waiting to be vomited from the big guns that sat fully loaded on the stage and finally the moment when each student walks up to the stage with his head held high , shaking hands with the guest and takes his or her certificate and pausing for a photograph…for the ‘convocated’ it was a perfect ending for a not so perfect journey …
Teachers beamed from their seats as the function began. I sat in the second row with Prof Ram next to me and Sri Laxmi just in front. I could see Dr Joseph running up and down with his Aide-de-camp, the oil faced HOD as if they were organizing the whole thing and as if without them, none of the 370 odd kids would pass out that day.
Ram scratched my thighs and said… pretension of the highest order… it is not important how you work, but it is important how you show you work!
Life is a show sir.. I said philosophically......some are show masters
And some just sit and watch … said Ram smilingly…He wanted to scratch again but I skillfully dragged my thighs out of his antenna’s reach…
Ladies and gentlemen .. came Anand’s voice….Welcome to the 16 th annual convocation of God’s institute of management…
Anand was in his best as the anchor … Every year the onus fell on to some faculty .. many have done it but never with the grace and surge like Anand did the MC job… he has immaculate English , with its intonation and accent so spotless and precise , wisdom, wit and words flowing like a clear stream …….
After the long speeches of all and sundry who sat on the stage, the dictums and sermons on life and secrets to success, it was Dr Joy -the King’s turn…
I knew his speech almost word by word…at least the idea remained unchanged year after year and I switched off… I was already hungry… the sounds of my stomach was much more appealing than the empty hum that the unceremoniously fat grand master of the GIM circus delivered that evening…
The best part of the convocation this year was you sir… the kids seem to unanimously declare as they crowded around Anand after the official function and vied to click photographs with him… I walked around unwanted by the photo mongers and feigning to be unperturbed by the flicker and flash that people in robes and their entire din created…As Anand put it once, it wasn’t entertaining to pass off like a ship in the middle of the night…
Looking dull… said Sri Laxmi, as she struggled with a big piece of chicken that refused to plunge into her plate…
And you look quite active.. I said mockingly even when I had my eyes planted at her attempts to get the chicken piece into a ladle spoon and then to her plate with elegance …
You women are quite adamant … I said.. why don’t you take another piece and give way to others..
She wouldn’t listen and tried with even more ferocity as if I was standing there for the same chicken piece… and bang… ! it launched itself to her plate with a thud and with a large gobbet flying and landing on her gold and pink sari…
I laughed and she fumed… For me the best part of the convocation this year was not the show which was done, but this one…
Anand joined us after the photo session but by then we had almost reached the end of our dinner… Sri Laxmi had washed the oil and gravy stains in her sari, which but remained as a shocking reminder of her failed adventure with a bowl of hot chicken curry…
This is awesome .. said Anand .. to see so many happy faces, so many young guys and gals walking into corporate life… I feel so proud….
I didn’t speak; instead I concentrated on the ice-cream…
You no longer go to the gym isn’t it ?.. said Sri Laxmi…
I do….. every month I go and pay the months fees… I said and laughed at my own joke..
Anand and Sri Laxmi that night, either had gone down drastically in their humour appreciation skills, or they had a ploy not to encourage my crude sense of humour.. not any more…
And you don’t feel happy seeing our happy faces… I said with a large globe of ice-cream stuck in my throat …its not every day that GIM gives its subjects such sumptuous feasts…
Anand looked me, and making sure that his fiancé has her attention elsewhere furtively whispered.. FUCK U !!!
The ice cream globe went in with ease !
Ah…. Here is our man… in came the voice of the king who came in with his entourage…. They were still wearing the convocation robes as kids would wear their school dancing dress all the way back home, after the school day…. We stood up- half in amazement at the sudden royal interference and half in reverence ….
Great job professor Anand Mohan… said the king as he first extended his arms to an unsuspecting Anand who still had a glass of juice in his left hand and a spoon on the other.
Then the King hugged the MC of the day and proceeded for dinner with all his palanquin bearers following him.
Sri Laxmi started giggling the moment the group left , and I joined her, much to Anand’s dismay … The group went from corner to corner and table to table , throwing pleasantries at parents and their wards , a shake hand or two to the teachers and the guests and then proceeding to attack the food counter… I could see Jesus clung to his mobile phone most of the time and couldn’t see Manohar- his brother in law who was noted for his absence.. after all such occasion are where the King’s family show cased their unity in diversity..
The Maharajah’s of Mysore ..I said to Sri Laxmi in a hush tone … on a given day every year used to visit their subjects like this…
Sri Laxmi raised her eye brows…
Anand filled in… that was on Dusshera Suk .. and they used to go naked…..
Sri Laxmi sat shocked…and I said..
But I am sure that one would have looked far decent…
And then she laughed… her ice cream fell all over the place, and still she laughed and she almost fell down.. Anand tried to hold her arms but she slipped and fell, this time really down from where she was still laughing……
Anand stood there like an idiot, with one hand up with the spoon still in it and the other one scratching his ass!
Showing posts with label Dr Joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr Joy. Show all posts
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, September 25, 2009
The birthday boy - Part II
The debate wasn’t yet over! It had just begun ,but how would one predict the future at that point of time when from the Kings chamber people came out ,all in smiles and shaking hands…
It was not an angry sermonizing from the majesty’s side with all of us including the mighty samurais who fought, in thoughtful listening… the king took a “Look you are all professors, who am I to advise you” tone, which I thought showed him as shaken…
Professor Ram was asked to speak to which he said he was thankful( as if he was giving a thanks giving speech after having got the Best teacher award) and went on to describe how for Professor Mathew everything what others did, he did in particular,was wrong…
Everything? ......asked Jesus with a kid like face.. His black face was an abode of expressions and he was a first-rate actor..
One day Anand Mohan applied some body spray before he was walking to a class… said Ram…Prof Mathew shouted at him for that….
People looked into the oil tanker as if he was a gang rape accused sitting in the trial room..
Anand was sitting next to me and he nodded his head in acceptance.. yeah My HOD did that .. his nod said…
He makes fun of my articles and research papers and terms it well packed nonsense… said Ram, making the crowd laugh.. I am sure the terminology went well even with the king and his left and rights, as I could see a giggle running amok for a second and then bhoomm… evaporating…
Professor Mathew Cherian remained soundless, quite oddly, given his character he should have by now stood up and put another brawl…
It is a problem even if we have some loud talk.. said Ram, this time looking at me… I mean it is a faculty room; interactions are bound to happen… the management does not expect us the teachers to work in water tight compartments do you?
The management didn’t reply… did they expect us or didn’t they? No one said and Ram didn’t seem to expect a reply either….
The HOD looked like some one, a moron who despised people talking to each other, a tyrant who detested free flow of ideas, voice, noise and people, a despot who even hated the smell of denim..
“What a mischievous sprite!!!!” I was sure people would have branded him…
It was interesting… the whole process.. At GIM such things were new.. the fighting among the faculty was new because there was a common enemy always – the HQ – with whom every one fought at least in the war zones inside their own minds…. The trial was even more amusing where every one sat, people spoke and every one listened….
What you think will happen?...... Anand asked me…
I shrugged.. I missed my note pad where I expressed better than I did in my face…. I was not an evangelist after all!!!
I told you things will change… Apple cart is running…
This is not your change.. I ridiculed him… this is mere accidence...
Think before you talk Suk… Anand smiled… the fight was an accident, not the reaction to it…
He probably had a point…
What an amazing birthday for you dude.. he said and smiled ….
Professor Mathew refused to talk when he was asked to… I felt glad that he didn’t..the dirty me in me, giggled as the old man sat there ,oil dripping from his face , and with an odd feel of remorse and revenge in his face, like a strange cocktail that adventurous drunkards experiment with….
You should raise such issues in a proper forum Professor Ram.. said the VC pitching in… I hadn’t seen him for a long time in action, old age was catching up in his face and in his speech as well,,,, ……don’t you agree that it was a flaw on your side to have flared up on such minor irritants?
I thought Ram would explode yet again… Minor irritant is a term that would have made even me detonate.. Ram but remained smiling… He wasn’t the same Ram who reacted for everything in his own predictable way… no one was the same.. not even me… IS this the change that Anand talks about?
I guess this issue needs a serious attention… said Anand standing up and stirring my silent bucket of thoughts…
This fucker is so unpredictable, I thought….
He didn’t look like Moses the savior, he didn’t stand in a posture that made him look like David.. he was now bald and his frame much bony than that of the past…
This meeting is indication enough that the management is fully considerate of the consequences of what happened today… he said in clear tone that made every one listen….. under the roof of this great institution, under the eyes of our students, when teachers fight like street dogs…
He paused and looked at Dr Joseph the ED (who sat stressed beyond recovery) and said .. Even though I was answering to an accusation I think I went over board when I fought with you sir… I sincerely apologise…
Now this was the Googly…I always think that I knew this guy like the concepts of marketing that I teach and when I underline the thinking he mutates into something new…
He was still standing when I saw his eyes clogged and his words fell on the table like hot drops of blood…
This is a just a symptom, like bleeding nose for a cancer patient.. The sooner you detect the reason the better it is for the system…
Pain and more pain ripped through the faces in the room.. this was one of the instances where silence was a torture , more than words could ever portray ….
He had a smile as he sat, the pain in his eyes refusing to blend with, or even accept the smile in his lips…
I didn’t clearly see what happened next, I knew that Prof Ram had shook hands with Prof Mathew ..
I saw tears, I heard laughter and when I touched reality, Anand Mohan looked like David Copperfield, the Magician …
It was not an angry sermonizing from the majesty’s side with all of us including the mighty samurais who fought, in thoughtful listening… the king took a “Look you are all professors, who am I to advise you” tone, which I thought showed him as shaken…
Professor Ram was asked to speak to which he said he was thankful( as if he was giving a thanks giving speech after having got the Best teacher award) and went on to describe how for Professor Mathew everything what others did, he did in particular,was wrong…
Everything? ......asked Jesus with a kid like face.. His black face was an abode of expressions and he was a first-rate actor..
One day Anand Mohan applied some body spray before he was walking to a class… said Ram…Prof Mathew shouted at him for that….
People looked into the oil tanker as if he was a gang rape accused sitting in the trial room..
Anand was sitting next to me and he nodded his head in acceptance.. yeah My HOD did that .. his nod said…
He makes fun of my articles and research papers and terms it well packed nonsense… said Ram, making the crowd laugh.. I am sure the terminology went well even with the king and his left and rights, as I could see a giggle running amok for a second and then bhoomm… evaporating…
Professor Mathew Cherian remained soundless, quite oddly, given his character he should have by now stood up and put another brawl…
It is a problem even if we have some loud talk.. said Ram, this time looking at me… I mean it is a faculty room; interactions are bound to happen… the management does not expect us the teachers to work in water tight compartments do you?
The management didn’t reply… did they expect us or didn’t they? No one said and Ram didn’t seem to expect a reply either….
The HOD looked like some one, a moron who despised people talking to each other, a tyrant who detested free flow of ideas, voice, noise and people, a despot who even hated the smell of denim..
“What a mischievous sprite!!!!” I was sure people would have branded him…
It was interesting… the whole process.. At GIM such things were new.. the fighting among the faculty was new because there was a common enemy always – the HQ – with whom every one fought at least in the war zones inside their own minds…. The trial was even more amusing where every one sat, people spoke and every one listened….
What you think will happen?...... Anand asked me…
I shrugged.. I missed my note pad where I expressed better than I did in my face…. I was not an evangelist after all!!!
I told you things will change… Apple cart is running…
This is not your change.. I ridiculed him… this is mere accidence...
Think before you talk Suk… Anand smiled… the fight was an accident, not the reaction to it…
He probably had a point…
What an amazing birthday for you dude.. he said and smiled ….
Professor Mathew refused to talk when he was asked to… I felt glad that he didn’t..the dirty me in me, giggled as the old man sat there ,oil dripping from his face , and with an odd feel of remorse and revenge in his face, like a strange cocktail that adventurous drunkards experiment with….
You should raise such issues in a proper forum Professor Ram.. said the VC pitching in… I hadn’t seen him for a long time in action, old age was catching up in his face and in his speech as well,,,, ……don’t you agree that it was a flaw on your side to have flared up on such minor irritants?
I thought Ram would explode yet again… Minor irritant is a term that would have made even me detonate.. Ram but remained smiling… He wasn’t the same Ram who reacted for everything in his own predictable way… no one was the same.. not even me… IS this the change that Anand talks about?
I guess this issue needs a serious attention… said Anand standing up and stirring my silent bucket of thoughts…
This fucker is so unpredictable, I thought….
He didn’t look like Moses the savior, he didn’t stand in a posture that made him look like David.. he was now bald and his frame much bony than that of the past…
This meeting is indication enough that the management is fully considerate of the consequences of what happened today… he said in clear tone that made every one listen….. under the roof of this great institution, under the eyes of our students, when teachers fight like street dogs…
He paused and looked at Dr Joseph the ED (who sat stressed beyond recovery) and said .. Even though I was answering to an accusation I think I went over board when I fought with you sir… I sincerely apologise…
Now this was the Googly…I always think that I knew this guy like the concepts of marketing that I teach and when I underline the thinking he mutates into something new…
He was still standing when I saw his eyes clogged and his words fell on the table like hot drops of blood…
This is a just a symptom, like bleeding nose for a cancer patient.. The sooner you detect the reason the better it is for the system…
Pain and more pain ripped through the faces in the room.. this was one of the instances where silence was a torture , more than words could ever portray ….
He had a smile as he sat, the pain in his eyes refusing to blend with, or even accept the smile in his lips…
I didn’t clearly see what happened next, I knew that Prof Ram had shook hands with Prof Mathew ..
I saw tears, I heard laughter and when I touched reality, Anand Mohan looked like David Copperfield, the Magician …
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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….
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….
Monday, July 20, 2009
the home coming !!!
Anand and his home coming went unnoticed in the hullabaloo of the alumni meet. After the initial pleasantries, he went straight to the auditorium where he sat with the other teachers who were not seemingly perturbed by the scant attendance of the alumni in the alumni meet.
Prof Ram was seen walking in between the front rows cracking jokes and pulling legs and big laughter was heard. I preferred to stay out, not because I didn’t want to be part of the fun, but because I was in the reception team and my place was at the huge portico, where Dr Joy’s large photograph hung, with a smile. There was not a big turn around to receive and when my team told me that totally 6 people had registered it was ten minute past 9 30 and the prayer song could be heard.
Dr Joy had nothing much to say except the things which he says everywhere he has a captive audience and every time he is given a mike,,,,,,
No wonder why people don’t turn out…. Said some one in my team and the rest of them giggled… I feigned to be deaf and preferred to walk up and down the long corridors of GIM……
Unfettered and unafraid I was for I was sure that the cameras were'nt seeing me, with the top brass locked in the hall where the King was waxing eloquent on how and why alumni should maintain good relations with its alma matter. Nothing, I heard about the other way round… Nothing I heard about why for any B school, its alumni was one of its building blocks… He would have known it, but it was his trait, and that ran in the entire family …. Outdated and arcane they may be for the others, but sacred and hallowed for him.
Lucky you… said an SMS from Anand… you are saved from this ordeal…..
I didn’t reply, I smiled and returned to the reception table where the girls in my team started reading some film magazine which they produced from no where (GIM taught this- planning to perfection) and the guys cruised in their mobile phones and other gadgets which they could use inside the campus only for that day just because they are in the organizing team.
Is this the alumni meet reception? ....asked some one suddenly, whom none of us had noticed walking in…
There stood a guy, small and lean with top-heavy lanky legs, and outsized specs occupying a large part of his small face. He looked tense and looked here and there with fear, suspicion and angst …
He sure was an alumnus of GIM!!!
Welcome …. I said with a smile, which he would never have seen at GIM….
He shook hands quite diffidently ….
My team got into action as a team of starved hyenas has got its prey… He gave me his business card which read
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra
Vice President-Operations
Barclays bankPLC
1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
United Kingdom
I looked again into his face, the large specs trying to hide his large sparkling eyes but I could see success, a sea roaring inside the small frame of the guy who looked more like a comedian than a hero.
Please come in..................... I led him to the hall where Dr Joseph,the ED was behind the mike, laughing at his own joke and the audience as usual refusing to share his grubby giggle.
I took the guest to the two rows where the 6 or 7 alumni sat scattered and apparently jaded…
The programme had just started and yet!!! GIM was good at this again, to bore people to the core…
Seeing the guy, Dr Jesus came rushing from his seat, and hugged him as if he got back his long lost brother…
I saw the old guard of GIM hurrying to cuddle ,clasp and clinch the small frame of the visitor…
I noticed silence on the stage where Dr Joseph waited for the drama to be over to continue with his boring speech. Murmur spread in the crowd, largely students in their formal attire, blazers and ties and all the gear…..
I stood there unable to decide what to do next… leave the hapless guy to the merciless hugging crowd of GIM or take him to his seat so that moron on stage could resume his sermon….
It is his fate… I pacified myself as I walked out from the large intimidating hall to even large corridors of GIM …
The guys of my team joined me in my canteen trip while I asked the girls to stay back to receive some one incase they come…
Why is it sir, such a low turnout?..... One of the kids asked me in canteen…
I paused, took a break from my banana fry and hot tea… the question was simple but the answer was not… I mean, as a teacher at GIM I couldn’t and wouldn’t discuss with them the issues that really made people refuse to come back to their alma matter….
Would you come back if we call you..Say two years from now..? I asked him a counter question, in an attempt to pass the monkey….
He laughed and didn’t shrink as I thought he would… instead he chuckled…
To be frank Sukesh sir… said another guy …none of us want to…
I looked at the guys face where audacity ran amok… it was a rare sight in GIM …
We just want to leave this place, for whatever good that this place has done to us…said another one even as the first guy still cackled….
It wasn’t breaking news for me for sure… GIM was tough to its kids… discipline in a strange form ruled the place and was applied in disproportionate quantities among students… all were equal but some were more equal than others….
I guess, with me that day I had a group of just EQUAL guys;;;;
My mobile vibrated…
A message
Anand mohan
Suk… were ru… come and listen… alumni and their plain speak….
I didn’t want to sit and listen to discourses which had no sense of reality but now it seems the season of plain speaking had arrived…
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra was on stage when I went into the hall with my entire team….we stood at the darkness of the back rows… discipline and decorum largely never reached the dimness of the back rows…
I mean we hated this place so much so that we even had a count down calendar in our hostel rooms… the speaker said to a stunned audience… I didn’t know who all where there in the front rows but was sure shocked at the first sentence that fell on my ears. I could see sparkle in the eyes of the guys who had told me the same, in the canteen some five minutes back.
I mean the pressure that GIM put on us was so tremendous and so merciless that I was sure that GIM would never make it into my list of fond memories… he went on in a strange baritone that was a mix of all emotions… he choked, and yet he was smiling, he didn’t look the same weak frame that walked in to the GIM main building some time back….
My guys flashed a smile.. See- we- told- you grin, I must say …
But when we went on to face life, I must now admit that the pressures that we got used to here made life look simple… no bias was a bias, sleep less nights weren’t enough, no shouting was a shouting and surprises usually didn’t work with us…. and no waiting was waiting we have done it enough outside the directors rooms here,,,…. Thanks to GIM,,,,
............He said even as a half reluctant crowd semi applauded as if they didn’t quite knew what to do…
I have not come back to praise GIM… it could go a long way… this meet may be the first step…and with my appreciation let me also share my admiration to whoever has conceived this impossibility….
when I am back here I remember the old song which said....
You're that innocence
That serenity.....That long lost part of me
You're like a Sunday morning, pleasin' my eyes...
You're a mid-summer's dream under a star-soaked sky...
That peaceful, easy feelin' at the end of a long, long road..
Oh, you're like comin' home
The words were simple but had tremendous power.. it went around the hall, reverberated and landed like an atom bomb....
The crowd applauded, this time in full measure as I walked out and saw Anand in the corridor….
Appreciation, admiration… ahem ahem… I said as I hugged him…
How I hope..he said looking at the large smiling image of the king…. this guys realized that it is not brick and mortar that makes organizations…
Prof Ram was seen walking in between the front rows cracking jokes and pulling legs and big laughter was heard. I preferred to stay out, not because I didn’t want to be part of the fun, but because I was in the reception team and my place was at the huge portico, where Dr Joy’s large photograph hung, with a smile. There was not a big turn around to receive and when my team told me that totally 6 people had registered it was ten minute past 9 30 and the prayer song could be heard.
Dr Joy had nothing much to say except the things which he says everywhere he has a captive audience and every time he is given a mike,,,,,,
No wonder why people don’t turn out…. Said some one in my team and the rest of them giggled… I feigned to be deaf and preferred to walk up and down the long corridors of GIM……
Unfettered and unafraid I was for I was sure that the cameras were'nt seeing me, with the top brass locked in the hall where the King was waxing eloquent on how and why alumni should maintain good relations with its alma matter. Nothing, I heard about the other way round… Nothing I heard about why for any B school, its alumni was one of its building blocks… He would have known it, but it was his trait, and that ran in the entire family …. Outdated and arcane they may be for the others, but sacred and hallowed for him.
Lucky you… said an SMS from Anand… you are saved from this ordeal…..
I didn’t reply, I smiled and returned to the reception table where the girls in my team started reading some film magazine which they produced from no where (GIM taught this- planning to perfection) and the guys cruised in their mobile phones and other gadgets which they could use inside the campus only for that day just because they are in the organizing team.
Is this the alumni meet reception? ....asked some one suddenly, whom none of us had noticed walking in…
There stood a guy, small and lean with top-heavy lanky legs, and outsized specs occupying a large part of his small face. He looked tense and looked here and there with fear, suspicion and angst …
He sure was an alumnus of GIM!!!
Welcome …. I said with a smile, which he would never have seen at GIM….
He shook hands quite diffidently ….
My team got into action as a team of starved hyenas has got its prey… He gave me his business card which read
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra
Vice President-Operations
Barclays bankPLC
1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
United Kingdom
I looked again into his face, the large specs trying to hide his large sparkling eyes but I could see success, a sea roaring inside the small frame of the guy who looked more like a comedian than a hero.
Please come in..................... I led him to the hall where Dr Joseph,the ED was behind the mike, laughing at his own joke and the audience as usual refusing to share his grubby giggle.
I took the guest to the two rows where the 6 or 7 alumni sat scattered and apparently jaded…
The programme had just started and yet!!! GIM was good at this again, to bore people to the core…
Seeing the guy, Dr Jesus came rushing from his seat, and hugged him as if he got back his long lost brother…
I saw the old guard of GIM hurrying to cuddle ,clasp and clinch the small frame of the visitor…
I noticed silence on the stage where Dr Joseph waited for the drama to be over to continue with his boring speech. Murmur spread in the crowd, largely students in their formal attire, blazers and ties and all the gear…..
I stood there unable to decide what to do next… leave the hapless guy to the merciless hugging crowd of GIM or take him to his seat so that moron on stage could resume his sermon….
It is his fate… I pacified myself as I walked out from the large intimidating hall to even large corridors of GIM …
The guys of my team joined me in my canteen trip while I asked the girls to stay back to receive some one incase they come…
Why is it sir, such a low turnout?..... One of the kids asked me in canteen…
I paused, took a break from my banana fry and hot tea… the question was simple but the answer was not… I mean, as a teacher at GIM I couldn’t and wouldn’t discuss with them the issues that really made people refuse to come back to their alma matter….
Would you come back if we call you..Say two years from now..? I asked him a counter question, in an attempt to pass the monkey….
He laughed and didn’t shrink as I thought he would… instead he chuckled…
To be frank Sukesh sir… said another guy …none of us want to…
I looked at the guys face where audacity ran amok… it was a rare sight in GIM …
We just want to leave this place, for whatever good that this place has done to us…said another one even as the first guy still cackled….
It wasn’t breaking news for me for sure… GIM was tough to its kids… discipline in a strange form ruled the place and was applied in disproportionate quantities among students… all were equal but some were more equal than others….
I guess, with me that day I had a group of just EQUAL guys;;;;
My mobile vibrated…
A message
Anand mohan
Suk… were ru… come and listen… alumni and their plain speak….
I didn’t want to sit and listen to discourses which had no sense of reality but now it seems the season of plain speaking had arrived…
Abhimanyu Raj Mishra was on stage when I went into the hall with my entire team….we stood at the darkness of the back rows… discipline and decorum largely never reached the dimness of the back rows…
I mean we hated this place so much so that we even had a count down calendar in our hostel rooms… the speaker said to a stunned audience… I didn’t know who all where there in the front rows but was sure shocked at the first sentence that fell on my ears. I could see sparkle in the eyes of the guys who had told me the same, in the canteen some five minutes back.
I mean the pressure that GIM put on us was so tremendous and so merciless that I was sure that GIM would never make it into my list of fond memories… he went on in a strange baritone that was a mix of all emotions… he choked, and yet he was smiling, he didn’t look the same weak frame that walked in to the GIM main building some time back….
My guys flashed a smile.. See- we- told- you grin, I must say …
But when we went on to face life, I must now admit that the pressures that we got used to here made life look simple… no bias was a bias, sleep less nights weren’t enough, no shouting was a shouting and surprises usually didn’t work with us…. and no waiting was waiting we have done it enough outside the directors rooms here,,,…. Thanks to GIM,,,,
............He said even as a half reluctant crowd semi applauded as if they didn’t quite knew what to do…
I have not come back to praise GIM… it could go a long way… this meet may be the first step…and with my appreciation let me also share my admiration to whoever has conceived this impossibility….
when I am back here I remember the old song which said....
You're that innocence
That serenity.....That long lost part of me
You're like a Sunday morning, pleasin' my eyes...
You're a mid-summer's dream under a star-soaked sky...
That peaceful, easy feelin' at the end of a long, long road..
Oh, you're like comin' home
The words were simple but had tremendous power.. it went around the hall, reverberated and landed like an atom bomb....
The crowd applauded, this time in full measure as I walked out and saw Anand in the corridor….
Appreciation, admiration… ahem ahem… I said as I hugged him…
How I hope..he said looking at the large smiling image of the king…. this guys realized that it is not brick and mortar that makes organizations…
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Share of the Booty !!!
It was a cool morning…
Unusually cold for a summer day but it was.. it had rained all night soothing the hot earth which for days burned like a furnace…. the merciless sun that ruled till the last evening disappeared… clouds loomed as if the night wasn’t enough and it still drizzled, drops fell from no where into the cool gloomy terrain of GIM and made it wet….
GIM stood like an old man caught in the rain, drenched and quivering....
When the call from the top came, I was in the class teaching humour in advertising, the theory of it interspaced with video ads for which the kids waited than for the theory behind it. I left the class with an ad on air, half way through promising to return ……
Dr Joy and Jesus …. said the office boy who came to call me… and many others.. they are all waiting….
Waiting for me? Eh ?… now what was so pressing that I was called leaving behind a class that was in semi ecstasy…?
The enquiry report?
EMEP?
What was it…?
At the Kings Chamber it looked like the ‘who is who’ of GIM… the top brass and all the teachers… top to bottom…. The gossipers, the peeping toms, the complaint boxes, the oil wells, the drooling jacks, the FM radio’s, the fashion queens, the dare devils, the sexists ….
It looked like a village circus….
I was searching for Sri Laxmi…. Now that the great secret was out, and it didn’t happen to be my area of interest, my eyes wandered…
This has happened because of all of us .. all of you … said the VC with clean face lines that said that he didn't mean it, standing up , and adjusting his trousers which was oozing down….
In appreciation…. added Dr Joy… we have decided to institute a best faculty award and also give a stupendous salary rise to the ten best faculty members at GIM…
Now that was of interest to me… I’m here ……I’m here… my undisciplined mind cried…
Share of the booty… alibaba style.. said Ram…
Some people found fault in every thing… I thought even while I smiled, as if I agreed and I didn’t want the share….
The details of which will be communicated to you shortly…. said Dr Joy with delight dancing in his huge face….
They are confused between obesity and growth.... I pity them.. said Ram as we walked out... No one else seemed to pity at that point of time.
Smiles and hopes flew out of the room and spread like wild fire all across the faculty rooms and the common area, where under the camera, discussion began all out…
Sri Laxmi walked to me in the corner of the library where I found a refuge and sat with a renewed interest to be among the top ten.. You never know how the management at GIM arrived at the magical ranking…. What if the usage of library was one factor??
Missed you yesterday… she said as she sat opposite to me...
My stomach was empty; still I couldn’t digest what she just said….. I didn’t show it but, instead said…. I am sorry had that stupid enquiry….
You teach communication and advertising…. right sir?.. she asked me with sarcasm…
I didn’t reply…. I got the voice of the question and from my silence she got the answer…
How is Anand…? I asked…
He is fine… it’s the primary stage… curable… and you know him… he is quite brave,,,,, she laughed with energy that seemed fake to me…
Did she say YOU KNOW HIM>>>???
By now I knew everything about them, their love, and their families’ opposition and upon her insistence how he came and met Jesus to charm him and get an offer right away…..
Still..... did I know him?
I could see her pain, and her vain attempts to look courageous.. she was in love with a brave man for sure, but he possibly had to teach her more….
I will meet him today… I said after a long pause… I had hoped to ease the situation…
Her large eyes bloomed….
You could have given him a call …. She said
It is hard for me.. Sri Laxmi… I said with my voice drooping……. I cannot imagine Anand in his present state …
Clouds loomed in her face as the morning sky….drops fell but it burned me like a furnace….….
She tried to hide it from me…. After a moment of imprudence she gave up … may be she realised that hands don’t cover hearts…
I didn’t try to stop her…..
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Silence of vacuum!!!
GIM was a familiar place for me… the years of working there had made me known to GIM and GIM known to me so much so like my own home.. Not only the geography but also the populace, the smiles, the stares, the classified idiots, the politics, the economics and what not….
That is until I walked into the Kings cabin that day… Remember I had knighted myself NEW AND IMPROVED and with an impudent disdain had walked into the Kings cabin that evening,,,,
Welcome Sukesh Menon… announced Dr Joy when I walked in….
I wanted you to meet Professor Mathew Cherian , who will be joining us today… he said even as I was about to sit on a chair opposite to the King in his larger- than- the- oval -office cabin…
I hadn’t seen the guy until then, the sort of a semi old man with a notable face, a well combed extra oiled head and a dressing style that gave an impression at the very first glance.
Hello… he extended his arm to me and I did mine …..
He is professor Sukesh Menon.. said the King to the visitor…. teaching Marketing and also taking care of various other activities that are key to this B school….
I had a smile.. a real one this time that I was being praised by the king himself…
I was being acknowledged as the one who takes care of activities that were KEY to the B school..
By the way.. Sukesh… he would be the new head of the department of Marketing… Said the king as if a revelation…. You would be happy at this new arrangement….
Was I happy?
I didn’t know… I wasn’t unhappy for sure and even thought of the devil that was the ED and to whom the hapless faculty of GIM reported to….At least now there is this cushion called the HOD…..It was new to GIM… till that day the ED was the academic head and he was the bridge or the barrier (case to case it varied) between the faculty room and the HQ…
I still had a wonder pasted in my eyes as to why I was called to the king’s chamber… It surely would not be to introduce me to my new HOD ..Prof Mathew cherian…
How is the EMEP activity going? .. asked the King…
I wasn’t prepared for the question but had a ready made answer, now that the delegation was done and it was finally taking shape…
Since Anand mohan would not be available for some time, hope you would have made alternate arrangements … said the King ….
I didn’t like the statement…
Did he entrust me with the EMEP because Anand Mohan was with me and hence I could and would do it?
Was it for the abilities of Sukesh menon that he got the job or for his proximity to the man who had come, conquered and disappeared?
Yeah sir,,,, I said… but …
I know….. added the king in haste… I know it’s not easy to fill in the vacuum created by some one like Anand… but its fate,,, what can we do…?
He turned back and looked into the serene face of Lord Jesus Christ in a picture that hung from the wall. He sat there as if in meditation and even the guest, Prof Mathew joined him and I, with the silence deafening and threatening me sat there exchanging a not so serene glance at the lord…….
I have a lot of plans for you.. said the King as he came back to his bossy self… Lord Jesus still had the smile and tranquility in his face and I couldn’t help but keep seeing it…
We will discuss it in detail later… now can you take Prof Mathew to the faculty room?…
That again was new… it was the ED’s job to carry around any new entrants and introduce them to the rest of them… no one did any honours when people resigned and left GIM… either they left silent, or they did with lot of acrimony but honours were missing almost every time…
ME? … I asked in an unbelievably loud voice…
The king laughed, adjusting his large body in the larger than anyone's imagination chair which protested and grumbled and said…yeah .....you… I told you I have some plans for you….
Prof Mathew handed over a piece of paper to me on the way, which was his profile, his credentials, his travels, and degrees, his writings and articles and all the stuff which a typical arm chair academic will flaunt around with brazenness … I smiled with a spoof that was obvious to me but not to him which I could see from his grin …
I didn’t like the Royal messenger’s job but had to do it… the victorious look with which I carried myself into the chamber had lost in transit by the time I reached back the faculty room with the new HOD and his self advertising document which he expected me to read it to the unsuspecting crowd there…..
After leaving Prof Mathew with the mad crowd in the faculty room, who gathered around him like sniffer dogs would do at a crime spot, I left to oblivion… my own place where I took refuge whenever I felt a need to be alone…
The canteen,,,,
It was not empty… the kids were there everywhere…sitting, standing, running ,,…. At GIM that was the only place where they traveled back to their age and had fun, the tie and the formal attire still on…
Teachers in the canteen was not a comfortable sight for many, while some pretended that they hadn’t seen me, others did acknowledge the professor who walked in to spoil there 5 minutes of life between out of life and away from life classes where professors chalked and talked on business, management, ethics and what not….
I just wanted to be alone… and sooner than I expected the kids started running back. Ostensibly some inconsiderate and insensitive professor would be walking out of the faculty room full of fury and info that was waiting to be unloaded…
The tea and banana fry had lost its charm.. ever since I started hitting the GYM I was careful about what I ate…. Thanks to Anand…
Huh… why the hell should I thank him?… deep in my mind is there a fan still alive.. a fan who adored the star ,,,? Who got the smell of denim every time you think of him???
How is Anand sir? … asked some one who stood there right in front blocking my way and my vision….
The canteen manager flashed his pan coated teeth waiting for a reply…
Well… I dragged my foot as if I was searching for words.. I hadn’t got the question right.. and even if I had I wouldn’t know the answer….
Poor Anand sir… what a man he was…. The guy said as he walked back to his corner place where he strategically sat to collect money from the kids who came in groups and left in groups often strategically cheating the guy and putting his numerical and arithmetic abilities into severe testing…
God is so cruel..... he kept lamenting from his chair… Good people get the entire ordeal while the bad ones just grow and keep growing….
I couldn’t take the tea or the banana fry,,, it started tasting bitter… I couldn’t sit there either…
I AM NOT THAT BAD .. I wanted to shout…. But instead decided to walk out…
Cancer at this age… and for him… the guy looked into my face and said, when I paid and tried to move….
Did a sudden torrent of denim overwhelm me…?
Did I cry?
That is until I walked into the Kings cabin that day… Remember I had knighted myself NEW AND IMPROVED and with an impudent disdain had walked into the Kings cabin that evening,,,,
Welcome Sukesh Menon… announced Dr Joy when I walked in….
I wanted you to meet Professor Mathew Cherian , who will be joining us today… he said even as I was about to sit on a chair opposite to the King in his larger- than- the- oval -office cabin…
I hadn’t seen the guy until then, the sort of a semi old man with a notable face, a well combed extra oiled head and a dressing style that gave an impression at the very first glance.
Hello… he extended his arm to me and I did mine …..
He is professor Sukesh Menon.. said the King to the visitor…. teaching Marketing and also taking care of various other activities that are key to this B school….
I had a smile.. a real one this time that I was being praised by the king himself…
I was being acknowledged as the one who takes care of activities that were KEY to the B school..
By the way.. Sukesh… he would be the new head of the department of Marketing… Said the king as if a revelation…. You would be happy at this new arrangement….
Was I happy?
I didn’t know… I wasn’t unhappy for sure and even thought of the devil that was the ED and to whom the hapless faculty of GIM reported to….At least now there is this cushion called the HOD…..It was new to GIM… till that day the ED was the academic head and he was the bridge or the barrier (case to case it varied) between the faculty room and the HQ…
I still had a wonder pasted in my eyes as to why I was called to the king’s chamber… It surely would not be to introduce me to my new HOD ..Prof Mathew cherian…
How is the EMEP activity going? .. asked the King…
I wasn’t prepared for the question but had a ready made answer, now that the delegation was done and it was finally taking shape…
Since Anand mohan would not be available for some time, hope you would have made alternate arrangements … said the King ….
I didn’t like the statement…
Did he entrust me with the EMEP because Anand Mohan was with me and hence I could and would do it?
Was it for the abilities of Sukesh menon that he got the job or for his proximity to the man who had come, conquered and disappeared?
Yeah sir,,,, I said… but …
I know….. added the king in haste… I know it’s not easy to fill in the vacuum created by some one like Anand… but its fate,,, what can we do…?
He turned back and looked into the serene face of Lord Jesus Christ in a picture that hung from the wall. He sat there as if in meditation and even the guest, Prof Mathew joined him and I, with the silence deafening and threatening me sat there exchanging a not so serene glance at the lord…….
I have a lot of plans for you.. said the King as he came back to his bossy self… Lord Jesus still had the smile and tranquility in his face and I couldn’t help but keep seeing it…
We will discuss it in detail later… now can you take Prof Mathew to the faculty room?…
That again was new… it was the ED’s job to carry around any new entrants and introduce them to the rest of them… no one did any honours when people resigned and left GIM… either they left silent, or they did with lot of acrimony but honours were missing almost every time…
ME? … I asked in an unbelievably loud voice…
The king laughed, adjusting his large body in the larger than anyone's imagination chair which protested and grumbled and said…yeah .....you… I told you I have some plans for you….
Prof Mathew handed over a piece of paper to me on the way, which was his profile, his credentials, his travels, and degrees, his writings and articles and all the stuff which a typical arm chair academic will flaunt around with brazenness … I smiled with a spoof that was obvious to me but not to him which I could see from his grin …
I didn’t like the Royal messenger’s job but had to do it… the victorious look with which I carried myself into the chamber had lost in transit by the time I reached back the faculty room with the new HOD and his self advertising document which he expected me to read it to the unsuspecting crowd there…..
After leaving Prof Mathew with the mad crowd in the faculty room, who gathered around him like sniffer dogs would do at a crime spot, I left to oblivion… my own place where I took refuge whenever I felt a need to be alone…
The canteen,,,,
It was not empty… the kids were there everywhere…sitting, standing, running ,,…. At GIM that was the only place where they traveled back to their age and had fun, the tie and the formal attire still on…
Teachers in the canteen was not a comfortable sight for many, while some pretended that they hadn’t seen me, others did acknowledge the professor who walked in to spoil there 5 minutes of life between out of life and away from life classes where professors chalked and talked on business, management, ethics and what not….
I just wanted to be alone… and sooner than I expected the kids started running back. Ostensibly some inconsiderate and insensitive professor would be walking out of the faculty room full of fury and info that was waiting to be unloaded…
The tea and banana fry had lost its charm.. ever since I started hitting the GYM I was careful about what I ate…. Thanks to Anand…
Huh… why the hell should I thank him?… deep in my mind is there a fan still alive.. a fan who adored the star ,,,? Who got the smell of denim every time you think of him???
How is Anand sir? … asked some one who stood there right in front blocking my way and my vision….
The canteen manager flashed his pan coated teeth waiting for a reply…
Well… I dragged my foot as if I was searching for words.. I hadn’t got the question right.. and even if I had I wouldn’t know the answer….
Poor Anand sir… what a man he was…. The guy said as he walked back to his corner place where he strategically sat to collect money from the kids who came in groups and left in groups often strategically cheating the guy and putting his numerical and arithmetic abilities into severe testing…
God is so cruel..... he kept lamenting from his chair… Good people get the entire ordeal while the bad ones just grow and keep growing….
I couldn’t take the tea or the banana fry,,, it started tasting bitter… I couldn’t sit there either…
I AM NOT THAT BAD .. I wanted to shout…. But instead decided to walk out…
Cancer at this age… and for him… the guy looked into my face and said, when I paid and tried to move….
Did a sudden torrent of denim overwhelm me…?
Did I cry?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
New and Improved !!!
The post exam holidays came to an end so very soon that the kids who came back had the hangover so visibly written over their worried faces. They started coming in one by one and group after group, slowly trickling in to various hostels, some a day in advance and many in the last minute. Notices and instructions appeared at all the notice boards about the does and don’ts that GIM followed as rules and classes got spruced up and all the maintenance work was done. The building just needed its life blood, the kids of GIM to flow in and begin life.
The first day first class fell upon me.. in theory one would get them fresh but after a weeks holiday they were all clearly in no mood for a class- a week was too much for them to get tired and to little to get refreshed…
I had made the lesson plan, the list of readings, the list of assignments and evaluation plan, three days in advance and gave it to the ED( it was mandatory to submit the plan for his approval before the faculty proceeded with it to the first class) who sat over it and analysed it as pig would scan shit…. The ones whom he hated got the bulk of such scrutiny and needless to say Advertising management and sales promotion – my paper took a hell lot of time to get cleared….
Why is this syllabus different from that of this text book? ......He asked me like a police officer, pointing to a relic of a text book on his table…
What is this text book? ......I asked while taking it carefully, and slowly turning its pages afraid of the fact that it was as old as my grand dad and can collapse if I were harsh with it…
It is a classic book, the ideal syllabus and I was surprised that you haven’t included this in your course plan… he said, still the COP like echo added to his questions…
I guess you did study from this at your MBA days… I said with a tint of disdain, which he didn’t get. Instead he beamed and became even more eloquent on why THAT was a reason why I should be teaching from it…
Come on sir… its all gone.. I said with a smile that clearly spilled a can of red paint over his ugly face… your times were different, now it is all changed…
What you mean?..... He asked….
I mean that I have designed the course with my 7 years experience in the industry and with constant up gradation that is done with my corporate connections….....I said and remained silent
Dr Joseph didn’t speak.. Neither did he make any gestures.. I knew I had ill-treated his ego, but he called for it…he was one languorous jackass who never taught a course in the recent past but sat over everyone’s course plan as if he knew every thing of every subject.. Some one some where had to tell him to fuck off and in any case I was not in his good books…
As I left his room, I knew what he will do next … I sat in my cabin expecting a call from the lord of the rings, Dr Jesus, but which never happened…instead called me the King himself in what was literally a jolt…..
The King…? Calling a lesser mortal….?
When I passed through the HQ where the bosses sat in adjacent chambers deciding on the future of management education,Jesus was not there in his cabin… Manohar was there in his but watching some thing in his large LCD TV.. may be some third rate Tamil film which was his passion and probably from where he got inspiration for his funny hair style and his colorful attire, the VC’s chamber was dark- it seemed he didn’t turn up to office that day…and Madam secretary was there, as usual, proud and displaying vanity as if she was the kings wife and not his secretary.
Dr Joy called me… I said with a kind of arrogance and pride which I purposefully and momentarily crafted and oozed out to poke her ego balloon.
She fell for it and stared at me as if it was impossible...... I had a smirk which irritated her even more…
What is it regarding? She asked me….
How would I know,??,, you should ask your boss.. I said with a scorn even as I saw disbelief on her face which bloomed and then erupted… she would never have seen me like that.. why she?… No one had seen this me.. This new me…
In my heart of hearts I thanked just one guy…….who had injected this new found impunity into my blood.. no matter he wasn’t around, I still thought he is seeing me.. and when he is seeing me could I be looking the same old crouching and miserable academic potato?
New and improved Sukesh Menon, walked into the grand doors of the kings chamber mercilessly over a burst balloon which didn’t protest , not even for namesake….
The first day first class fell upon me.. in theory one would get them fresh but after a weeks holiday they were all clearly in no mood for a class- a week was too much for them to get tired and to little to get refreshed…
I had made the lesson plan, the list of readings, the list of assignments and evaluation plan, three days in advance and gave it to the ED( it was mandatory to submit the plan for his approval before the faculty proceeded with it to the first class) who sat over it and analysed it as pig would scan shit…. The ones whom he hated got the bulk of such scrutiny and needless to say Advertising management and sales promotion – my paper took a hell lot of time to get cleared….
Why is this syllabus different from that of this text book? ......He asked me like a police officer, pointing to a relic of a text book on his table…
What is this text book? ......I asked while taking it carefully, and slowly turning its pages afraid of the fact that it was as old as my grand dad and can collapse if I were harsh with it…
It is a classic book, the ideal syllabus and I was surprised that you haven’t included this in your course plan… he said, still the COP like echo added to his questions…
I guess you did study from this at your MBA days… I said with a tint of disdain, which he didn’t get. Instead he beamed and became even more eloquent on why THAT was a reason why I should be teaching from it…
Come on sir… its all gone.. I said with a smile that clearly spilled a can of red paint over his ugly face… your times were different, now it is all changed…
What you mean?..... He asked….
I mean that I have designed the course with my 7 years experience in the industry and with constant up gradation that is done with my corporate connections….....I said and remained silent
Dr Joseph didn’t speak.. Neither did he make any gestures.. I knew I had ill-treated his ego, but he called for it…he was one languorous jackass who never taught a course in the recent past but sat over everyone’s course plan as if he knew every thing of every subject.. Some one some where had to tell him to fuck off and in any case I was not in his good books…
As I left his room, I knew what he will do next … I sat in my cabin expecting a call from the lord of the rings, Dr Jesus, but which never happened…instead called me the King himself in what was literally a jolt…..
The King…? Calling a lesser mortal….?
When I passed through the HQ where the bosses sat in adjacent chambers deciding on the future of management education,Jesus was not there in his cabin… Manohar was there in his but watching some thing in his large LCD TV.. may be some third rate Tamil film which was his passion and probably from where he got inspiration for his funny hair style and his colorful attire, the VC’s chamber was dark- it seemed he didn’t turn up to office that day…and Madam secretary was there, as usual, proud and displaying vanity as if she was the kings wife and not his secretary.
Dr Joy called me… I said with a kind of arrogance and pride which I purposefully and momentarily crafted and oozed out to poke her ego balloon.
She fell for it and stared at me as if it was impossible...... I had a smirk which irritated her even more…
What is it regarding? She asked me….
How would I know,??,, you should ask your boss.. I said with a scorn even as I saw disbelief on her face which bloomed and then erupted… she would never have seen me like that.. why she?… No one had seen this me.. This new me…
In my heart of hearts I thanked just one guy…….who had injected this new found impunity into my blood.. no matter he wasn’t around, I still thought he is seeing me.. and when he is seeing me could I be looking the same old crouching and miserable academic potato?
New and improved Sukesh Menon, walked into the grand doors of the kings chamber mercilessly over a burst balloon which didn’t protest , not even for namesake….
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Change the world !!
It was like Mumbai after terror… GIM after the rains looked shattered like and it had to bounce back to life….Anand was more than devastated and kept a low profile. To confess it, at first I felt good, my foul ego was finally satisfied, the one which always felt small when he was around, the one which always felt inferior when he walked, the one which always felt worthless when he talked, the one which always felt no where when he reached his targets in gun shot precision…
Later but, as a couple of days passed and when he stayed back in his cabin and I did in mine, as mobiles never rang and SMS never vibrated out, as intercoms stayed silent and as chat boxes maintained a strange silence, I got disturbed…it was for sure heeding to the fact that he has the spell, a sort of magic in him that changed the world around him.
To hell with my ego…. I mumbled as I walked to his cabin where he sat reading Change the world….and the moment I saw his book I started laughing…
Anand smiled in sadness as if he was sitting on a bed of thorns…
What is happening dear fellow… I asked him as I dragged a chair and sat opposite to him…
He didn’t reply…
Anand… what is your problem? ....I put it directly, as I saw no point in being polite and wandering around…
You really think that I created the havoc…?.... He asked me… I mean by catching the ones who copied???
I had a big chuckle…..
They would have done it the way they did it in any case my dear friend… I said taking his hands in mine and reassuring him….
But here, they have done nothing like that before…. Have they?
But here there was never such a situation before… I said with a smile… did you think about it that way?
He looked as if I was a puzzle and he was a kid trying to unravel it…
I mean… the rains, the power off, it all came together…. and hey in any case you are not the first faculty to catch kids copying… I said with confidence…
But I guess I am the first one to get them to the HQ and preside over their debarring… Anand said and there .... there I got stuck…
He was.. he was the first one to do so… he was right as well… students who copy in exams had to be send out… but to where…?
At GIM that was a big riddle….
I don’t know Suk…. He said with sheer condescension…. I don’t know what next…
I know … I said, half convinced as I had to tell something to cheer up the guy… the savior… the chosen one… the commander in chief of Operation Apple cart…
Right then Jhansi Williams came in with hesitating steps…
Dr Joy wants to meet you… she said with agony dripping from her face as if it was a bad news.. Well it was, but how would she or we know that then unless we had Nostradamus like abilities to predict…
Hmmm Anand… I told him as I got up and prepared to leave… you meet the king and come back… I shall wait …
I was wondering what it could be and why Dr Joy was the caller directly and that was when Jhansi said to me with more anguish in her face and voice…. You too sir.. Both of you in fact…
Did Anand have a flash of smile …? I don’t remember but yes, he felt comfortable at that news… he apparently felt that he was in company ..good or bad better left to time ,to decide….a calm look appeared in his face..
Manohar sat first in the King’s cabin, then the VC who was followed by Dr Joseph the ED .Dr Joy sat in the central chair and they all looked grim and gloomy. I got tense seeing them all together and the actuality that it was for us that the TOP of GIM was waiting for… Dr Jesus was notably absent and that made me uptight even more… Anand sat next to the VC and now the only two chairs that were left were one near Manohar and another one near Dr Joy. I didn’t had much of a choice as Dr Joy signaled me to the one near Manohar….
When is the EMEP programme starting? Dr Joy asked me even before I was settled in my chair…
Well … I formed an answer quickly and tried to present it but words simply refused to move out like a line of cars wedged in a traffic jam….
Whenever you are…. Said the VC…. Please present to us a plan… a detailed item to item proposal… we have planned it meticulously now the execution has to match it….
Sure sir… I said with a smile, reading between the lines of the chanakya… I knew this old man and could conjecture the countless meanings that he would imply for each word he uttered and a smile was my response….
Professor Anand and Professor Sukesh… said Dr Joy when I was about to assume that they had called us for a discussion on EMEP and its implementation…. You are two brilliant teachers at GIM and we need your help at this juncture…
I smiled at the eulogy even as I doubted its authenticity that it came from a man who did it quite often to get his work done… Anand sat with a stoic silence, and no smiles as if he didn’t want the brilliance that was just bestowed upon him….
You know the incidences that happened the other day… said the VC… it is highly condemnable that in a B school like ours, such unruly mob behaviour did happen….
He sounded plain and insincere…. He should have been India’s home minister.. I wrote in my mind as the note pad wasn’t a good idea in such a meeting…
The management but do not want to look hasty.. said Manohar…. We want to go to the roots…. and find out what is the problem….
Now this was getting interesting… this pattern that unfolded… this sequence that looked well rehearsed… this carefully worded mumbo jumbo….
What is the ED going to say? .....that was my worry ..... in any case his is the turn next….
The management has decided to form a faculty panel which will investigate into the happenings and recommend corrective action .. said the ED putting an almost end to the suspense that I had…
Now Anand and me looked left and right as the baton was passed from player one to player two. We looked like viewers in a tennis match….
So my dear friends….said the King with some drama added… We have decided based on various factors that it will be you two under the able guidance of Dr Joseph who will do the job… I wanted you to know this before we announce it.
I didn’t smile, but this time Anand, to my horror was doing it.. he looked as if he had been conferred with the Bharat Ratna and was waiting at the Ashoka hall to get it pinned to his coat…
Stupid fellow… I muttered…..
Wouldn’t you be glad to help GIM in this endeavor?… asked the VC with his eyebrows up, arched in suspicion….
Oh yeah… shouted Anand… it is a privilege…
I didn’t shout but felt the quagmire that we were walking into… Anand with a smile dancing on his blushing face and me with fear flowing out, no matter how hard I tried to control it…
Later but, as a couple of days passed and when he stayed back in his cabin and I did in mine, as mobiles never rang and SMS never vibrated out, as intercoms stayed silent and as chat boxes maintained a strange silence, I got disturbed…it was for sure heeding to the fact that he has the spell, a sort of magic in him that changed the world around him.
To hell with my ego…. I mumbled as I walked to his cabin where he sat reading Change the world….and the moment I saw his book I started laughing…
Anand smiled in sadness as if he was sitting on a bed of thorns…
What is happening dear fellow… I asked him as I dragged a chair and sat opposite to him…
He didn’t reply…
Anand… what is your problem? ....I put it directly, as I saw no point in being polite and wandering around…
You really think that I created the havoc…?.... He asked me… I mean by catching the ones who copied???
I had a big chuckle…..
They would have done it the way they did it in any case my dear friend… I said taking his hands in mine and reassuring him….
But here, they have done nothing like that before…. Have they?
But here there was never such a situation before… I said with a smile… did you think about it that way?
He looked as if I was a puzzle and he was a kid trying to unravel it…
I mean… the rains, the power off, it all came together…. and hey in any case you are not the first faculty to catch kids copying… I said with confidence…
But I guess I am the first one to get them to the HQ and preside over their debarring… Anand said and there .... there I got stuck…
He was.. he was the first one to do so… he was right as well… students who copy in exams had to be send out… but to where…?
At GIM that was a big riddle….
I don’t know Suk…. He said with sheer condescension…. I don’t know what next…
I know … I said, half convinced as I had to tell something to cheer up the guy… the savior… the chosen one… the commander in chief of Operation Apple cart…
Right then Jhansi Williams came in with hesitating steps…
Dr Joy wants to meet you… she said with agony dripping from her face as if it was a bad news.. Well it was, but how would she or we know that then unless we had Nostradamus like abilities to predict…
Hmmm Anand… I told him as I got up and prepared to leave… you meet the king and come back… I shall wait …
I was wondering what it could be and why Dr Joy was the caller directly and that was when Jhansi said to me with more anguish in her face and voice…. You too sir.. Both of you in fact…
Did Anand have a flash of smile …? I don’t remember but yes, he felt comfortable at that news… he apparently felt that he was in company ..good or bad better left to time ,to decide….a calm look appeared in his face..
Manohar sat first in the King’s cabin, then the VC who was followed by Dr Joseph the ED .Dr Joy sat in the central chair and they all looked grim and gloomy. I got tense seeing them all together and the actuality that it was for us that the TOP of GIM was waiting for… Dr Jesus was notably absent and that made me uptight even more… Anand sat next to the VC and now the only two chairs that were left were one near Manohar and another one near Dr Joy. I didn’t had much of a choice as Dr Joy signaled me to the one near Manohar….
When is the EMEP programme starting? Dr Joy asked me even before I was settled in my chair…
Well … I formed an answer quickly and tried to present it but words simply refused to move out like a line of cars wedged in a traffic jam….
Whenever you are…. Said the VC…. Please present to us a plan… a detailed item to item proposal… we have planned it meticulously now the execution has to match it….
Sure sir… I said with a smile, reading between the lines of the chanakya… I knew this old man and could conjecture the countless meanings that he would imply for each word he uttered and a smile was my response….
Professor Anand and Professor Sukesh… said Dr Joy when I was about to assume that they had called us for a discussion on EMEP and its implementation…. You are two brilliant teachers at GIM and we need your help at this juncture…
I smiled at the eulogy even as I doubted its authenticity that it came from a man who did it quite often to get his work done… Anand sat with a stoic silence, and no smiles as if he didn’t want the brilliance that was just bestowed upon him….
You know the incidences that happened the other day… said the VC… it is highly condemnable that in a B school like ours, such unruly mob behaviour did happen….
He sounded plain and insincere…. He should have been India’s home minister.. I wrote in my mind as the note pad wasn’t a good idea in such a meeting…
The management but do not want to look hasty.. said Manohar…. We want to go to the roots…. and find out what is the problem….
Now this was getting interesting… this pattern that unfolded… this sequence that looked well rehearsed… this carefully worded mumbo jumbo….
What is the ED going to say? .....that was my worry ..... in any case his is the turn next….
The management has decided to form a faculty panel which will investigate into the happenings and recommend corrective action .. said the ED putting an almost end to the suspense that I had…
Now Anand and me looked left and right as the baton was passed from player one to player two. We looked like viewers in a tennis match….
So my dear friends….said the King with some drama added… We have decided based on various factors that it will be you two under the able guidance of Dr Joseph who will do the job… I wanted you to know this before we announce it.
I didn’t smile, but this time Anand, to my horror was doing it.. he looked as if he had been conferred with the Bharat Ratna and was waiting at the Ashoka hall to get it pinned to his coat…
Stupid fellow… I muttered…..
Wouldn’t you be glad to help GIM in this endeavor?… asked the VC with his eyebrows up, arched in suspicion….
Oh yeah… shouted Anand… it is a privilege…
I didn’t shout but felt the quagmire that we were walking into… Anand with a smile dancing on his blushing face and me with fear flowing out, no matter how hard I tried to control it…
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Shoot the messenger !!!
It was a long wait for Prof Ram…
First the admission process which kept the management quite busy and the HQ section of the GIM main building a hot bed of activities, and then came the schedule for the AICTE visit that was long pending. A lot of work had to be done before the Delhi team arrived ,with their greed packed in suitcases, pretending to be a group conscious about quality of higher education in this country and Ram never got any gap to squeeze in with his letter and discuss it with the king…
I was the prime victim of the delay, ostensibly as I sat next to him…
He edited it, modified it, tailored it even more, add more quotes and instances, cut off flab but added more, thought about it, rambled incessantly and worse -suddenly walked into my cabin or even showed up his head through the half partition to ask for my opinion on adding something or taking off something from the letter, knowing fully well that my opinion by and large remains the same…
It was discussed by others for some days and later forgotten mercilessly in the admission jamboree and the AICTE visit preparation… Women started worrying about their attire and how disgusting and deplorable it is that the AICTE team is coming on a month end and how good it would have been had it been scheduled for the next month to facilitate better sarees and matching accessories ….In the melee it seemed that only two people were bothered about the letter and its reaching its designated target.. the Kings table !!!
Me and Prof Ram….
Prof Ram was in utopia, or that is what I believed at least … I for sure knew that Dr Joy knew most of the things that was so ornately described in the letter..
May be the quotes and examples from the industry would be new but the facts wouldn’t be and if things were in the shape as they were , it was either because he intended it that way , or because he was helpless…
For me, either ways we couldn’t help it but I stopped saying that to Prof Ram, for not wanting to bicker and squabble over something which was like the classical chicken or the egg issue…
At last the day came when Madam Secretary called Prof Ram in his intercom and announced that the King is now ready and he may come to the HQ in 5 minutes if he still wanted to see the man…
I saw the Prof running out of his cabin in sheer ecstasy as did Archimedes when he ran yelling eureka eureka… Ram of course wasn’t wet and naked and wasn’t yelling, but as he ran, I could see his bliss as if he was a teenager who got an appointment to date Mallika Sherawat….
When Prof Ram walked into the palatial comforts of Dr Joy’s seven star cabin, there was a guest sitting opposite to Dr Joy..... It was not expected, and worse he expected the king to be alone to facilitate a discussion. Wedged for a moment as to what to do, Prof Ram took the seat which was offered to him.
Meet Prof Ram... Dr Joy introduced him to the guest... he teaches strategy at MBA and is a renowned expert.... in fact the back bone of intellect in GIM....
Ram smiled at the praise, knowing very well that it was diplomacy- Joy style and in utter discomfort caused by the presence of a stranger …
And he is Sam Harris... an NRI... Dr Joy introduced the guest to Prof Ram.... we are planning of starting a joint business....fish culture and export...
Prof Ram was taken aback and sat as if a lightning struck him... even the vivacious him couldn’t speak ...
The strategy that he taught wouldn’t agree to this "diversification plans " of the boss.. from education to fish… Goodness gracious!
His brain stopped thinking and as he handed over the envelope with the letter told Dr Joy in a faint mutter....
Please give a reply.... I think I have written down something very important... he muttered in an incoherent tone as if the king will realize his discontentment…
When he was gone, Dr Joy opened the letter ,read that for a minute and with contempt threw it into the dust bin...
What is that ?... asked the curious NRI...
He wants to tell me that he is unhappy and I should do something to make him happy... laughed Dr Joy...
Like...?
Give him a raise and he will shut his mouth for while, then again a letter.....grumbled the king... Teaching me... huh...?
And this stupid teachers..This is the bloody problem with them.. they think they can teach every one… I have reached so far and I god damn know how to take it further….. he went on as the NRI sat there amused and annoyed at the same time.. he had come there for fish business and now was caught in something fishy..
Oh I am sure you can handle it Joy… he said reassuringly….
Hahahahaha… the King laughed in mirth…. You bet… It’s the least of my problems…. I have dealt with such trouble makers often… one thing they don’t understand is that for me I know the art of making money and for that I don’t need an MBA…
Thank God we don’t have an MBA ….laughed the guest as Dr Joy walked up to his refrigerator and poured vodka in two glasses… Now that Prof Ram had ignited it, his interns began to blaze…
Cheers!!! they said and clang the glasses…
They talked business but Dr Joy had an eye set in the dust bin… he wanted the NRI to go to clasp the cover that he had dumped into it with disdain and disgust…
He knew that it was important…
He knew that it WAS NOT the least of his problems…
He knew it could tell him things that he never knew…
He knew that GIM could be saved if he could read it without derision.. once ..
He also knew that it could tell him things that he knew but thought to himself that others didn’t know….
Bastard!!! he still muttered even as the NRI talked fish to an inattentive king….
First the admission process which kept the management quite busy and the HQ section of the GIM main building a hot bed of activities, and then came the schedule for the AICTE visit that was long pending. A lot of work had to be done before the Delhi team arrived ,with their greed packed in suitcases, pretending to be a group conscious about quality of higher education in this country and Ram never got any gap to squeeze in with his letter and discuss it with the king…
I was the prime victim of the delay, ostensibly as I sat next to him…
He edited it, modified it, tailored it even more, add more quotes and instances, cut off flab but added more, thought about it, rambled incessantly and worse -suddenly walked into my cabin or even showed up his head through the half partition to ask for my opinion on adding something or taking off something from the letter, knowing fully well that my opinion by and large remains the same…
It was discussed by others for some days and later forgotten mercilessly in the admission jamboree and the AICTE visit preparation… Women started worrying about their attire and how disgusting and deplorable it is that the AICTE team is coming on a month end and how good it would have been had it been scheduled for the next month to facilitate better sarees and matching accessories ….In the melee it seemed that only two people were bothered about the letter and its reaching its designated target.. the Kings table !!!
Me and Prof Ram….
Prof Ram was in utopia, or that is what I believed at least … I for sure knew that Dr Joy knew most of the things that was so ornately described in the letter..
May be the quotes and examples from the industry would be new but the facts wouldn’t be and if things were in the shape as they were , it was either because he intended it that way , or because he was helpless…
For me, either ways we couldn’t help it but I stopped saying that to Prof Ram, for not wanting to bicker and squabble over something which was like the classical chicken or the egg issue…
At last the day came when Madam Secretary called Prof Ram in his intercom and announced that the King is now ready and he may come to the HQ in 5 minutes if he still wanted to see the man…
I saw the Prof running out of his cabin in sheer ecstasy as did Archimedes when he ran yelling eureka eureka… Ram of course wasn’t wet and naked and wasn’t yelling, but as he ran, I could see his bliss as if he was a teenager who got an appointment to date Mallika Sherawat….
When Prof Ram walked into the palatial comforts of Dr Joy’s seven star cabin, there was a guest sitting opposite to Dr Joy..... It was not expected, and worse he expected the king to be alone to facilitate a discussion. Wedged for a moment as to what to do, Prof Ram took the seat which was offered to him.
Meet Prof Ram... Dr Joy introduced him to the guest... he teaches strategy at MBA and is a renowned expert.... in fact the back bone of intellect in GIM....
Ram smiled at the praise, knowing very well that it was diplomacy- Joy style and in utter discomfort caused by the presence of a stranger …
And he is Sam Harris... an NRI... Dr Joy introduced the guest to Prof Ram.... we are planning of starting a joint business....fish culture and export...
Prof Ram was taken aback and sat as if a lightning struck him... even the vivacious him couldn’t speak ...
The strategy that he taught wouldn’t agree to this "diversification plans " of the boss.. from education to fish… Goodness gracious!
His brain stopped thinking and as he handed over the envelope with the letter told Dr Joy in a faint mutter....
Please give a reply.... I think I have written down something very important... he muttered in an incoherent tone as if the king will realize his discontentment…
When he was gone, Dr Joy opened the letter ,read that for a minute and with contempt threw it into the dust bin...
What is that ?... asked the curious NRI...
He wants to tell me that he is unhappy and I should do something to make him happy... laughed Dr Joy...
Like...?
Give him a raise and he will shut his mouth for while, then again a letter.....grumbled the king... Teaching me... huh...?
And this stupid teachers..This is the bloody problem with them.. they think they can teach every one… I have reached so far and I god damn know how to take it further….. he went on as the NRI sat there amused and annoyed at the same time.. he had come there for fish business and now was caught in something fishy..
Oh I am sure you can handle it Joy… he said reassuringly….
Hahahahaha… the King laughed in mirth…. You bet… It’s the least of my problems…. I have dealt with such trouble makers often… one thing they don’t understand is that for me I know the art of making money and for that I don’t need an MBA…
Thank God we don’t have an MBA ….laughed the guest as Dr Joy walked up to his refrigerator and poured vodka in two glasses… Now that Prof Ram had ignited it, his interns began to blaze…
Cheers!!! they said and clang the glasses…
They talked business but Dr Joy had an eye set in the dust bin… he wanted the NRI to go to clasp the cover that he had dumped into it with disdain and disgust…
He knew that it was important…
He knew that it WAS NOT the least of his problems…
He knew it could tell him things that he never knew…
He knew that GIM could be saved if he could read it without derision.. once ..
He also knew that it could tell him things that he knew but thought to himself that others didn’t know….
Bastard!!! he still muttered even as the NRI talked fish to an inattentive king….
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