Questions and answers !!!

For me, it was an aweful day.....
The hot summer was brooding and sultry, and as humidity reached its pinnacles, I was sweating profusely, even as I sat under the fan, strategically positioned to cool me off....
It was a heaven inside GIM, with central A/C and soft music spread everywhere but people when needed free thinking and some loud talking ,migrated into the canteen building across the large garden that was the centre point of GIM.
After introducing Srilaxmi to the class of MBA who for some time were awed by her beauty, but then slowly looked daunted by her obvious naïveté ,I too found solace in the canteen and sat there idle seeking respite and for some introspection as to what the HELL was my doing there...

I, for a minute hated the profession that I was in...

It was new to me... I had hated certain elements of the job there many a times but inspite of all the negatives I didnt hate the job, hadnt yet because of the students that I got to teach there..The best result that a teacher can hope for is the transformation that his students undergo under his tutelage,,.. probably that is the only take home or gratification that teaching as a profession world over gave its practitioners..I kept reassuring myself whenever I sulked....
The heat wave that swept me was refusing to get cured by that logic...

In a B school lots of star studded jobs came into campus and left with the bright students ... most of them bagging double and more of salaries than their wise and well learned teachers took home inspite of all their wisdom.... Still I didnt hate my job..... there was a unique satisfaction in seeing raw material turning into finished products that some one would come ,see, test, like it, and go buying... there was a unique bliss in seeing the teachers role in the pupils transformation...

I for a minute hated the profession only for the way it was practised in here at GIM...I just had lead a young lady into a class of demanding kids ,a damsel who clearly ventured into a profession having no idea about why she is there and what makes her qualified to be there....
I hadnt had in me the guts to say "I cannot be party to it" to the man who assigned me the dirty job.At GIM I was popular as a teacher, mostly because of the theory of relativity in place...AS compared to whom was a question no one ever asked...... I felt it good that way to be ranked top by the hundreds on young boys and girls with bright eyes and even brighter intellects, well informed mindsets and well oiled brains. Deep inside I knew that inexperienced damsels and good for nothing else idiots should walk in to teach at GIM, get the wrath of students and run away again and again, so that when the theory of relativity is applied next time when a student feedback is taken ,I remain visible and shining... We needed the bad ones, compared to whom the better ones looked the best,,,, HUH!!!

Sullied motives so glaring out of self declared altruism and no fan could beat the sweat ...

Prof Sukesh.... you are here.... walked in Valmiki Gupta ... into the canteen bouncing me back to GIM and its real world.....

Oh yes yes.. Guptaji ...I smiled sheepishly....Day dreamer eh...? he laughed loud as he came and sat opposite to me with a cup of tea and deep fried banana that GIM canteen was good for.

It seems to be rocking ..your soft skills classess... for the first time there is so much of noise in GIM .....I said and I meant it....

Ohh yes yes... and as expected they LOVEEEE it.... claimed gupta with his trumphet out....
I knew I did a mistake by encouraging this self important guy... He was ready with more of his tales but then I interfered as words got stuck in his mouth, in between hot pieces of fried banana..

Hope the management also feels the same... I garbled sarcastically.... The full time faculty hated the part timers who came,saw and conquered the student minds and I too felt the same with this man whose classes were LOVEEED by the kids.

hahahahhaa... Gupta laughed at my face with such blatant impunity that for a second put me to shame and made me regret again...

Why do you think so much noise is made? Asked Gupta biting off the last piece of banana fry, and quickly gulping the remaining tea...

I didnt know.. well ... I mean I could have come up with answers but unprepared to accept more of hoot and howl from the soft skills trainer, I kept shut....

It is not how you work my dear professor.....Gupta revealed as if in a sermon.... it is how you show you work....

I sat there ..... I atleast regretted my self centrism, it seemed to me that the rest of that world was celebrating it...

Will she? Wont she?

Sri laxmi, a newly appointed lecturer in the area of Marketing was at GIM that day and after her joining, Dr Joseph called me in to his cabin and gave me the not so very admirable task of taking her to the class room and introduce the incumbent to the second year students in my capacity as the chairperson-Marketing area .(Such paraphernelia kept visiting the faculty of GIM in rotation , and we received it in no great exultation and when it left us we left it with no great sadness either)...
Valmiki gupta and his noisy softskills classes were in full swing... it was unusual at GIM to hear so much noise and for a change it sounded like a place where some 500 young men and women lived, literally....
I dont think she has that kind of confidence... I told myself after seeing the shy and timid lady sitting in the common area of the faculty room... I walked to her and extended my long hands to welcome her to the fraternity at GIM.
She looked horrified, and a scare was visible in her big eyes.. Beautiful she was and why not... GIM never recruited women who arent good in looks, brain is another thing which as per a logic put down by the HQ -could be done away with if they looked good... She too seemed to be of the same genre and definitely not the one who was destined to teach Marketing at a B school....

You are the nth one I am seeing my dear.. I said to myself as she said a namaskar with her hands folded, and a shaken me taking back my hands and taken aback byher primitive manners.

I sat in Dr Joseph's chamber waiting for the bell to go on air, after which I could take the new damsel to start her life with the knowledge hungry crowd of the second year of MBA at GIM.

I dont think she is that confident...... told Dr Joseph in a hushed tone to my worried eyes more than to my ears...
I was aghast by that remark... for a second I even thought that the ED knew mind reading and this old man has just grabbed what I was thinking .

It is clear to anyone who sees her but then it is VC's appointment and as usual even I had no say in the whole thing.... I was only told this morning ... he added as if he did it again... mind reading....

....ooh.... I sat with an open mouth, as if it was through there that the news was going in...

And you know what......Dr Joseph was more than happy to feed me with more information...... Another four more are joining to 'boost the intellectual capital' as per VC but in fact to compensate the numbers which we have lost in the last two months.......

Ohh..numbers is a problem is it...? I thought with everyone in the HQ from Dr Joy in the list of faculty send to AICTE, we were on the comfortable side.... I whispered in disbeleif which took Dr Jospeph by a storm.. I wasnt prepared for the reaction and got annoyed when he responded to that ....
...hahahahahaha....Dr Joseph laughed, in thunderous mirth, with air gaps in between giving you a feel that it will end,it sure will but to begin again and raise to a top volume hilarity...in a way his laughter was entirely his own and even the best student mimic of GIM could never copy it with full perfection....
Sirrrrr.... came and called Jansi william,the faculty office secretary...
Yes please......said Dr Joseph, visibly unhappy for the abrupt end that he had to put to the chat with me but much to my happiness that I was releived from the torture of being cornered by this commander of the kings loyal army...
The bell will not work..there seems to be some problem ....so if...... said Jansi in her usual curtailed style of speech......
Next thing which I did after returning from class was to run to the canteen.. have a face wash and over a cup of tea, ponder....
Will she?
Wont she?

Tug Of War !!!

Dr Joseph was glued to the telephone when the guest walked in with firm steps, a lavish smile and an extended hand of friendship. I was sitting opposite to him with a couple of other colleagues and was about to begin a syllabus review process which was a regular exercise that we undertook at the B school to make sure that we taught what the industry wanted.. whether we actually did it is a different question altogether and can be seen later.....

Yes sir.. will do sir.. no sir.... ok sir.... he kept on saying mechanically and kept the phone....

You look pale and shocked... said Gupta who walked in and didnt bother even to acknowledge the presence of two three others in the room....... For him we were like invisible or some lesser mortals who didnt have the right to exist....

Did I walk in at the wrong time? he enquired...

well no... said Dr Joseph with a sheepish smile...... absolutely not.....but I am afraid you may have to go to the guest house now... and let us begin fresh tomorrow morning...

Cool with me ....said Gupta.... and in any case im here direct from the airport.. would like to have some rest...

As Gupta was packed off,Dr Joseph started sweating as if he has just seen a ghost and told us that the syllabus review can wait and then ran out of the faculty room to the VC's office.......

You will have to help me sir..... he lamented as he almost fell into a chair at the VC's room......There is a man who have come from Delhi on Mr Manohars invitation and we are putting him as a soft skills trainer....

mmmm....mumbled VC who was writing something on a notepad and didnt raise his head to look at the expressions that bloomed at the ED's face.

Sharma of AICTE has recommended him and you know Sharma....continued Dr Joseph......that is why Manohar wants...

And Jesus has told you that Gupta cannot and will not train the students here.. right?......asked VC this time, putting his notepad on to the table...

Dr Joseph smiled in astonishment, for a second, and then out a releif over the realisation that this man who knew the GIM family better than he knew his own, could solve this puzzle as well....

Valmiki gupta went on with his softskills training and the ED was caught in the tussle between the son and the son in law, both directors at GIM .Dr Joseph played his cards safe as per the VC's directives and made sure that he wasnt hurt in the bizarre tug of war between the two power centers at GIM . Jesus was angry and the VC brokered a deal between both the parties, in the Kings chamber and a temporary cease fire was declared... Truce it was but Dr Joseph the ED ,knew that it was just a matter of time before it flared up again.... But for the time being he was happy and thankful to one man...... The VC.. shrewd to the core and a master manipulator he was....

Half the time he spend unravelling such quagmires......Rest half he spend crafting new problems so that he could solve them...........