The begining of the end !!!

Vacation time was more than normal for me.. I was the only one senior (?) faculty in GIM who worked (??) through the two weeks when others stayed off and probably lived life…

I sat jaded with morons and oil faces instead…. Missed Anand and Sri Laxmi, Missed Ram (Strange but true!!!) and missed the cacophony that made the GIM faculty room….

Every day I would come, report to Jesus who will take me around for a walk, occasionally to the sea side where he will take a fag and then a walk to the canteen … we looked like lovers who had just got proposed some hours back, as we walked together, laughed and was seen blissful in the company of the other.. Jesus kept telling me the ‘you are like my brother’ thing, I knew it’s a lie and yet as the principle of Joseph Goebbels goes, the more he repeated it the more I fell in love with it.. I even saw a dream where I was driving a BMW X 5 and was received with a salute at the GIM portico .. (You should have seen my arrogance and pomp as I walked with a laugh )and suddenly a huge piece of meat roll, from nowhere, fell with a thud on to my proud and thus held high head …. I woke up violently and with a huge cry in my bed… The flesh mass had resemblance to the face of the KING….

Early morning dreams, they say will come true… HUH !

Prof Cherian called me to his cabin through the intercom as I sat in mine fighting darkness at the 3-I cell in the ground floor. HOD used to keep away from me for the last few months ever since the big quarrel with me and Anand and hence the call came as a shocker…

His cabin has this large HOD board ‘declaring’ that this guy didn’t expect it and when he got this bonus of a tag, he simply couldn’t resist but keep announcing it…

I visualized him moving around the campus with a huge tag around his neck with “HOD” written large and bold in it as I walked in and had a funny smile on my face..

So you didn’t get a vacation … he asked me as if he didn’t know of it…

And I guess you didn’t get one as well.. I asked poking him for the fact that he still came in every day in spite of 'being on vacation'…

He didn’t hang on that……. Did I want him to? I guess I did… huh….!. How I hoped that he did wage a war with me- the oil faced pseudo academic jerk!!!!

There are certain important changes that the management is envisaging … he told me without connecting to my eyes.. He looked every where except my eyes as if my face was something which he cannot tolerate..

If I could sit there seeing his horrible oily face, he very well could look into mine and talk….. HUH again!!!

There is an MBA course coming up.. he said… a university affiliated program unlike our current PGDM batches…

In GIM? … I asked cutting him short…

Would I talk to you about some neighbouring college? …….He kind of mocked me.. Since the bugger had a point there , I stayed put…… Stupid me !

There is a group of KEY faculty that the management is planning to allocate to form the core team of the new course.. Words fell off him, and a special emphasis on the KEY word…

I sensed trouble and could feel a rush of adrenalin on me.. drum beats and some sort of a wild roar…. I knew I shouldn’t panic…. Why should I ?......There was no reason to panic -I told a sweating myself and had to tell a bit loud as my heart beats grew large, like the growing sounds of the college band..

Come to the point you ass.. I kept repeating like a mantra (to myself) and he said…… Needless to say Sukesh, you are one among the key people who will set up the new GIM-SOB …

GIM what? …I dropped my jaws… more than the news of my moving to set up some new God damn enterprise under the GIM flag, its name pierced my ears..

GIM School of Business … Cherian clarified… that is what they would be calling the new entity.. they are starting it right across the garden, next to the canteen building..

Thanks sir.. Let me see what I can do…..I said and stood up abruptly, sending a shiver down the oil tanker…

If I could obey my mind, I would have spit on his board outside his cabin..

HOD - Head of all Dickheads……it trumpeted……

Ding… my chat box threw a pop up as I sat in the spruced up 3 I cell. (Did I tell you how I got rid of the grumpiness of the institute industry interaction cell by ordering….err  requesting….. for some lighting up, new painting and some new furniture…That was my major or  the only work during the vacation…. I wanted to throw away the morons (as well) who sat there supposedly to assist me but in real to eavesdrop and tittle-tattle. Now that is my plans for the second round of reforms in the 3 I cell…) ..

Now back to the chat box…..

Anand said…. Hey Suk … Congrats….

For what? … I typed some how even as the wild roar sounded to me again and drum beats went to an ugly crescendo …

Oh.... as if you don’t know…. Typed the ass^%&* and added a smiley …:)

I knew it was the SOB thing…. Now the world is going to laugh and I am going to SOB…  SOB?..... I asked

WTF? .. he replied….

Well ... guess he hadn’t heard of SOB and I had no intention to discuss it with him until I met Jesus….

GIM becomes the first ever Business school to have provided a car each to its teachers… said Anand…

A car each? When ? where? … for a moment I thought that Joy and co had decided to go liberal and gift a car each as loyalty bonus to the academic herd of GIM…

I forgot SOB; now that I was getting a free car I was ready to SOB or even to be taken for any God damn ride!!!

Back again..!!!

Its been almost 6 months that I haven't cooked the chicken curry ...... Work, health and family all had its role in my inertia but it was the same old laziness that kept me off from the spicy world of Chicken curry.. Hope to be here till its over !!!!

Loyalty bonus !!!

At GIM three things were always notable..

The sword of discipline that hung over every head and the strange time sense…

The smiling face of Dr Joy hanging at the reception (in frames that is), which welcomed the visitor….

And the seemingly endless display of cars at the campus… the posh ones driven and /or kept by the management and the lesser expensive and economy ones by the teachers and others in the campus…

Dr Joy liked to see the cars in display as if in a car yard and hence no cars were allowed to be parked in shades.. Ludicrous it was but it was GIM and for him that again was part of brand building… the more cars parked across the campus, the richer GIM will look, he believed …

It was brooding hot in the morning when I parked my humble vintage Maruthi in the line of cars just outside the main building of GIM ….. Two days had gone after the vacation news was out and ever since that was the only talk of the town…. Faculty at GIM behaved as if they are going to attain heaven soon after the vacation..

After all they got two weeks off ... off the huge gates, walls that had ears, spies, oily faces, cameras that could be seen and the ones that couldn’t be, giggles and peeping toms… Two weeks off to sense and then again (alas!!!) they had to be back…

I had met Jesus the last evening and he had promised me a meeting the next day..… and when I walked into the GIM building I had only Jesus in mind and suddenly didn’t see Manohar as he passed me…

How are you doing Professor … he asked me … I didn’t exactly hear what he asked but once he did I looked back ,threw Jesus out of my mind and gasped….

Eh? … I didn’t know what to say ….. I didn’t hear him and since it was Manohar who spoke to the lesser mortals of GIM only once or twice a year I was confused……

I guess I said a weak good morning as he shook my hands…

There is a faculty interview happening and you will be in the panel … he said… the management has decided to include faculty members in the panels so that they get to select their future colleagues ….

I was aghast…

1.It was GIM and any such thing was unheard of.

2.It was the domain of the father, son or the holy spirits but not the son in law..

3.The emblematic question.. Why me?

I still was a pseudo loyal who looked like a loyal … this was the GIM way of rewarding loyalty … a loyalty bonus … you get to sit in the panel with the king and co and ask questions to aspiring faculty members of GIM.. Hurray.. !!!

After throwing my bag and books into my pigeon hole, I searched for Anand.. He was nowhere visible…I did see only Ram but choose to be away from him… at GIM even walls had ears that could decode even gasps, sighs and heart beats and I didn’t want them to hear mine…

I tried to meet Jesus before the process ( to talk vacation) but when I was asked (finally) to meet him he was already in the panel… the king in the centre, the VC on his left, the ED on his right, Manohar, Jesus, and the last seat kept vacant…

The King’s chamber opened before me, once Madam secretary gave the clearance.. My heart beat went up as if I was being interviewed for my first job…

The panel had an enormous smile… Jesus stood up and walked to me , almost hugged me and lead me to my chair next to him….

I felt my eyes wet.. NO ...I didn’t cry but I felt so very indebted to the family, that for a moment I signed a bond with them, to be theirs for ever…

Thank you sir.. I told Jesus… this is such an honour…

He smiled evangelically and touching my hands slowly said… I told you, you are more than a sub ordinate or colleague to me…

Interview processes at GIM was a funny affair.. some Prof X walked in with so and so years of academic experience and when it was time to discuss his Salary or package as it was called , the VC would put a rider.. See Prof X, we would ideally be wanting some one with more of industrial experience than academics.. You don’t seem to fit the bill, seeing from that angle…

X would puncture like a balloon exposed to the summer sun.. once he gets defensive, the deal would be struck…

When Y comes in with a truck load of Industry experience and almost none in teaching, and unload all of it with pride before the panel, the track would change…

The VC would say … that is amazing Y but we would be ideally (Sic!) looking for some one with some more academic exposure… You would agree that you are lacking in that area…

The rest is history… another deflated balloon, another heavy catch for half the quoted price, another round of smiles and mutual admiration…

That afternoon when finally it was over and as we walked out Jesus asked me to meet him in his cabin….

I am sure you know how to keep secrets.. he told me as he sat in his huge chair and gestured me to sit in mine.. His gadgets shown as flickering lights, his mobile phones, PDA set, this and that, wired and unwired habiliments that he wore as a decoration lay here and there on his table …

I was not sure about what secret he was referring to…

The proceedings in the interview room… he told me with a smile… not even Anand should know…

I had an uncomfortable grin… It was clear what he meant….

And yes you wanted to talk to me something… he suddenly reminded…

Oh yes… me.. I mean.. I am.. I stuttered and searched for words… I couldn’t talk ‘vacation’ to him … For the time being I was happy .. no vacation could bring me such a bliss…