Dr Joy had bought another new car, which stood proud like the owner himself in the huge portico of GIM, where only the family was supposed to drive into, get down and get in from their cars and even park there. This new one was a BMW 3 series, which was worth 35 Lakhs as per the hush hush that went around. I was walking in to start the day when I saw this black beauty that was parked and the admiring faces that loitered around…
Sir .. why don’t you buy one sir? ….one mischievous student asked a bit loud,may be for fun, but which hurt the ego of some one for whom the basic model of a Maruthi itself was a burden….
I smiled and walked off as if such material comforts didn’t matter to a teacher. A teacher is above all such silly things in life….
A hard expression to show in face, particularly for an amateur actor!
As I passed the reception, walking into the stair, Dr Joy smiled from his huge pic- contempt was written all over his face, from the folds of which a scorn slowly unraveled.
I hated the man and the total dispensation, for the kind of luxury that they indulged in, throwing the lesser mortals into a burning hot pot of resentment and jealousy.
The Class representative came to my pigeon hole cabin when I was refreshing the power points of the day, arranging the ads to be shown, after asking Jhansi Williams to take print out of the case let that was to be discussed that day.. Time was running out and here was this guy who stood behind me with a stupid smile…
Yes man….??.... I looked at him
He didn’t talk, instead scratched his head as if the answer was there…
I have a class now…. I said …
He still didn’t reply, nor did he plan to go…
Are you planning a quiz today sir..? ..he asked after enough testing my patience…
I was not, but when he asked I inadvertently shook my head in conformance…
How did you know?? …
He flashed a victorious smile… He knew everything at GIM… at least better than me… he knew that I was going to conduct a surprise test, which EVEN I didn’t know.. Wasn’t it great?
If yes what? .....I asked him…
Some guys are absent sir…. In fact 5 of them… so if you….
I had never seen such a request at GIM.. they were never supposed to be absent and if they were it was at their risk- entirely…
So if I?
Sir it will affect their internal marks… he said with a hell lot of shilly-shallying, half of which was adulterated
I stood up, and he went two steps back…
How dare you come and ask me this? … I shouted…. How dare you….
The faculty room reverberated… heads came up the half cabins… and this guy started shuddering…
I knew I could have handled it better but I was frustrated, my ego was hurt, My Maruthi sized self esteem baloon had got pricked by a BMW sized pin…..
Get out… I said and he simply vanished….
I sat there looking at the computer screen which had all the ads and power points lined up, my teaching folder for the day which was waiting to be copied into my pendrive….
This is a fucking profession… I wrote in my note pad…. With angry lines underlining the concept…Anand had said it right….
The last day when I met him at his home,he had told me… Those who can do will do, others will teach!!!
I walked out of the large faculty room to the corridor and the corner from where the sea was visible… how I wish I could be a sea, a wave, or at least a drop in it, which was seamless, at times thoughtless and when desired be real as well….
I called Anand to discuss the issue. After the last evening visit, when a recuperating Anand Mohan looked healthier than a healthy me…. He smiled more lavishly than ever, saw life in all its hues and colours and more vividly than ever, he was again a solace… I just wished for his come back and he assured of it soon….
Laughter was his answer… he went on and on with his laugh for the BMW story, which but surprisingly didn’t hurt my ego….
You should be happy Suk… he told me finally…. The moral of the story is that “happy bosses, peaceful sleep guaranteed”!!!
I wasn’t quite convinced but could handle the class with less temperament and even with a smile at the CR who sat there possibly expecting a fully loaded gun and blood bath….
After the class he even said a thank you (for not conducting the test, because he requested)
I didn’t tell him that no tests that were intended… I just walked out with a smile, thinking of the approbation that he is going to win from the daredevils who bunked the day’s classes.
I was at Prof Ram’s cabin showing him an article which I managed to write (one word for all the google search, cut, copy, paste, re word, re phrase and all the stuff behind a faculty researched article). Ram had a sneering look which I fully deserved for the 4 pages of hard work which lay frozen at his table and yet I didn’t like his stare….
I didn’t talk and when he was about to his intercom rang…
Yeah…he said.. Now? ...he asked…. Done !.... he committed and kept the receiver back to its cradle…
Your HOD wants to meet you in his cabin… NOW … said Ram and gave me back the paper bunch…
Let it be here sir..… please help me in making it better….. I said and walked to the HOD’s cabin.. I wanted to turn back and look into Rams face, but I could see it even without…
The final report is ready… Said Prof Mathew Cherian…. Now both of us have to sign it and I can send it to the management.
He extended a neatly printed and bounded book to me, which looked like a final project report….
Enquiry report on the indisciplinary activities undertaken by a section of students on… bla bla bla.. It read….
You need to sign only on the last page… he said with impatience….
I need to… I looked at him distrustfully and he read it….
You don’t have a pen…? He asked me.
I need to read it sir… I said without looking into his face….
A drop of oil fell on the table??
May be his table was oily as his face was which I didnt adventure to look at that pont of time but I knew he was slipping……
I stood up and said before walking out… With your permission, I am taking it...
Here again I wanted to look back, but didn’t for I knew the kind of ugly face my HOD had!!!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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…..
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Trial and Tribulation... Part I
I taught advertising that semester. It was my most comfortable domain which I could teach even if I were woken up at the middle of the night and asked to. Not that GIM did it, but did things pretty close to it. Classes ran from 7 30 to 7 30 and often had clashes due to lack of planning quite often, absence of Jesus (remember at GIM even a small swapping had to go through the laborious process of getting the Director’s consent) ,a faculty suddenly going on leave was among a host of reasons that upset the complicated matrix of class allotment. I was just back after one such class that was dumped on me and was planning to relax at my pigeon hole after that third class of the day, which was a case discussion that was left half way through for want of time, when ED called me.
After the advent of the new HOD, the ED rarely did call the Marketing faculty, including me and that was a relief. When the phone rang and his voice came through I was a bit surprised, a bit shocked and a bit curious as to the intentions of that out of the blue bell ringing.
If you remember…. he told me in his cabin without even looking into my face… there was an enquiry that was constituted after the student unrest….
I suddenly went back to the rainy day when students ran mayhem in GIM… I also remembered the day when Anand and I walked into the enquiry trap, him blissfully ignorant and me frighteningly suspicious ….
But Anand has gone….. I thought….
Just because Anand Mohan has left…. The ED said, this time fixing his dirty stare on my eyes, and reading my mind from my eyes….. you cannot run away from the job you were committed with…
Run away was a bad way to put it I thought, but then I was in no position to correct it…. When he called, Sri Laxmi had just left my cabin, leaving me heavy hearted, sharing a lot of joy and pain, shedding a lot of tears and glee, clearing me of my assumptions that I was so very loutishly nourishing in mind…
I chose to stand silent…
It was clear that he had made his war plan and just wanted some one at the other side… He had dug out an issue and chose me, the nearest sitting dumbo for the honours…. I was, but in no mood to fall victim to his post lunch past time hunt and stood there as if at that point of time, I would obey anything he ordered.
Visibly disillusioned he said …..
Along with Prof Mathew Cherian, you will start the enquiry process today…. and added with his matchless laugh that evicted more gases than any volcano and produced more sounds than a thunderstorm…. The VC expects a report by Monday next….
But sir… I said with hesitation even as he kept laughing… I have never conducted and enquiry before….and Prof Mathew joined just now… he wouldn’t know the actual….
Don’t tell me what to do Sukesh Menon…. shouted the old man with a sudden fury… if you have a doubt about the qualifications of your HOD and what to do , you can go and meet the VC now, or if you are clear allow me to brief him about this….
He didn’t ask me to go but turned his chair to his phone and started calling some one in what I took as a message to go….I showed faces at his ass and walked out of his cabin and out of the faculty room in absolute annoyance.
I kept wondering…. from where, where on earth did GIM hunt and bring such rare specimen?
Prof Ram was there in the corridor when I walked down; he joined me even without asking me where I was going. It was assumed that Sukesh Menon when left the faculty room visibly stressed would go but to the canteen,,, where else?
How do you conduct an enquiry? ......I asked Prof Ram while we passed the reception area from where Dr Joy with a smile hung from the biggest photograph in the world.
Ram looked at me with a funny glance, asking me to elaborate on my question… I told him the whole episode which happened and my worry about the new team mate….
It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the enquiry of the obscure …said Ram with a smile, quoting from some one he read….
Yeah … I mean….. how true… I said even as we got seated in the canteen, which looked deserted with only a few footfalls that were unusual at that time of the day.
I am planning to leave it to Prof Mathew and play second fiddle…. I said… that way I guess I can be safe…
How long ?..... demanded Ram… and safe is a relative concept… what have you achieved so far by being safe?
Very pertinent question…. I thought, even as I kept staring at Ram’s face as he drank his tea and mine still waiting….
Did he sound like Anand? Or was it just a feeling? …..….
I missed him….
My mobile vibrated and then went silent….
1 message…
Sri Laxmi…..
You said you would like to meet Anand.. Today I am planning to. Would you be interested? If yes come to the main gate some 15 minutes before 5….I will wait for 5 minutes….Thank you in advance…
I sat there reading that direct communication over and over again as if I didn’t understand … My heart started pounding with no logic…. I could see Ram looking at me spiritedly and to my mobile phone.. I am such an idiot who showed it all on his face …
I couldn’t wait …as time simply refused to snail, as the clock bizarrely crept , and as the post lunch silence let loose a siesta in almost all the cabins , I sat impatiently tapping the mouse and playing with my sand clock…. How I hope I had the time machine…
Just when the clock ticked 4, my phone rang…..
Mathew here… came the grumpy voice and I could feel oil flowing out of my receiver….
Yeah sir,,,, I pretended reverence
We need to sit for the enquiry…. He broke into my affectation and said …. I am meeting the management now and will need you when I am back…
But sir… even before I could launch my rejoinder he had gone…..
It was pitching dark when I finally got out of GIM that evening… Prof Mathew had left after the first sitting of the enquiry commission, the trial and tribulation, which but turned out to be the best of all the farces that I had seen at GIM…
I stood there alone, as mist came down covering the huge building and the garden impairing my vision, as darkness sang some sad song into my ears , and as some numbness gripped my legs, refusing to take me to my car at the parking bay………
My mobile had gone dead, out of charge, when I finally decided, sitting in the car that I should talk to Anand...
After the advent of the new HOD, the ED rarely did call the Marketing faculty, including me and that was a relief. When the phone rang and his voice came through I was a bit surprised, a bit shocked and a bit curious as to the intentions of that out of the blue bell ringing.
If you remember…. he told me in his cabin without even looking into my face… there was an enquiry that was constituted after the student unrest….
I suddenly went back to the rainy day when students ran mayhem in GIM… I also remembered the day when Anand and I walked into the enquiry trap, him blissfully ignorant and me frighteningly suspicious ….
But Anand has gone….. I thought….
Just because Anand Mohan has left…. The ED said, this time fixing his dirty stare on my eyes, and reading my mind from my eyes….. you cannot run away from the job you were committed with…
Run away was a bad way to put it I thought, but then I was in no position to correct it…. When he called, Sri Laxmi had just left my cabin, leaving me heavy hearted, sharing a lot of joy and pain, shedding a lot of tears and glee, clearing me of my assumptions that I was so very loutishly nourishing in mind…
I chose to stand silent…
It was clear that he had made his war plan and just wanted some one at the other side… He had dug out an issue and chose me, the nearest sitting dumbo for the honours…. I was, but in no mood to fall victim to his post lunch past time hunt and stood there as if at that point of time, I would obey anything he ordered.
Visibly disillusioned he said …..
Along with Prof Mathew Cherian, you will start the enquiry process today…. and added with his matchless laugh that evicted more gases than any volcano and produced more sounds than a thunderstorm…. The VC expects a report by Monday next….
But sir… I said with hesitation even as he kept laughing… I have never conducted and enquiry before….and Prof Mathew joined just now… he wouldn’t know the actual….
Don’t tell me what to do Sukesh Menon…. shouted the old man with a sudden fury… if you have a doubt about the qualifications of your HOD and what to do , you can go and meet the VC now, or if you are clear allow me to brief him about this….
He didn’t ask me to go but turned his chair to his phone and started calling some one in what I took as a message to go….I showed faces at his ass and walked out of his cabin and out of the faculty room in absolute annoyance.
I kept wondering…. from where, where on earth did GIM hunt and bring such rare specimen?
Prof Ram was there in the corridor when I walked down; he joined me even without asking me where I was going. It was assumed that Sukesh Menon when left the faculty room visibly stressed would go but to the canteen,,, where else?
How do you conduct an enquiry? ......I asked Prof Ram while we passed the reception area from where Dr Joy with a smile hung from the biggest photograph in the world.
Ram looked at me with a funny glance, asking me to elaborate on my question… I told him the whole episode which happened and my worry about the new team mate….
It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the enquiry of the obscure …said Ram with a smile, quoting from some one he read….
Yeah … I mean….. how true… I said even as we got seated in the canteen, which looked deserted with only a few footfalls that were unusual at that time of the day.
I am planning to leave it to Prof Mathew and play second fiddle…. I said… that way I guess I can be safe…
How long ?..... demanded Ram… and safe is a relative concept… what have you achieved so far by being safe?
Very pertinent question…. I thought, even as I kept staring at Ram’s face as he drank his tea and mine still waiting….
Did he sound like Anand? Or was it just a feeling? …..….
I missed him….
My mobile vibrated and then went silent….
1 message…
Sri Laxmi…..
You said you would like to meet Anand.. Today I am planning to. Would you be interested? If yes come to the main gate some 15 minutes before 5….I will wait for 5 minutes….Thank you in advance…
I sat there reading that direct communication over and over again as if I didn’t understand … My heart started pounding with no logic…. I could see Ram looking at me spiritedly and to my mobile phone.. I am such an idiot who showed it all on his face …
I couldn’t wait …as time simply refused to snail, as the clock bizarrely crept , and as the post lunch silence let loose a siesta in almost all the cabins , I sat impatiently tapping the mouse and playing with my sand clock…. How I hope I had the time machine…
Just when the clock ticked 4, my phone rang…..
Mathew here… came the grumpy voice and I could feel oil flowing out of my receiver….
Yeah sir,,,, I pretended reverence
We need to sit for the enquiry…. He broke into my affectation and said …. I am meeting the management now and will need you when I am back…
But sir… even before I could launch my rejoinder he had gone…..
It was pitching dark when I finally got out of GIM that evening… Prof Mathew had left after the first sitting of the enquiry commission, the trial and tribulation, which but turned out to be the best of all the farces that I had seen at GIM…
I stood there alone, as mist came down covering the huge building and the garden impairing my vision, as darkness sang some sad song into my ears , and as some numbness gripped my legs, refusing to take me to my car at the parking bay………
My mobile had gone dead, out of charge, when I finally decided, sitting in the car that I should talk to Anand...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
