Thursday, September 11, 2008

Presentation

“Which group is this”, he barked. A very warm way to welcome after we have an appointment with you which was taken days in advance. After we had explained that we were the group who had the time slot for presentation he checked and rechecked finally satisfying himself that in fact it was us who had booked the slot.

“We are late”, ofcourse, we are late my intelligent old man and that’s cause u came late. The earlier group has been waiting for half an hour and we have been standing at this lonesome corridor for over 20 mins just to make you listen our interesting presentation( we have no interests whatsoever that you listen to it, just say u have an A and we are gone)

Sumit starts the presentation. Totally unprepared he is after having spent the last two days looking after his girlfriend who had fallen ill at this time of all the unearthly hours. Sir , ahem, as you see we..we…we have taken…selected….we are going to discuss about GE….discuss about the control systems in GE. Excellent start for this already annoyed fellow. His face had the expression as if the exercise is a waste. I surely believe that the whole exercise was a waste. Two days and nights gone on something silly like finding vague differences of a particular company. Sir, u must have lost your head for giving us something like that.

Anyways, he continued. This is the MSSM model. “Have I asked you to relate it to the MSSM model”, he interrupted. O yes sir u did. In not very candid terms that too. I remember myself cursing under bated breath when I heard the preposterous idea. “Sir, we are trying to relate it to all concepts of Management control system” (the paper that this unforgiving old wretch takes).
“if u can justify what u have done its fine, else u will see”, o o now comes a threatening. We are minion criminals who are justifying ourselves in front of the local superintendent. U look more like some rural blighter who has lost his way to his farms. We will “see” getting a grade not of our liking or the one mentioned above. O sir, pls, pls ,pls don do this to us. u make me sick old chap. Go wash your face in the rains.

Our beloved friend Sumit now dropped another bomb on the bald mans head. “sir, as you can already see whats given in the slide I shall move forward”, now this bought a smile to my face. It added a new dimension to this mundane Friday morning. The old fellow seems to have a bad egg early morning my friend and if u give him what you are- we have had it. Not hoping much though, I know fully well what sort of an enlightened fellow he is, I maintained the smile on my face and tried studying the expression on our old chap.

It showed, no, it shouted of disgust and horror. He nodded his head as if to show, now u will “see”. Sumit went on though, as if he is still with the love of his life. Unaware of the world and the ppt on the screen. Sir, sir, and aa…… yes the reward system is a bell rounded curve….sorry….GE follows a well rounded system…… no GE has a forced distribution system….i don remember whether he could manage to say what he wanted but he moved on. The very interested and attentive fellow had risen from his dreams and he said “next person”

That was an indication that I had to speak “ as Sumit was describing about the culture I would like to mention” I had just started which was the opportune moment for our sleepy head of a professor to interrupt. Are u talking about culture. HELLLLLLO!!!!!! GOOD MORNING!!!!!!! KOI hain rather KUCH HAIN… “yes sir, I was describing about culture so that I could then talk of the control processes….

“hmmm, carry on”, he said after he had finished the poking, disturbing frustrating business.
I went on describing about the culture and then I came upon the philanthropic activites, I had mentioned something about volunteerism when he suddenly found himself in a restless position, he couldn control his emotions rather his unemotional act, “is this what happens everywhere.
Yes sir, they have 3500 volunteers in india who undertook various projects last year. I have data on china…..cut….

“but according to the data I have its is not prevelant everywhere"
My dear old friend you have nothing better to do early morning. If not volunteerism they must have taken some other philanthropic project. They are in 140 countries and have CSR everywhere and a culture of promoting welfare…..

I think he must have see from my face that I didn take that remark in best regards and he was one of the last persons in my good books he decided he has troubled me enough and hence called for the next speaker.

I didn’t care much with what happened after that. The old blighter was in his own world as always and neither were we in any mood to please his wild imaginations.

Do whatever u feel like and we shall ofcourse “see”.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

A day in college

A long day of cricket, a movie to celebrate the victory, a hearty dinner to celebrate the movie and a long drive to celebrate the dinner……. A lot of celebrations!!!!!!!!!........ Actually my life is a celebration with a few glitches in between…. So what would u want to do after such a long day…… celebrate life and retire to your bed…..the room where temperature is 5 degrees below room temperature ….a glass of cold milk ready on the side table…..pajamas laid out….the cushy bed wearing new scented sheets and soft music coming thru the surround system u installed a couple of weeks back…..I hear dreams calling

“Good night dad”, I said ready to drop down any second.

“Good night mom, I have to go to varun’s place tomorrow morning, will have breakfast with him”

“Where were u the entire day?” my mom inquired

This might not sound a strange question to u after my adventurous day but I could see the forthcoming doom….my beautiful dreams are ready to be turned into one of those nightmares where u get up gasping for breath….the ‘where’ actually set the tone….in the state that I was I hadn noticed that moms brains were doing over-time…..dad made himself look very disturbed at moms concern but I could see the devilish smile on his face which showed that I have had it this time….. He seemed to be preparing himself for a thoroughly entertaining evening ( hes the reason y I am so pampered)

I knew the volcano was about to burst and all that u could do at these times is just wait and say nothing….anything that u say can be held against u in the court of moms…..u have the right to remain silent and so shall u be….

U must have observed how one thing leads to another and that to another….and so after some loud decibel conversation(one-sided) I was ordered to resume college…..o did I mention I was in the final year of BCOM when no one spent a min inside the classrooms….the canteen was always buzzing with my mates though

“When was the last time u went to college” my mother continued( she had been speaking for well over 5 mins now…..

“ He thinks it’s a picnic spot where he would go for a holiday….a break from the daily chores of his ‘busy’ life” these beautiful words escaped my sisters mouth….all this while I was wondering why was she quite…. Friends, sisters are the breed of people who love to see you in trouble and when u have not been an angel of a brother u are in for some on an hourly basis…

And so it happened…..

Dad couldn’t have missed the sight….he was up early, earlier than usual….he wanted to go for his walk a bit early it seemed….I knew what was going on in his mind not giving him an opportunity to further enjoy at my plight I smiled at him and took the keys to the new car( u can make me go to college but not without my car)….dad looked so pleased he would have bought me another one that day…..

I must have reached early cause there was not a soul in sight but a watchman who looked at me quizzingly….I looked for the time….I am a few mins late(the usual 15 mins as rahul had mentioned somewhere on this beautiful page)….where is everyone….is it a holiday….have they changed college timings….I ignored the watchman and dashed off to class…..the teacher was not there….the class of course was empty….it looked as if no1 had used it for a couple of weeks…..air conditioners were not working….the walls had colored papers sticking thanks to the college fest a month back….A few more mins and making myself cozy in the room I waited for the unhappy soul coming to teach me….well he sure was unhappy to see me…. “What are u doing?”, he enquired

“Good morning sir, I have come for class”.

“U have come for class!!!, y, suddenly, y did u come to class?

A lot of y’s, he sure was unhappy that I disturbed his slumber hours….the prof has to be in class if theres a student…..after some thought he decided he is going to spent his next hour with me…..

“Should I start something, u will not come tomorrow, will u? he tried accusing me for not coming but looked more pleading by the end of the sentence pleading that I don’t disturb his intellectually stimulating naps early morning…..so he rambled on for an hour…he talked about students, behavior, how his salary is the same as the sweepers, y the government is a failure, nothing can be done of Bengal and y didn I give it a thought of going abroad….it turned out that he gets a commission for every student going abroad from a particular institute…..I didn know about him but he surely was testing my temper now…..I have no particular interest in ur stories….about ur pay how u couldn’t get into the company of ur choice etc. etc.

The hour finally ended, now he didn want to leave….I had been a patient listener and he seemed to be a man doing a life term in prison getting an opportunity to speak….a few mins later a beautiful woman entered….is she a teacher, she took the professors’ chair so she should be one….classes can’t be that bad after all….I made a mental note to come to college every Thursday to attend her classes…she was polite and asked about me before introducing herself….she did say something about the subject and the course I have no idea of and before I could start my chit-chat session with her the bald, fat, antique 60 year vice principal entered….

“May I borrow u Miss parekh, for 20 mins”, these English professors choose their words after much deliberation it seems…..so miss parekh is not returning….I decided to hit the canteen….a few people could now be spotted, all in the canteen though….

“1 coffee, sharmaji”…..

“How are u?’, where have u been sir?, nice to see u after a long time”

He actually meant, there are past dues mister, which need your instant attention.

“Arre sharmaji, I think I have some dues would u mind referring your books”

“2200”, he said without even blinking…these canteen fellows no exactly how much every1 owes them…..I knew he was right and now I cursed my wretched friend, all the treats and parties….especially after all of them had a hearty laugh when I gave them the min to min details of the proceedings at home…..none of them was available in the morning as they found it impossible to be up early from their beauty sleep…..

“Will be clearing everything next week” I said sipping the coffee….finishing the formalities with him I looked around….no one I know…..a boring boring day….where does mom get these ideas….college….as if one does not have better things to do….

Now that I have come I ll attend the last class as well and so I took back my place in class….the law teacher entered….now I know she is the kind of a woman u don’t mess around with….a disciplinarian, possessing a little extra of that commodity what teachers are made up of…..

“What are u doing in class?” ok I know I have not been regular to class but what would a student do in class other than wait for the teacher to do his/ her thing…..why is everyone asking the same question.

“Well whatever ur here for, u go and hide yourself on the 2nd floor and don come to class…..after 5 mins I would leave for home….if the vice principal catches u remember its u to be blamed for not being present in class….after sometime come down and go to the canteen or do whatever u feel like except coming to class” she ordered without waiting for my answer.

Now I have got orders, and I have got orders from teachers but none as interesting as this one. A professor is asking me to hide; to not say the truth and play the fool…..interesting story….mom would be pleased to learn this.

Some breed teachers are……..