introductory
a taste of things to come!
i slipped and fell into a cesspool some time in 1995
and was wallowing in the muck for the next decade or so. right now i
am out of the "pool", but i am afraid the stink is still there . it
will require a few scrub baths to get rid of it and i am on the look
out for a spa. in the mean time, here are some of my memoirs of the
period.
one day some time in the ninetees i was called to the
office of the hod. this time i had company for there were two
associate professors as well as a very experienced lecturer there. the
common factor was that we all belonged to the group that takes the
shift from 0800 hrs to 1500 hrs - the other shift was from 0900 to
1600 hrs.
the hod bluntly told us that so many sheets of OHP
papers have been stolen from her office and "you give it back to me".
i was aghast and asked her whether she was by any chance, suggesting
that i could have stolen it! "yes" came the prompt reply.
i
got up and told her very politely that if i had stolen it, it is most
unlikely that i would return it to her just by her asking me. she
ought to lodge a complaint with the thiruvananthapuram medical college
police and tell them that i am the suspect. then they will take me in
and bash me up and i will admit that every thing that has been missing
from the department was stolen by me. after giving her this piece of
advice i simply walked out.
no one else uttered a word ( that
is infront of the hod; but once they came out, they were all fretting
and fuming) and i was the only one to react. (is it because i am
abnormal and mentally deranged? shall i get myself admitted in a
lunatic asylum?)
another incident was probably after an
year or so, when a text book was said to have been stolen from the
department. one of the professors told me that madam, meaning the hod
( the same person as in the previous incident), was going to visit the
houses of the staff and personally search the house for the stolen
book. i told her that if any one dares to set foot in my house with
that purpose, i will kick that person out. ( goodness, gracious; i
am a real violent lunatic. i should be in chains!) the professor
took offence and said that this was not the way to talk about madam. i
replied that there was nothing personal about it and i was just making
a general statement.
however, a similar incident during the
reign of the next hod ended on a different note altogether. this time
it was a microscope that was found missing - at least that was how the
story went. i had a cupboard in the lab in which i had locked up a few
instruments i had borrowed from various departments in my name. the
hod told me that she wanted to search my cupboard. i assured her that
the microscope was not there and she accepted my word. but later (
most likely on some one else's advice) she changed her mind and said
she would want to search my cupboard all the same. i agreed and gave
her the key - they could not find any thing.
i was piqued and
sent a letter to the hod demanding an apology. but this time i was the
one who was acutely embarrassed when she asked me: yes jyothi, what
type of apology do you want - written or oral. i just made myself
scarce!
* * * * * * *
the above is taken from my online diary of june 2005
viceman
january 2006
last updated january 13, 2006