Series of incidents since yesterday–I can’t resist sharing them here.

I received a call from a professor yesterday. She asked me if I knew what I should be doing today. Frankly, I did not know what she was referring to. But she told me that she told me what I had to do long back. I know I have a little problem with my memory in general, but my memory works efficiently when it deals with work. Fundamentally, that call asserted that I did not keep track of what I had to do. The reason behind that professor’s such forceful assertion–I guess or may be I felt–was to escape from that activity if I said I was not available, putting the blame on me, a scapegoat in the bottom of the hierarchy.

Lesson: It is easy to blame someone’s memory as poor, and hence him/her. Any argument to defend can be made to sound foolish if you are in the bottom of the pile. In how many movies have we seen tactics of the crooked to convince the society that who is innocent is actually mad.

In the course of a discussion with another professor, I got to know one of her experiences. One of her friends, who often keeps calling her, had one day called to share a happy news that he was awarded the ‘Best Teacher’ in his University. But the sad part of his story was longer; in that, his kid was being counseled by this professor for psychological reasons. And more painfully, his wife claimed that her husband uses lots of ‘psychological stuff’ on their kid, so that the kid does not have any problem. Now, this professor has an experience, and her friend has an award.

Lesson: Best outside, Worst inside does not really work that way. It ends up becoming a story!

I visited another professor at her residence after a long time. Just before I entered her residence, there stood a kid who asked me for a little help. He asked me if there were any doctors available in the surrounding area. I told him, I was going to meet one. But just before entering the professor’s residence was when it lit up in my mind that he might be referring to a medical doctor.

Lesson: Knowledge is a curse. It only confuses!

After that little fun in the last paragraph of this post, I have to reveal the activity that we were expected to do at Andhra University. A professor and me, a research scholar, were sent to that university where their admissions counseling was going on, to distribute pamphlets promoting admissions in our university. Just imagine having to make a first impression to a prospective student distributing pamphlets on road, and then presenting yourself as a faculty in the college! This happens only in my college, I guess. This act of our college best represents what they usually do, create paradoxes and argue their case. Here, it was a conflict they created between having ‘dignity of labor’ and having ‘self-respect’. If I were to argue that my being a faculty needs that I follow certain standard of living, then they would push the case to ‘dignity of labor’ side. If they read this post, then they might be cautious in pushing the argument to ‘sophistication’, suggesting that being a faculty and distributing pamphlets on road can be managed. The university may not know that a clerk of our college was hesitating to do the job that was given to us, but they speak management and run an institution. Let me end this post with just this case, before I am tempted to roll out too many!

Lesson: There is always a conflict when fools rule, to compromise or to challenge. But seldom, there is a choice. And life offers what?! May be more jaw-dropping questions, for which answering would make you feel insulted.

Life is really fascinating, and I mean it!

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