Parkinson's Law

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My first decade at IIT KGP was my best, in many ways. IIT and most of its students were in their mid-teens and most of us teachers were in our twenties. It was all a comfy small affair. There were only about 25 Full Professors in all, most of them HoDs and aspirants. There was no statutory position of a Deputy Director. When the Director was out of station, IIT was on auto-pilot: the senior-most Prof took care. There were no Deans. The post of HoD was irrotational and powerful. Our own HoD, HNB, was our father figure.

For me it was the decade of most learning and enjoyment. I was learning from students on one side (by their questions) and SDM on the other; like a dholak. I was a bachelor living in a crazy Faculty Hostel and the CL was a friendly place. I was too junior to be entrusted with any Administrative Post and happy enough to be administered. And my best moments were in the tiny Tutorial Rooms adjacent to the Director's Office. The strength of the Tut Class never exceeded 12.

It all changed rather suddenly over a couple of years around 1977. The Class strength almost doubled. HoD became rotational. New buildings cropped up everywhere, one for each Engg Dept. There was a Deputy Director with his Office adjacent to the Diro's Office. One by one several Deans were created. And they all needed Office Space near the Power Center. So, the homely Tut Rooms were taken over by the Deans. And the Tut Classes were suddenly shifted to the Ground Floor of the S Block in the Main Building which was earlier occupied by the Dept of Architecture (which acquired its own new building and perhaps another feather in its cap...Town Planning). While vacating, I guess they shifted their furniture too, like I am soon going to do.

That was the time when HNB called me one day and thrust an unwilling Time Table-in-Charge position on me, which was earlier adorned by Prof STA, who passed on all the Files to me. And one of them was truly boisterous...I kept it with me for a long while.

STA wrote to the Dean (UG) asking for blackboards and student chairs with khata-rests instead of arm rests and fully armed Teachers' Chairs for the new Tutorial Rooms. The application was duly 'forwarded and strongly recommended' by the HoD with a noting that since the new batch of students would be arriving soon after the summer vacation, the matter was URGENT.

Dean (UG) forwarded it to the Professor-in-Charge of Furniture, who asked the Foreman for his comments.

The Foreman quoted several obstacles like shortage of funds, shortage of manpower, shortage of student chairs, shortage of wood in the market and shortage of time.

The Prof-in-Charge suggested that extra Teachers Chairs with arm-rests on both sides were available in so and such Dept and they could be used instead. The Dean sent the file back to the HoD and he to STA, who strongly protested that Tutorial Classes were supposed to be the place where Teachers take rest and students work, as opposed to the Lecture Classes, and so Teachers' Chairs for students would be as inappropriate as the other way round.

The File went back to the Dean who passed it on to the DD asking for immediate grant of funds, manpower, wood and such.

DD wrote back saying that everything could be arranged except perhaps Time. And he was pushing the matter as hard as he can to the Diro.

And by the way he asked if it is a nice idea at all to have chairs for teachers in the Tutorial Classes...Tut Teachers are supposed to go round and see how their students are solving the problems, give them tips, and watch that they are not copying from each other or last year's khatas.

This curious noting had a history of sorts. During Invigilation, one day, DD walked stealthily into the Raman Auditorium to see if Teachers were really invigilating or taking it easy gossiping in their chairs. Word spread, however, much like in Halls during OP, when lookouts were posted on the roofs.

All teachers got up from their chairs and got busy 'invigilating'; except my volatile friend who appears in an earlier blog: something about someone residing permanently inside the mosquito net in his hostel room. Let us call him Dr G. He was absorbed in a Sherlock Holmes novel that he brought with him to while away a tedious afternoon. And he didn't notice the DD approach him till the DD tore away the novel from his hands and tossed it aside. And Dr G was not one to be trifled with. He got up from his chair and took the DD by his arm and shouted: "How dare you insult me in front of my students?" And Opinion was divided...and Dr G won the battle, at least morally, and DD had to withdraw in a huff.

And from the next day, Teachers' Chairs were removed from the Exam Halls...but where there is a will, they say, there is a way...

I myself had to take the Tut Class that year in the new premises; and students were happily sitting in Teachers' Chairs and doing their problems with their khatas on their laps.

And I was dozing in the lone students' chair I stole from a room upstairs...


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