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When I was a kid, Father used to tell me the story of Janamejaya in graphic detail.
Janamejaya, the King of Hastinapur, was but a kid when his father, Parikshit, died. When he grew up, Janamejaya came to know that his father was bitten and killed by the serpent, Takshaka. And was egged on by his minions to take revenge. And so he performed an elaborate sacrifice called Sarpa Yaga. And all snakes were supposed to get dragged in and drop into the sacrificial fire and perish, leaving no trace.
When the head priest called them by the names of their species one by one, the cobras, kraits, hamadrayads, water snakes, rat snakes, rattle snakes, Russels vipers, pythons et al were drawn to the fire like so many moths to the lamps and scorched themselves and were burnt to death.
But not Takshaka...there was no trace of him.
And the jnanis assembled there discovered by their super-sight that Takshaka coiled himself tight around the throne of Indra, the Lord of Heaven. So the priests were asked to call him by his own name: "Takshaka". And the offending serpent descended fast into the fire along with Indra on his throne.
And Indra, being Indriya Priya, feared for his life and prayed to Janamejaya and his rishis to save him. And the rishis advised Janamejaya to stop the descent of Takshaka and his prisoner so that Heaven is not deprived of its ruler, and chaos resulted in all the three worlds. And Janamejaya agreed, and Takshaka was excused, and by his magic wand recreated all the snakes we see back on earth.
This clinging of Takshaka to the throne to which Indra himself was clinging is known in physics as second order clinging. Although second order processes are slow in nature, they are immensely important, like in lasers where they provide metastable states...Father didn't know this though...lasers were not yet invented...incidentally, lasers are among the few that Nature didn't itself invent somewhere or other.
Something similar happened with our current PM. He was nowhere in the race for the throne but was enthroned just because he clung fast to the legitimate heiress to the throne. And was re-throned again for a second term for the same reason. And he made a mess of her kingdom. But the fascination for sitting pretty on the throne made him declare a few months back that he wouldn't be averse to a third term if asked to serve his queen. But then the prince revolted. The PM then declared that he was not averse to serve under the prince, coiling around his throne, if he were so requested. Any second order chair would do for him like Takshaka...please, please!
I was witness to this pull of the chair while I was at IIT KGP. When I joined there in 1965 as a young lad of 21, the chair of the HoD there was a 'permanent' one...for lifetime.
This business of lifetime was brought to my notice when Airtel announced in 2007 that they could get me a 'lifetime subscription'. I thought that it was for my lifetime, but found that it wasn't anything like that...it was for the lifetime of Airtel.
Anyway, the seniormost prof of the Dept became HoD and ascended the throne. And there was no way he could be dethroned...not even by a no-confidence motion. He would continue to be HoD till his retirement or death whichever was earlier...but few HoDs died in harness...the fascination for continued power kept them alive...and many died within a year after their retirement...all power is poison, young man!
This practice had its good and evil...the evil first...the HoD would promote all his chamchas and grab all the funds for his labs, leaving the next in line red in the face. The good is, as my witty friend MSS put it, you know whom to salute...otherwise you have to butter up all and sundry...who knows?
I know of HoDs who ruled for almost two decades and still sought extension.
Naturally this gang of permanent HoDs grew very powerful. In 1970, a new Director took charge and found at once that he was a toothless tiger...the ruling HoDs didn't let him rule...they themselves wanted to rule by remote control. Like for instance, they would oppose the introduction of the newfangled semester system. And the new Director revolted and tried the novel technique of de-fanging them by the introduction of Rotation of Headship.
The old guard then egged on their junior faculty to form an Association called IITTA. And this became a knife in the bottom of the Director, and he retired.
But as the Roman soldiers said in Ben Hur:
"You can kill a man...but how can you kill and idea?"
When another new Director came to take charge, he found the IITTA too strong for him to control. And so he collected all the senior disgruntled faculty aspiring to become heads and egged them on to form a rival Association called Faculty Forum. And promised all those who joined it Deanships and Chairmanships of various silly committees created for this specific purpose...there was even a Market Committee...maybe a Poultry Committee and a Fish Committee were in the offing.
Divide and Rule...the trick the Brits followed in India so successfully.
Eventually the headship became a rotating one like so many musical chairs...and lost all its powers and Director became all-powerful.
And I knew of a Director who had the great good fortune of serving the IIT for two successive terms....he was hoping to serve for a third term even....'lifetime' Directorship...his lifetime...not IIT's.
Such is the pull of power even in academics...sigh!
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Janamejaya, the King of Hastinapur, was but a kid when his father, Parikshit, died. When he grew up, Janamejaya came to know that his father was bitten and killed by the serpent, Takshaka. And was egged on by his minions to take revenge. And so he performed an elaborate sacrifice called Sarpa Yaga. And all snakes were supposed to get dragged in and drop into the sacrificial fire and perish, leaving no trace.
When the head priest called them by the names of their species one by one, the cobras, kraits, hamadrayads, water snakes, rat snakes, rattle snakes, Russels vipers, pythons et al were drawn to the fire like so many moths to the lamps and scorched themselves and were burnt to death.
But not Takshaka...there was no trace of him.
And the jnanis assembled there discovered by their super-sight that Takshaka coiled himself tight around the throne of Indra, the Lord of Heaven. So the priests were asked to call him by his own name: "Takshaka". And the offending serpent descended fast into the fire along with Indra on his throne.
And Indra, being Indriya Priya, feared for his life and prayed to Janamejaya and his rishis to save him. And the rishis advised Janamejaya to stop the descent of Takshaka and his prisoner so that Heaven is not deprived of its ruler, and chaos resulted in all the three worlds. And Janamejaya agreed, and Takshaka was excused, and by his magic wand recreated all the snakes we see back on earth.
This clinging of Takshaka to the throne to which Indra himself was clinging is known in physics as second order clinging. Although second order processes are slow in nature, they are immensely important, like in lasers where they provide metastable states...Father didn't know this though...lasers were not yet invented...incidentally, lasers are among the few that Nature didn't itself invent somewhere or other.
Something similar happened with our current PM. He was nowhere in the race for the throne but was enthroned just because he clung fast to the legitimate heiress to the throne. And was re-throned again for a second term for the same reason. And he made a mess of her kingdom. But the fascination for sitting pretty on the throne made him declare a few months back that he wouldn't be averse to a third term if asked to serve his queen. But then the prince revolted. The PM then declared that he was not averse to serve under the prince, coiling around his throne, if he were so requested. Any second order chair would do for him like Takshaka...please, please!
I was witness to this pull of the chair while I was at IIT KGP. When I joined there in 1965 as a young lad of 21, the chair of the HoD there was a 'permanent' one...for lifetime.
This business of lifetime was brought to my notice when Airtel announced in 2007 that they could get me a 'lifetime subscription'. I thought that it was for my lifetime, but found that it wasn't anything like that...it was for the lifetime of Airtel.
Anyway, the seniormost prof of the Dept became HoD and ascended the throne. And there was no way he could be dethroned...not even by a no-confidence motion. He would continue to be HoD till his retirement or death whichever was earlier...but few HoDs died in harness...the fascination for continued power kept them alive...and many died within a year after their retirement...all power is poison, young man!
This practice had its good and evil...the evil first...the HoD would promote all his chamchas and grab all the funds for his labs, leaving the next in line red in the face. The good is, as my witty friend MSS put it, you know whom to salute...otherwise you have to butter up all and sundry...who knows?
I know of HoDs who ruled for almost two decades and still sought extension.
Naturally this gang of permanent HoDs grew very powerful. In 1970, a new Director took charge and found at once that he was a toothless tiger...the ruling HoDs didn't let him rule...they themselves wanted to rule by remote control. Like for instance, they would oppose the introduction of the newfangled semester system. And the new Director revolted and tried the novel technique of de-fanging them by the introduction of Rotation of Headship.
The old guard then egged on their junior faculty to form an Association called IITTA. And this became a knife in the bottom of the Director, and he retired.
But as the Roman soldiers said in Ben Hur:
"You can kill a man...but how can you kill and idea?"
When another new Director came to take charge, he found the IITTA too strong for him to control. And so he collected all the senior disgruntled faculty aspiring to become heads and egged them on to form a rival Association called Faculty Forum. And promised all those who joined it Deanships and Chairmanships of various silly committees created for this specific purpose...there was even a Market Committee...maybe a Poultry Committee and a Fish Committee were in the offing.
Divide and Rule...the trick the Brits followed in India so successfully.
Eventually the headship became a rotating one like so many musical chairs...and lost all its powers and Director became all-powerful.
And I knew of a Director who had the great good fortune of serving the IIT for two successive terms....he was hoping to serve for a third term even....'lifetime' Directorship...his lifetime...not IIT's.
Such is the pull of power even in academics...sigh!
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1 comment:
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