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During the last half a century there has been a treMendous escalation in the quality and qualifications of the faculty of IIT KGP...I don't know about the other dozen...
It was not sudden but sort of gradual.
In the 1960s I can safely say that IIT KGP was a place of fun and frolic for teachers and students alike. We were told to do Teaching and Research, period. No one told us of what to teach after a course was allotted to us and what to research...it was all laissez-faire. So we had ample time to indulge ourselves in pseudo-intellectual pursuits like reading novels and playing contract bridge.
By and by over a couple of decades I heard the pronouncement that I 'have to earn my keep'. All to the good. But my sinful Father taught us that, in the Madrasi jargon, 'keep' meant a mistress. Of course there was no way I could earn a mistress...it took all of 14 years of service dedicated to IIT KGP (which, as was proudly proclaimed by flickering neon lamps, itself was 'dedicated to the service of the nation') for me to earn a wife, by when there were no moods sort of.
Then again I was told to 'sell myself'. Good good good. But when I heard the phrase I recalled a similar implied injunction of the parents of Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, the famous five sisters of Pride and Prejudice. They did sort of succeed, willy-nilly, but their inventor, Jane Austen, simply couldn't 'sell' herself and remained as virgin as the Virgin Queen.
I am told that this thing is now formalized...correct me if I am wrong. There are apparently at least two grades of Professors with different pay-scales...one who can sell themselves worldwide and earn not only their keeps but of their parasites as well, and the other who are, say, still up for sale...sale...sale.
Let me state the stark escalation that I talked about by stating that I retired as what Prof B K Srivastava termed proudly a Full Professor (in contrast to 3/4, 1/2, 1/4). Indeed I enjoyed the fruits of this designation for a good 18 years. But if I now apply for the entry-level post of my IIT KGP with my retirement 'qualifications and experience', the Screening Committee would rightly dump my CV into the dustbin. That, briefly, is a true measure of progress, no doubt.
I don't know why, but HNB took me in with just an unthinkable M.Sc. Degree and kept on promoting me relentlessly.
During those days, the Headship was powerful and 'irrotational' unlike later when it became 'solenoidal' (meaning continually rotating).
We just keep playing ping pong in the Faculty Club till there comes a day when HNB calls us and asks us to apply. Then it is just a matter of buying Rs 15 Postal Order (are they there still?) and scribble something in the items and sign and get it countersigned by HNB who wouldn't even look at it. After a while, we were called for an Interview in which HNB took the centerpiece and asks questions he knew we knew the answers of. And then wait for a month or two and he calls us to his Office and hands us the Offer Letters and we run upstairs to 'join' before the Registry change their minds.
And if you go ahead and apply without being asked to by HNB, he still would countersign your application, but you come out of the Interview hanging your head in shame...there is this saying:
"Any fool can ask a question which no wise man can answer"
After my first promotion, from Ass Lecturer to Lecturer, several seniors congratulated me willy-nilly again, but Prof SKDR (sadly no more) added an addendum:
"I had to fight for your 'case' with HNB since you don't have a Ph D"
I thanked him profusely...
After my second promotion, a good 8 years later (from Lecturer to Ass Prof), several people congratulated me again but a couple of senior professors approached me and warned openly:
"This far and no further...HNB is retiring next year and you will never become a Full Professor unless you have Ph D Guidance...now there is a new scheme of Joint Guidance and I will help your 'case' if you join me as a Junior Guide"
More Do-Gooders...
I got scared and went to HNB's Qrs and asked him bluntly if Ph D guidance is essential for my next promotion. He laughed and said:
"If the Man in the Chair wants to promote you, nobody can stop him."
So, I played more ping pong and a good 8 years later applied for my final promotion, egged on by my wife who came to know that DB had applied already.
Prof GSS was the Director and the Man in the Chair then and I got my Offer Letter by and by to my own sweet bewilderment since I didn't have the minimum requirement of Ph D guidance.
Once again many senior people (this time from other Departments and Institutions as well) congratulated me on my (thoroughly undeserved) promotion and narrated how much they had to fight for my 'case'.
I thanked them all but was keen to know.
By and by over the next decade I became somewhat close to GSS (who retired hurt as soon as he promoted me). One day I made bold and thanked him point blank for promoting me a decade back although I didn't deserve it. And he said with a straight face:
"I did nothing...everyone who was promoted necessarily deserved to be promoted"
What do you call THAT?
Then I recalled the story of a poor but impish Brahmin who did penance to please Brahma for a dozen years till he appeared in person and asked:
"Tell me what you want"
"I want to be a millionaire"
"Granted"
"Thanx..but before you vanish I have a question...it is said that you take your invisible pen and write our fate on our foreheads at our birth...now what did you do? Did you erase it and rewrite or simply overwrite?"
"Neither...I simply read out aloud what I wrote on your face at your birth...that you would do penance and I would appear and grant your boon and answer your silly questions"
...Posted by Ishani
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During the last half a century there has been a treMendous escalation in the quality and qualifications of the faculty of IIT KGP...I don't know about the other dozen...
It was not sudden but sort of gradual.
In the 1960s I can safely say that IIT KGP was a place of fun and frolic for teachers and students alike. We were told to do Teaching and Research, period. No one told us of what to teach after a course was allotted to us and what to research...it was all laissez-faire. So we had ample time to indulge ourselves in pseudo-intellectual pursuits like reading novels and playing contract bridge.
By and by over a couple of decades I heard the pronouncement that I 'have to earn my keep'. All to the good. But my sinful Father taught us that, in the Madrasi jargon, 'keep' meant a mistress. Of course there was no way I could earn a mistress...it took all of 14 years of service dedicated to IIT KGP (which, as was proudly proclaimed by flickering neon lamps, itself was 'dedicated to the service of the nation') for me to earn a wife, by when there were no moods sort of.
Then again I was told to 'sell myself'. Good good good. But when I heard the phrase I recalled a similar implied injunction of the parents of Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, the famous five sisters of Pride and Prejudice. They did sort of succeed, willy-nilly, but their inventor, Jane Austen, simply couldn't 'sell' herself and remained as virgin as the Virgin Queen.
I am told that this thing is now formalized...correct me if I am wrong. There are apparently at least two grades of Professors with different pay-scales...one who can sell themselves worldwide and earn not only their keeps but of their parasites as well, and the other who are, say, still up for sale...sale...sale.
Let me state the stark escalation that I talked about by stating that I retired as what Prof B K Srivastava termed proudly a Full Professor (in contrast to 3/4, 1/2, 1/4). Indeed I enjoyed the fruits of this designation for a good 18 years. But if I now apply for the entry-level post of my IIT KGP with my retirement 'qualifications and experience', the Screening Committee would rightly dump my CV into the dustbin. That, briefly, is a true measure of progress, no doubt.
I don't know why, but HNB took me in with just an unthinkable M.Sc. Degree and kept on promoting me relentlessly.
During those days, the Headship was powerful and 'irrotational' unlike later when it became 'solenoidal' (meaning continually rotating).
We just keep playing ping pong in the Faculty Club till there comes a day when HNB calls us and asks us to apply. Then it is just a matter of buying Rs 15 Postal Order (are they there still?) and scribble something in the items and sign and get it countersigned by HNB who wouldn't even look at it. After a while, we were called for an Interview in which HNB took the centerpiece and asks questions he knew we knew the answers of. And then wait for a month or two and he calls us to his Office and hands us the Offer Letters and we run upstairs to 'join' before the Registry change their minds.
And if you go ahead and apply without being asked to by HNB, he still would countersign your application, but you come out of the Interview hanging your head in shame...there is this saying:
"Any fool can ask a question which no wise man can answer"
After my first promotion, from Ass Lecturer to Lecturer, several seniors congratulated me willy-nilly again, but Prof SKDR (sadly no more) added an addendum:
"I had to fight for your 'case' with HNB since you don't have a Ph D"
I thanked him profusely...
After my second promotion, a good 8 years later (from Lecturer to Ass Prof), several people congratulated me again but a couple of senior professors approached me and warned openly:
"This far and no further...HNB is retiring next year and you will never become a Full Professor unless you have Ph D Guidance...now there is a new scheme of Joint Guidance and I will help your 'case' if you join me as a Junior Guide"
More Do-Gooders...
I got scared and went to HNB's Qrs and asked him bluntly if Ph D guidance is essential for my next promotion. He laughed and said:
"If the Man in the Chair wants to promote you, nobody can stop him."
So, I played more ping pong and a good 8 years later applied for my final promotion, egged on by my wife who came to know that DB had applied already.
Prof GSS was the Director and the Man in the Chair then and I got my Offer Letter by and by to my own sweet bewilderment since I didn't have the minimum requirement of Ph D guidance.
Once again many senior people (this time from other Departments and Institutions as well) congratulated me on my (thoroughly undeserved) promotion and narrated how much they had to fight for my 'case'.
I thanked them all but was keen to know.
By and by over the next decade I became somewhat close to GSS (who retired hurt as soon as he promoted me). One day I made bold and thanked him point blank for promoting me a decade back although I didn't deserve it. And he said with a straight face:
"I did nothing...everyone who was promoted necessarily deserved to be promoted"
What do you call THAT?
Then I recalled the story of a poor but impish Brahmin who did penance to please Brahma for a dozen years till he appeared in person and asked:
"Tell me what you want"
"I want to be a millionaire"
"Granted"
"Thanx..but before you vanish I have a question...it is said that you take your invisible pen and write our fate on our foreheads at our birth...now what did you do? Did you erase it and rewrite or simply overwrite?"
"Neither...I simply read out aloud what I wrote on your face at your birth...that you would do penance and I would appear and grant your boon and answer your silly questions"
...Posted by Ishani
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