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I was talking about ladies and gents at their workplaces. Of course there is no universally valid generalization on ladies and gents except that they are different.
During the 1950s and 60s when I and my sister were studying in Vizagh, I at the university and she at the medical college, there was this gynecology professor Dr Subhadra Devi. Her reputation as a teacher and as a doctor were terrific, sensational, and international.
But everyone, I mean every one, of her students was mortally scared of her.
Those days there was only one Professor in every department who was also invariably its Head till retirement or death whichever happened earlier. My own uncle Dr K Krishna Murty was the sole Professor of Medicine there...as well as Head of the Department of Medicine. Things must have changed duly but not too quick...for when I conveyed him the wholesome news that I got ultimately promoted as a 'full' professor (as one of us put it gloriously), he congratulated me by sending a picture post card to my departmental address at IIT KGP, which read:
I snatched the thing from our office tray before anyone could see it and rag me to death...there were then a dozen or more 'full' professors in our department of which I was the tail instead of head.
During those days at Vizagh, it was next to impossible for an MBBS to get an MD degree after three years of labor in the first attempt in any discipline. My own 'genius' uncle got it in his second attempt...even that was an achievement.
But under Dr Subhadra Devi the norm was 4 or 5 attempts if anyone survived it. Naturally, ladies specialized in gynecology. My sister and her lady classmate joined for post-graduation under Subhadra-di and both left her with a mere diploma after 3 years of crying daily in their cubicles. My sister left after she got a Government job (and an IAS husband). Her classmate left after she got a husband with a roaring practice in a small town. My sister did her MD later on in Microbiology at the reputed MMC, Madras (in her first attempt) and retired as its Professor and HoD, by when Subhadra-di was a fondly remembered boss...her students did learn a lot...about gynecology and afterlife...
My next sister joined as a lecturer in a government lady's college at Nellore where she worked for almost 30 years, earning a Ph D while working. And rose to be a vice-principal. When she was duly offered its principal's position by seniority, she ran away on request transfer as principal of a men's college at Sullurpet. I asked her why. She said she was too meek to tackle lady students, and more so lady teachers, and her life would be hell...gents are fine. And she was immensely popular when she retired gloriously from her men's college.
When I joined IIT KGP, there was no lady full professor there in any department. And there was a ladies hostel called S N Hall. The rule then was that only a full professor could act as warden of any hostel, assisted by 2 or 3 assistant wardens. So, the Wardens of the S N Hall were capable men, acting as visiting bosses there...the leg work was done by 1 or 2 lady assistant wardens who were reputed to be very strict. Every once in a while there would be complaints from the lady assistant wardens with recommendations for stringent punishment...they knew everything that went on there. But their recommendations would invariably be 'moderated' by their male Boss who would let off all the naughty girls with a 'stern warning'...till next time around when the whole process repeats.
For 4 years I happened to be the unofficial local guardian (along with my wife) to a niece of mine who joined the B Tech program there in CSE. This girl was just 16 when she cracked her JEE. And her parents from Vizagh were enormously worried about the safety and security of their daughter at IIT KGP. We offered to keep her at our place as our ward but they declined shyly and admitted their fond daughter in the S N Hall.
The evening she joined her girls hostel she was back in our Qrs and asked if there was any leftover food...she was stark hungry. My wife fed her sumptuously and asked her if S N Hall didn't feed their newcomers their lunches. My niece then smiled and said she was served much more than she could have eaten.
This was such a cryptic remark that I became curious. And asked her gently, after her belly was full, if she was ragged badly by her senior girls. She said no, they were very polite...all that they prescribed was that she should meet all the second years within 24 hours and mug up their names and match them with their faces. That was pretty easy for her...she had cracked her chemistry paper in JEE...
So I probed why she got so hungry. And she let it out that they came to know that she was from an orthodox brahmin family of AP and was a strict vegetarian, having never seen a chicken or a goat or a fish which was not altogether alive. Then they piled her plate with roast chicken, mutton, and fish and asked her to have a go under their watchful eyes.
That was the mild ragging that went on in the girls hostel at IIT KGP a couple of decades ago...I don't know the latest gimmicks...
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During the 1950s and 60s when I and my sister were studying in Vizagh, I at the university and she at the medical college, there was this gynecology professor Dr Subhadra Devi. Her reputation as a teacher and as a doctor were terrific, sensational, and international.
But everyone, I mean every one, of her students was mortally scared of her.
Those days there was only one Professor in every department who was also invariably its Head till retirement or death whichever happened earlier. My own uncle Dr K Krishna Murty was the sole Professor of Medicine there...as well as Head of the Department of Medicine. Things must have changed duly but not too quick...for when I conveyed him the wholesome news that I got ultimately promoted as a 'full' professor (as one of us put it gloriously), he congratulated me by sending a picture post card to my departmental address at IIT KGP, which read:
Professor G. Prabhakara Sastry, Ph. D.
Head of the Department of Physics...
During those days at Vizagh, it was next to impossible for an MBBS to get an MD degree after three years of labor in the first attempt in any discipline. My own 'genius' uncle got it in his second attempt...even that was an achievement.
But under Dr Subhadra Devi the norm was 4 or 5 attempts if anyone survived it. Naturally, ladies specialized in gynecology. My sister and her lady classmate joined for post-graduation under Subhadra-di and both left her with a mere diploma after 3 years of crying daily in their cubicles. My sister left after she got a Government job (and an IAS husband). Her classmate left after she got a husband with a roaring practice in a small town. My sister did her MD later on in Microbiology at the reputed MMC, Madras (in her first attempt) and retired as its Professor and HoD, by when Subhadra-di was a fondly remembered boss...her students did learn a lot...about gynecology and afterlife...
My next sister joined as a lecturer in a government lady's college at Nellore where she worked for almost 30 years, earning a Ph D while working. And rose to be a vice-principal. When she was duly offered its principal's position by seniority, she ran away on request transfer as principal of a men's college at Sullurpet. I asked her why. She said she was too meek to tackle lady students, and more so lady teachers, and her life would be hell...gents are fine. And she was immensely popular when she retired gloriously from her men's college.
When I joined IIT KGP, there was no lady full professor there in any department. And there was a ladies hostel called S N Hall. The rule then was that only a full professor could act as warden of any hostel, assisted by 2 or 3 assistant wardens. So, the Wardens of the S N Hall were capable men, acting as visiting bosses there...the leg work was done by 1 or 2 lady assistant wardens who were reputed to be very strict. Every once in a while there would be complaints from the lady assistant wardens with recommendations for stringent punishment...they knew everything that went on there. But their recommendations would invariably be 'moderated' by their male Boss who would let off all the naughty girls with a 'stern warning'...till next time around when the whole process repeats.
For 4 years I happened to be the unofficial local guardian (along with my wife) to a niece of mine who joined the B Tech program there in CSE. This girl was just 16 when she cracked her JEE. And her parents from Vizagh were enormously worried about the safety and security of their daughter at IIT KGP. We offered to keep her at our place as our ward but they declined shyly and admitted their fond daughter in the S N Hall.
The evening she joined her girls hostel she was back in our Qrs and asked if there was any leftover food...she was stark hungry. My wife fed her sumptuously and asked her if S N Hall didn't feed their newcomers their lunches. My niece then smiled and said she was served much more than she could have eaten.
This was such a cryptic remark that I became curious. And asked her gently, after her belly was full, if she was ragged badly by her senior girls. She said no, they were very polite...all that they prescribed was that she should meet all the second years within 24 hours and mug up their names and match them with their faces. That was pretty easy for her...she had cracked her chemistry paper in JEE...
So I probed why she got so hungry. And she let it out that they came to know that she was from an orthodox brahmin family of AP and was a strict vegetarian, having never seen a chicken or a goat or a fish which was not altogether alive. Then they piled her plate with roast chicken, mutton, and fish and asked her to have a go under their watchful eyes.
That was the mild ragging that went on in the girls hostel at IIT KGP a couple of decades ago...I don't know the latest gimmicks...
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