The Moves Of Fake Posts

“It is in the history of this College that this type of time was always given to people in the name of Fake Posts”, she said and added “They played cards and later left after getting frustrated. It is me who tried to survive in the midst of this trend. And my win is that you have yourself started questioning whether your steps were right or wrong?”

She said that coarsely smiling to a lady who was at a senior post in Administration Department of the College. All sitting in the Administration Department knew that she was true.

Her College valued Autonomy. Autonomy was considered to the extent that they have proved that they can run the college successfully without filling the Post of Professors and Readers as specified by the University, and they have been proving that for last nine years. It was a College that had many Courses, courses for Post Graduate and Graduate students. Well, everybody there knew about the powers of Autonomy and how easily it can manage all the money and also that ‘Autonomy’ in autonomous conditions was always for the Powerful. There was no doubt that Principal of the College was the most Powerful there, however the Autonomy was more dependent on the Power of the Powerful. She has seen the change of three principals. She has seen the differences of the Power, but the trend of creating fake posts had remained always the same. 

She remembered many on those fake posts. She remembered the first fake post, the post with powerlessness. It was the time of the first Principal. She remembered it, as it has happened that day.

 

She sat in his room and looked at his face. His face was lighted with relief, the relief of escaping from a fake post. He was her immediate boss, the Course Director. She has been associated with him as part of his team, right from the time she had joined the College, three years back. In these few months, she has seen him getting irritated, frustrated, disturbed and sometimes annoyed. He seems no longer the Head she knew, the bright, the coherent and enthusiastic one, however, she also knew the reason of this change. The relations between him and the Principal were not good from the past few months for he sometimes tried to use his own head and was sure that he had a head. Both men were there from the beginning of the College and the Course, so there was no prospect of bringing the war between the two in open field. The cold war expressed itself in the form of the discussions and meetings where instead of the Course Director, a lab assistant, Pradeep was called every time and all matters and transactions, important for the Course were carried out, through his hand. She has then recognized the face of a powerless post, a fake post, a humiliating and crushing post. She was fortunate that she was not called as Pradeep, perhaps because she was considered a team member who was too loyal.

That day when she came to the College, she was called in the Course Director’s Room. When she has reached his room, there were other team members with him. But today, he seemed happy and announced, “I am leaving and I am joining as the Principal of the M.S. College.” It was a new College in the same city, and he had received its invitation that he had gladly accepted in the wake of what he has considered the unalterable circumstances.

 

She remembered the second fake post. It was the fake post of sham. It was the time of second Principal. She had enjoyed that period in College, as she thought that she was the Principal’s trustworthy. In those days the Principal has shown trust on her by assigning her different responsibilities.

And then she thought of that day.

She was called in the Principal’s Room where it was announced that she is being made the Assistant Director of her Course. It was the same Course she has been coordinating for the past three years. It was the same Course she was thoroughly familiar with.  It was the same Course that she was taking care of after the Academics Director has resigned three months back. She stood and thanked the Principal. She said to herself, “After all, my dedication is realized and Principal has awarded me this way.” Few staff members were sitting there and has clapped and made her suddenly feel important.

Principal has asked her to sit after they left. He has then confided, “I have been observing that, how with selflessness and responsibility you have taken care of the Course, even in the absence of the Director Academics, and I know you will keep on doing the work like this…., in association with your new Director Academics, Mr. Sushil Kohl.”

It was not only the name of Mr. Sushil Kohl that has come, as bewilderment to her; the coming year was also full of confusion.

What is the need of Mr. Sushil Kohl, if he doesn’t know A, B, C of the Course?

What is the need of two posts, one of Director Academics and another of Assistant Director, if previously the work was done successfully by one Director and even when nobody was the Course Director?

Why every body in the college was showing the sudden interest in that Course, to insert their opinions in its execution?

Why is she responsible to explain in length to the Director that his decisions were not correct?

And why Principal has chosen a person of ‘Advertising and Management’ on an effective post of Computer Science Course, when there were people of Computer Science in the College, like her?

She worked in puzzlement for one year. It was not easy, but she kept on showing her dedication to the Principal and to her Director Academic. She was sure of accepting the change but before the year was to end, the Principal retired.

The next Principal took the seat.

He had the creativity to amplify the Power of the Powerful. Posts started being distributed as seemingly potent titles. The In-charges, Directors, Deans and Advisors were created. This distribution of Posts became recurrent. The titles were snatched mostly without reason and posts were revived with another seemingly influential one. Sometimes this change was initiated as a punishment but later recorded as a privilege. She got the titles of Tutorial Incharge two times. She became Programme Director of two different UG courses, Training Incharge, Director Academics of a UG Course, Director Academics of two PG Course, Research Director and Dean of Research and Development. And all this happened in a period of only four years. This distribution of posts was not only for her but also for others. Before most of the people realized their new seat, the seat was changed again. The post titles lost their meaning and she often realized the meaning of Principal’s words, “Love your work and not your chair”. “But can you work sitting on a highly unstable chair?”,  she often thought .The chairs were not only unstable but had an undefined life. Most of the times there were two chairs with different titles, but for the same work. One of such chairs was the powerless one, especially designed for display, decoration and documentation. The other was the powerful one, for the work, all the work that was confidential, monetary, influential. It was a kingdom where the king sat alone, without the information and the Wazeer carried out all on the king’s name. And there was always one to one interface between that Wazeer and the Principal, the Powerful. She has watched this kingdom closely, being mostly, like that king. But there were many kings before her.

She remembered Mrs. Puri. She was invited to join as the Director Academics of a PG course. She was placed on the King’s chair. Her Wazeer’s chair was at that time given to Miss. Jyotsna. She carried out all that was required, bypassing Mrs. Puri. Ms. Puri stopped coming to the College, said that her work didn’t give her the satisfaction. In fact she might have realized there was no work at all. 

She remembered Mr. Rakesh. He was invited to join as the Director Academics, after Ms. Puri. He was placed on the King’s chair. The Wazeer’s chair was then given to the Associate Director, Ms. Tanu. She associated with Mr. Rakesh only when his signatures were required.  Mr. Rakesh played cards and then he became fed up of playing the computer games. He resigned after his one-year contract was over.

Then came her turn. She received a notice that she was being made the Director Academics of that Course. It was once her desire but now she knew what to expect as the new Wazeer was given to her, her Associate Director, Ms. Sakuja. She went to the Principal. “Thanks, for the new assignment given to me. But, if you want me to give the quality to the work, the work that should be done in the name of Director Academics, kindly give me the power.” He understood what she said. In the evening she received his phone call. He appreciated her first for her research work and the publications. “I don’t want you to coordinate the activities related to the Course. I want you to make the name of the institute with your publications and research. You leave the coordination to Ms. Sakhuja.” That day she realized that history was going to repeat. And she promised herself. “I will change this history”. “I will not fail as others have failed in this game, I will win.”

She was sitting on the throne of powerlessness. She was given a title where sky was the limit but confined to the boundary where she has to work alone in the name of research.  “But the Win was the matter of only twenty-four hours the day is made up of”, she thought. It is the matter of those minutes that an hour contains and it is the matter of the effort that one gives to each minute. “I know the game of time”, she said to herself and smiled.  For her, the way to win the games in life was to maximize the value of every moment. She worked in isolation. In the coming days, she stopped worrying anymore about why often when Ms. Sakhuja was having a meeting with the Principal, she was stopped at the door by the peon standing over there. Why was all the information given to associate director, and why she never cared about passing that to her? And this time her associate has seldom associated with her, not even for her signatures.

So, she was also given the time.

She worked, researched, published many papers and in all was reflected the name of her College. And her win was that people started talking about the work that she has done, and more of why she was given the time by the principal to make it happen.

She didn’t agree with those who talked about the Principal that he was a confused man with a confused head. She knew that he was the person of a great vision. He was a Guru of Management. She knew that these were not his confusions but his deliberate decisions. She knew that he has achieved what he had wanted. He has recently received the best Principal’s award. She has recently visited the Principal’s own new institute and has witnessed the impact of his vision. They were others who were confused. And this was bound to happen in a dynamic situation.

 

by Dr.Saba_Hilal

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