"From Kitchen to Classroom" - A Teacher's Blog

2) STREET SMART DOGS OR INTELLECTUAL LIONS

My father was eldest and three of my cousin sisters were minor when my uncle died. Least I had imagined in the future years, when my father will leave me alone in this evolutionary process, I will have evolved  into the role of father for not only my own two offspring but also for these three little cute girls. So my job at Udupi hotel was not only an obligation but mandatory, for not only earning the daily bread for the entire family, but also for remaining in the modern evolutionary process. With my son the only other man in this female dominated house I had to play my role to felicitate the process of human evolution and modernization. I was the by default chosen captain of my huge ship. These included maintaining the needs of education, books, dresses and also the side effects of evolution like dish TV, mobiles, phone, cars, bikes, tourism, only to mention the tip of the iceberg. I used to return from college to join additional duty as an hotelier which would continue till 11:00 pm. Though my identity always remained unique I wonder that this transformation from “Sir” to “Seth” daily and again back to “Sir” in the morning may have been central to my never ending fondness to characters of Superman and Spiderman who always led a dual life.

STREET SMARTNESS Vs INTELLECTUAL SMARTNESS 

During one such regular day when I had just returned from my college and was in my hotel service counter, I had a call on my mobile and was a bit surprised to see my Principal calling. I was a junior amongst senior colleagues a majority of whom were in a countdown mode for retirement, including the caller. Why would he have needed me after the office? I alone cannot make evolution a faster process after all.  So I rode my bike to his house. He offered me to sit down and began speaking, being in the practice of learned and enhanced “Listening” for quite some time, especially after authoring a book on the process of “Listening”,  I listened to him, in the process profiting a share from his evening cup of tea. My principal was an elderly man with few years left for retirement, our principal was a purist academician. He had a shrewd mind with a desire to retire as a grade one Principal. As a principal he kept himself updated with modern times and expedited huge funds from the UGC to develop our private college. The present three stored cement buildings evolving from ten years back wooden partitions are living proofs of our evolutionary efforts. He always had diplomatic plans for development. Knowing from my interests in photography and Videography, he had called me to initiate an audio-visual cell in the college, which will help in creating audio-visual educational materials.In our country when discussions amongst people advances and when conversing people are not in their respective official roles, then the dialogues leave behind formalities and the persons involved in such deliberations become candid. Ironically my father breathe his last a few months back and the Principal had his teenage son on the verge of academic career. This information may be irrelevant in this situation, but I remember Sigmund Freud had mentioned in his book ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ that 95% of subconscious mind always keeps working. So maybe I was lending him a respectful ear like I would have given to my dad, and he was showing affection which he may have desired to implement on his son. As our discussions went on it ranged from ethics and morality, work, campus, and as most of us we Indians finally arrive to that is, philosophy. He became emotional at one time and told me that the biggest failure in his carrier was that he could achieve everything for his post but he could not motivate his people. In a tone of confession he gave a reason for calling me home and requested to take up the project of creating e-content materials in the form of audio-video resources.  As a part of my inherited character I accepted without any inquisitive skills and left. Later on I went on to use my crossword solving abilities and coined various anagrams for the purpose and came up with a name “Dnyan- Aver” which was readily accepted by the Principal. DNYAN was an abbreviation for the college name “Dnyanopasak” and AVER stood for Audio Visual Educational Research, which also means ‘an affirmation of truth’. 

In the latter years I was responsible for creating recorded lecture series with PowerPoint slide displays under this banner. If a student missed a basic Lecture he could play the CDs on his player or computer and listen to the lecture again and again.  I enjoyed this creative job, which had no monetary incentives but gave me something greater and that was a pleasure. It is true that when you enjoy your work you don’t feel like working. A product sample of that evening rendezvous could be found at this link:

 A GENETICS LECTURE ON TRANSCRIPTION (Sample)

Even today my Principals sincere admittance that “I could not motivate people” rings in my ears. I keep thinking about it and find the truth in his statement. You cannot motivate someone who refuses to listen. We do not listen to people because what they say is different from our thoughts. We keep imposing our opinion on the speaker. To get motivated the first thing is to listen and listening without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

 In this competition of the modernized world everyone is smart enough and wants to outnumber the other they subconsciously keep doing this by giving opinions. Most opinions are full of emotions and we collect as many as we would like without putting out any effort at all. It is only natural to have opinions, but knowledgeable opinions take effort and are harder to collect. We believe that our intuitions and spontaneous opinions are the final words. But we should not be so quick to give judgments.

People are smart and loyal to their jobs. People are smart enough for this competition game but not smart enough to realize that there is clear cut border of street smartness and intellectual smartness. This identity crisis remains in most individuals of the campus. As a Zen master has said you cannot fill the glass which is already full, it needs to be emptied first. Sincerity counts over loyalty. The problem with loyalty is that it is attached to the sentiments and sentiments have no place in the professional jungle. As Confucius summarizes “Every normal human being cherishes the aspiration to become a superior man—superior to his fellows, if possible, but surely superior to his own past and present self. The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the ordinary man is conversant with gain. The superior man in all things considers righteousness essential”. 

AN ARMY AND ITS LOYAL LEADER 

Once various department heads approached our Institutional President for renovating their labs and a plan with infrastructure development. The President just sent them back with a deaf ear. The heads were disillusioned. Years passed and this episode became a folktale, passing on from seniors to juniors. I kept hearing this story in libraries, canteens and every other gathering. The president was an ex-minister in the Indira Gandhi regime and now a member of parliament from the opposition party. He had leaded a sincere political life and barring controversies had a reputation being a good human being. I wondered why he didn't entertain his think tank when they approached him for the justified infrastructure developments. In the latter years our college was applying for quality accreditation, which is a mandatory government rule and it consists of various parameters comprising of one thousand marks. Out of these only thirty marks were allotted for infrastructure. The soul of the campus was considered more important than its body. 

I remember studying a North-Eastern college report, as a member of one of the committee during NAAC accreditation of our college. The report praising that college, which had poor infrastructure procured a A+ grade with CPE and the report had stated that “this institute is one of the best known colleges not only of Meghalaya but also of the North Eastern States. It is also one of the leading institutions affiliated to North Eastern Hill University and a deserving candidate for the autonomous status. The most outstanding feature of the College is the diversity of its teaching programs, which is a mix of traditional and vocational courses. The College has proved its responsiveness to the needs of the region, by taking into account the population it serves in the choice of courses offered”. I was a member of the report formation committee and had realized why Mr. The president turned a deaf ear to infrastructure proposals. The people who went there were no doubt loyal but were not professional in their approach. The president not listening to them hurt their loyalty. It would never hurt a professional. Our college was rewarded a B plus grade, which today with sincere efforts of our Principal and NAAC Coordinator had re-accredited itself to  A.

The million dollar question which needed a answer for me was  is it sentimental Loyalty or ethical Professionalism which is needed in professions. Loyalty is a character which is more needed at home, with your family and friends where it is most valued. Dogs are loved and needed in homes, ask someone who has a dog as his pet. Emotions and sentiments are personal assets which can be applied to gain strength. Emotions should not make a man weak. Rather than getting stuck in a sentimental issue man should learn to move on. This is how we can evolve into more modern beings. After all man is the stakeholder of evolution. In his work he should be professional in his approach and strong in his character. A successful man is the one who recognizes the needs of progress where he is working. After all more fearful is an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of an army of lions led by a sheep. A lion and not a dog always inhabits the hearts of brave men. We as leaders need to be more like lions at offices than dogs. So I conclude, that Loyalty is a must,  weather be in a hotel or a college (or any other profession). But it is "Loyal Professional Sincerity" which counts more than anything in giving you a good nights sleep, after a "Smart days work". Whereas "Sincere Sentimental Loyalty" is more for people who prefer "Hard-work" over "Smart work".