Fiction
Disclaimer: Though inspired by real-life characters this is purely a work of fiction and resemblance to any person(s) living or dead shall be strictly coincidental.
Many years have passed since this nightmare became one important signpost that stood as a scar in Manish’s life. The Instagram obsession had yet to take control of people’s lives in this part of the world. And while it was unfolding then, and now looking back at it fondly, it just felt like a rollercoaster episode from an adventure series his life had come to stand for.
The accusation on Manish, then a college faculty, of having been found in possession of some contraband substance during the annual study tour to Hyderabad was earth-shattering for all. Apart from being disgraceful to the institution, it also meant his reputation was at stake. No one would be interested in knowing whether he was guilty or innocent. Whether he masterminded it in the first place or got dragged into the mess, unknowingly, would be of no consequence to anyone. Not even to his friends and family. For Manish, this could be as serious as ending in a scathing, complicated legal soup and resigning immediately.
Interestingly, Manish was thoroughly amused by the unexpected turn of events leading to the setting up of an inquiry committee to probe this ‘serious matter’. He could not understand why possessing some local brand of flavoured tobacco as a part of a safekeeping deal from a scared student who had promptly turned it in, should rake up such a storm. The truth would be revealed to him only a few years later. But one thing Manish instinctively knew as he was going through the thick and thin of it all. And it was the characters, the setting, and the plot that he would one day use as an interesting retelling. So, he looked at them merely as an investment with good returns while playing the part of a beleaguered hero.
The inquiry against him was headed by a commerce faculty, who himself faced accusations of indecent behaviour from female students in the past and whose only agenda seemed to get a confession out of him. Equally troubled was Manish’s roommate at the hotel, Prof. Mehul, a commerce faculty, who was the sole witness to how Manish had, merely as a goodwill gesture, accepted to safe-keep the contraband from the pleading student.
As luck would have it, Prof. Mehul had just emerged from the washroom after the bag had exchanged hands. “You better bring it to the notice of your course coordinator,” Mehul grimly suggested. The third key character was Piyush-the tensed and confused student himself, who had willingly decided to turn his stuff in and avoid being caught in the night raid or in case somebody sneaked in on him. “Sir, I don’t wish to use this hooka and the falvoured tobacco for the duration of the trip. So could you please keep this and return once we get back to Mumbai?” Piyush had pleaded.
Just a few hours before the high-voltage drama started unfolding at the hotel; Manish had seen and felt some spark for him in Prof.Pushpa’s eyes. It was during their visit to the House of Snow at the famous Film City, where both had indulged in some fun and snow throwing at each other along with other students and enjoying other rides together. At 40, the well-endowed Pushpa with her dark curvy cluster of hair, looked younger for her age.
Prof. Pushpa Pahuja was the course coordinator at the media department and had this icy-cold approach toward him from the first day for reasons not known clearly. Her loyal clique of students made sure every spoken word in the classroom was reported to her. Manish later figured out that it could be the insecurity she felt due to Manish’s growing popularity with the students. On one or two occasions, she had even dragged Manish to the principal’s office citing complaints by students and his inappropriate teaching techniques. Fortunately, Manish was prepared for such an ambush and very cleverly managed to deflect all the trumped-up charges. Manish’s conviction in his pedagogy was so strong that even Principal Sen agreed that illustrating an advertising brief eponymously in the classroom in this age and times would not amount to indecency since imparting industry practices is an ingrained policy of their forward-looking institution.
However, things in the media department continued to hedge on a thin line of ego and insecurity. But one imposing character shadowed every nook and cranny of the faculty room and Manish hadn’t missed any of its glances. It was Prof. Vaishali, who Manish imagined as the fabled wicked counsellor of the princess. Vaishali with her big eyes, a big bindi in the parting of her forehead, and a bulky body went about throwing her literal weight around to get things done her way. No one dared cross paths with her.
That fateful night at the hotel, Manish remembered clearly, it was Vaishali who kept stoking the fire erupting from Pushpa’s fiery tongue as she screamed her lungs out at Piyush and Manish. Supporting Pushpa in her tirade against Piyush and Manish, was another spearhead in the trident-Prof. Chamki, the IT faculty. The scene was right out of some social-themed movie where the righteous women brigade had teamed up to avenge the evil wrongdoer. Manish knew better than to respond in an equally spiteful manner as common sense prevailed over him, so he took up a position of assuaging and pacifying the women’s brigade. Creating narratives and plots on paper came to his rescue as he somehow managed to convince the furious women that he should continue to safeguard the obnoxiously smelly ‘contraband’ in his custody till the time they returned to the college.
Manish was confident he had already won this battle since it would be hard to predict how the trio would go to bring up arbitrary charges against him. His experience as a scriptwriter for fiction shows on TV had familiarised him enough with life’s vicissitudes and he instinctively knew that ‘evidence’ would play a key role in framing charges against him.
Piyush, the teenage student, had started to get into depression as he was made to feel miserable for the ‘horrendous.’ crime he had committed by surrendering his stuff to Manish and not reporting it to the faculty-in-charge, Princess Pushpa. As for Manish, had he promptly reported the incident to the trip commandant earlier on, he would have been spared their ‘collective wrath’.
Later, during his ‘trial’, Manish could hardly contain his joy at seeing the same impulsive reaction of the three aggrieved faculty members. The moment he declared how he got rid of the flavoured tobacco before entering the checking at the railway station on the onward journey three of the hurt faculty hit the roof. “We shouldn’t have believed you!” screamed the three of them in perfect unison and disbelief. So, now there was no ‘evidence’ to try him or anybody for any serious offense.
At 40, Manish’s life had all the elements of an adventure plot-a falling apart marriage, plummeting finances, trouble in his professional life at college, an adopted daughter who couldn’t care less about her parents going their separate ways, and a writing career that would not show signs of taking off. To pursue his writing dream, Manish had given up his well-paying television media job for a low-paying academic role irony of sorts since all he wanted was to spot his name in the credits of a prime-time fiction television show.
This was his second full-time teaching role, which kept him occupied 24x7, leaving little or no room to write as he had expected. So, once again, Manish had eventually made up his mind to complete the semester with all of its clerical bearings and devote all his time to writing pilot episodes, pitching show ideas, and assisting established writers. What added a streak of hope to the struggle to achieve his writer’s dream was his selection from among 600 entries nationwide to the Writer’s Lab hosted by a popular national television. Now he knew it was only a matter of days before he would be able to transition into the role of a professional writer.
It was this spirit coupled with his impressive media industry experience that, he believed gave him an edge over his peers. It was an open secret that most of the faculty, almost 99 percent at least took up teaching jobs as they couldn’t do any better in the fiercely competitive, and creative domains of media. As a result, higher education in media discipline was populated by faculty, including the heads of the department who had no worthwhile media experience and continued to impart outdated information for more than a decade.
That made the teaching scenario at higher education institutions a ground for breeding a mediocre stock of both the learner and the teacher. Experienced professionals were called in only as guest lecturers that too for a pittance of an honorarium. At the same time, faculty on the payroll were content to work for a package that would struggle to match that of the freshers’ in the media industry. Thus teaching as a career at a media institute was all for the namesake and the whole of media education had turned into a big marketing gimmick run by coordinators and the shrewd management who reined in the self-financing model.
And Manish never anticipated he would have to beat an unceremonious retreat from the teaching profession career for which he had, in the beginning, worked so hard to be a part. That also included qualifying for a national eligibility test and, most importantly, preparing to speak for hours on a skill he had only acquired with lots of hard work and after cultivating self-confidence. As such, today he has no qualms about leaving academics and now looks forward to sharing all of such colorful anecdotes with those willing to lend an ear.
P.S: After a brief background check, Pushpa decided to invest emotionally in Manish and take the relationship further. But this would have posed a serious challenge to Vaishali’s undisputed rein at the department. Only after her timely counselling, did Pushpa hit the roof and started looking at Manish as a misfit in her scheme of things.
Comments