My beloved teachers - Part - III

The teacher who made my path in management easier was Prof Maruti Ram my teacher in Managerial Economics. As I was mentioning in my previous blog posting I come from Science background and management classes proved to be lot of Mumbo Jumbo to me. I was not getting head or tail of Economics, Financial accounting and Statistics. I went straight to Prof Maruti Ram and told him that I was not at all doing well and that I want to quit and join M.Sc Anthropology. He laughed and said “don’t you worry. Those Commerce background students appear to be very knowledgeable. But at end of the day it is the hard working guys who come out at the top”. Those words inspired me but the niggling doubt remained.

One day I met Prof Maruti Ram in the bus. We had just finished the first semester examinations and I was very curious about the result. When asked about the students’ performance, Maruti Ram sir said “Most people did okay. One student reproduced the same examples which were given in the class and it was a good attempt”. When the result was out, it was a huge pleasant surprise to note that the student who caught Prof Maruti Ram’s eye was me and I topped Managerial Economics. I got 37/50. I am still proud of that achievement.

Prof Shyam Sunder was our marketing faculty. A brilliant teacher he could cite examples and do complex calculation with the élan of a well trained surgeon. He had such finesse that he got dubbed as the “Kotler of Osmania University”. He was very quick to the retort and students loved and were quite frankly terrified of his ready repartee.

On that eventful day I was getting otherwise engaged at the back of the class and promptly Shyam Sunder Sir caught me. He asked me a question. Frankly I didn’t know the answer. I gave a rather long winded response. By his looks I could make out that Prof Shyam Sunder Sir was getting angry. I could see the storm coming. He said “Hello what is your name?” “Anil sir” I responded. “You will be a good MBA” he said. My heart swelled with pride. Getting a compliment from Shyam Sunder Sir is like an Indian actor getting an Oscar from the academy. “Master Bull Shit Artiste. That is what you are” was his crushing reply. “Be short and precise. Your answer was very long but none of it made any sense. Be more clear in the future”, suitably christened I sat down and made myself a better student.