Nothing is free

“Where are you?” The Head of the Department asked me over the phone. I was in another department of the university and told him the fact. He said in a serious tone, “The Dean is asking for you, please come immediately to the meeting room of our Department.” 

I came immediately. The Dean asked, “Where were you, Ranjit? You are not visible in the Department nowadays.”

I said, “Sir, I was here only and most of the time I remain in the Department.”

“See Ranjit, These things won’t work in this Department. You have made yourself totally alien to this Department. Yesterday there was a press conference and you were not present in that conference”, he said.

I said, “Sir, I am not alien to this Department rather very much a part of it. And so far as the press conference is concerned, I was not informed.”

He said in anger, “How come, other members of the Department, were present?”

I said in a firm voice, “How do I know? I have not been given any information and I thought my presence is not sought for and therefore, I didn’t come to the press conference and moreover, this is a University Department and any communication should be through official channels only. Why should I rely on any information which I received informally?”

When he found himself in an uncomfortable position then he tried to change the topic. Intelligent people have mastery in doing such kind of things. If they found themselves not strong in any situation/argument then they try to change the ground and plot. He took out a paper from the file placed before him and said in the same tone, “You have applied for a leave in the midst of the semester. You will be out of station for the whole week. Have you thought about what will happen to your classes for the whole week?”

He said this in such a tone as if I would be out of station not for one week but for one semester and nobody else had taken any leave in the department before me. He was trying to give an impression as if nobody takes leave in the midst of the semester. If I would have been his favourite, there would not be any problem in allowing me for the leave, but I was the one who did not listen to him nor ask him for any kind of advice.

It’s not that I disrespect him or think that he was incompetent. But I did not have the habit of asking for or seeking advice for unnecessary things. I show people used to ask for his advice with regard to the journal in which their paper is to be submitted and he usually advises as if he had a lot of publication in those journals, however, the fact was that he did not have any publication except for a journal which was published by him only and in that journal only his papers used to be published.

Buttering is an art and one such skill of buttering is to make the person feel important and in the process I found some of my colleagues to seek advice with respect to the problems which might not be discussed with him like seeking advice regarding some bills to be submitted to the Accounts Department of the University, designing course structure and Dean used to advice them even he did not teach that course in the past. Sometimes, I also thought to impress him with my butter, but soon realised that the time that I would have utilised for this purpose would be more than the time which I would have to consume for doing any work had his blessings were not upon me. I also realised that instead of spending time in such activities, I focus on doing my work than my work would be done properly and need not to spend time, effort and money to impress him unnecessarily.

Finally, I realised nothing is free of cost. There is a cost of flattering a person and standing on one’s knees and there is a cost of doing one’s own work properly and standing on one’s own feet. For me, the later seems to be affordable.        

I said in a low voice, “But sir, it is necessary for me to go and that is why I am asking for the earned leave.”

Dean said, “See Ranjit, Leave is not a matter of right and you have not filled up the leave application form also properly.”

He then starts looking at the form with an intention to find some mistake in it but he could not find any mistake. Then he pointed out his fingers at one point where the reason for the leave was to be written. I had written the reason “PERSONAL”.

He said, “The reason cannot be so vague, you should write it in detail”. I thought about what detail I should write. Since I have started working at University, the reason for leave I always wrote ‘personal’ and nobody told that it is vague, but on that day I was totally shattered. Moreover, if the detail reason is to be written instead of ‘personal’ then how come it would be ‘personal’?   

I took the application form from his hand and said, “Ok sir, if you so desire I won’t go”. I ripped the form in front of him and came out of the meeting room. The Head of the Department was sitting there and he did not speak a single word. I was expecting him to interfere but he did not. With this, he did not do any harm to me but from that day onward, he has lost all respect from me.

In fact, it was not urgent for me to take leave at that time. But by stopping me to avail the leave, the ego of the dean got satisfied and moreover, I ripped the leave application form in front of him which had compelled him to think that I would not compromise with him in any way and, probably, it was the effect of that incident that whenever I submitted any leave application, the dean did not put any objection and allowed it without any question.  This story has given me two lessons, first, one should not argue with a person who is very high on his ego. It is better to satisfy the ego of an idiot rather than to fight or argue with him. Secondly,  one should not bend down in front of egoist person and this gives them a message for their future of not unnecessarily interfere with you. Due to the fear of losing their ego, they will not interrupt in a persons' way whom they know to be non-compromising. Later I had taken leave when PG admission in the department was going on and it was indeed difficult to grant leave for anyone, but when I submitted my application for leave instead of denying the Dean was trying to find ways to grant it.

Disclaimer: The story is fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.