Books Pe Charcha

Still April 2009, Hyderabad

Informing my gang about meeting an HR junior, near the library to help her with her BRS, wasn’t a great idea. Guys from my gang would have made an issue out of this since we had a strict ‘no-girl’ policy within our gang. It was true and we had all witnessed it several times in that a girl entering a gang resulted in the gang separating. We used to spend most of the day together, and we liked each other’s company and all of us gelled along well. Most importantly, we considered ourselves as the biggest ‘think-tank’ on the campus representing ‘THE COMMITTEE’. We had stakes in all the major decisions, academic and non-academic. We were perceived as the rulers of the campus. I had no intentions of compromising on this pseudo-powerful position and kind of liked being involved in all the things we did. So, not informing them was the way to go, for me. And don’t they say ‘If they don’t know, it won’t hurt them’?

I felt meeting Priti just once wouldn’t matter much, since I won’t be meeting her again – it’s a one-time thing. I will help her with what help she needs with her BRS, she will finish her presentation and that’s it, end of story.

The first half of our classes used to get over by 1:30 pm and the post-lunch session used to be from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. A nap of an hour after the lectures, snacks, working on assignments, and, the next day’s lectures - soon it was dinner time. I took the pair of denim which were looking the least shabby, matched them with an orange colored t-shirt, sprinkled some perfume from the bottle hidden above the cupboard in our neighboring room and there I was, ready!

Now the battle was to avoid any interactions with any of my gang members, so there wouldn’t be a possibility of sharing my whereabouts at all with them. So, I had a quick meal - rotis, rajma, curd, and no rice. The library was the safest place to meet because it used to stay open till 10:30 and it used to be deserted – who goes to the library, right? If we had to meet somewhere else on the campus, it could have been in the tabloids by the next morning. There was enough happening within the campus, and outside the library for people to get interested in something like this happening in the library. People would line up like paparazzi at strategic spots like mess stairs, the ground floor of the administrative block, and several other places within the campus to catch glimpses of the newest couples, or at least potential couples to gossip about. I remember an evening when I met a gujju-speaking girl from another batch to exchange movies and the whole of next week was miserable for both of us. We even had to bear with gujju songs being sung during breaks in our respective classes. I wasn’t sure if Priti was aware of these practices on the campus, but we had definitely got this plan right. Meeting directly inside the library looked like a great idea.

I didn’t want to be late, so I went in 20 minutes early, at 9:10 pm, and started having a cursory glance over the marketing books. This way, I could make sure that the librarian won’t be suspicious about me meeting Priti, since we won’t arrive at the library together. Just after 5 minutes, she arrived at the library and started looking around for me. I was waiting at a place from where I could see her, but she couldn’t see me. I waited for another 5 minutes and sneaked out of the marketing section. She waved at me, smiled and we sat at the nearby table with the book that she was carrying. Oh fish, it was Fish Tales, the same book on which I had presented my first BRS. Probably that answered the questions I had before entering the library. She needed my help with her BRS since she too had taken the same book that I took last year.

“Thanks for meeting me, and thanks in advance for your help!” she said immediately as we sat. I just smiled and looked around to make sure no one was watching me.

“I needed your help in making the synopsis, presentation slides, and the submission report. I can manage it when it comes to speaking, I am a TALKER. But I certainly can’t manage this paperwork, ” she was just being modest I thought by restricting herself to being a TALKER. I had heard her speak and she was fabulous.

“But first, let me get your views on the book. Is it fine to take such a book when it comes to BRS?” she asked, placing her face on her palms as her elbows were resting on the table.

“I think it’s a great book” I kept it short and plain.

She was still looking for something more as she continued looking at me. I took my eyes off her and started shuffling the pages of the book. She interrupted,

“Okay, theek aacche, so let me tell you why I selected this book?”

She took a brief pause and opened her mouth to speak, and she looked like she was going to go on and on - “I had picked up reading books a bit late as a kid, but I liked reading so much that I had compensated for the lost time. I got addicted to a few authors, like Sydney Sheldon, John Grisham, and Stephen King. Coming to this juncture where I had to select an appropriate book for my BRS, I had not read any books that were required for this activity. I wasn’t into management or nonfiction reading much. I didn’t follow management books because of their typical style of writing. These books generally had takeaways in terms of how you must lead your corporate career and personal life too. Every individual is unique and the situations that they face are equally unique. Their backgrounds, experiences, and learning are different from others. Summing up all these points, I found most management books failing their real intent of bringing a change in yourself and the system. For me, it was difficult to contemplate and relate to a book, and eventually lost interest in that book”

I was totally engrossed in whatever she was saying, looking across her and checking periodically if someone was watching us, though. She continued,

“I was really judicious about the book that I selected for my first-trimester presentation. The faculty in charge of this session each trimester has a say in the book that you selected, still, it was one area where we could use our creativity. Many of the books that I wanted to opt for this session were rejected on grounds of a weak connection with management. I won’t deny the fact that I had picked all non-fiction books and they indeed weren’t related to management. My quest to find a management book that suits my reading ended with this book”

She continued further by taking the book from my hands,

“I will be delivering my first BRS presentation on this book - ‘Fish Tales’ and hope it goes well. There are enough expectations out of me to swamp me down with nervousness for this particular presentation, but I want it to be a memorable one. I have started preparing for this presentation 15 days in advance, and I am giving mock presentations to my hostel mates, and fine-tuning the presentation and the approach too, after each of the mock sessions. I don’t want to get graded as a topper, but finishing a non-fiction book, preparing for a presentation, and delivering it would be a moral victory for me, I think”

I don’t know why she was talking so much. The background about her reading preference, her moral victory – all of this wasn’t required. I was thinking about why she was talking so much while making sure I wasn’t forgetting that I had to be conscious about someone watching us.

She raised her eyebrow and asked,

“So, Sujata Ma’am huh….the Marketing Lady. I have heard a lot about her and you seem to be pretty close to her, right?”

Where is she getting with all this? And what does she mean by ‘pretty close’ I was thinking. I had to answer. I did,

“Yes, she is a very supportive faculty. We didn’t start on a good note initially, but now we share a good rapport, professionally and personally. With some encouragement from Sujatha Ma’am, we have made a few changes in the format of the presentation. So when you move to your next trimester, the BRS presentation would be a cross-class presentation – you would go to the marketing class to present, and same with them, they would come to your class. And then in the third trimester, you would do a group BRS – three people presenting on the same book in a group”

That was way more information to give away than required, from my end. Again, I had no clue why I had started talking so much. She busted out laughing and said,

“Didn’t start on a good note? Well, I have heard of the story, and trust me, you were awful, to say the least. How can you assume she was a senior?” she again started laughing.

Where was she getting all this information, about me? And most importantly, why? I was truly surprised.

My suspicion made sure I didn’t talk more now. So I zipped my lips, in my mind obviously. She started talking again, “A few of my seniors I had approached tried covering the basic points, like ways in which the exercise of actually reading a book for BRS could have been evaded. There are plenty of BRS reports from previous batches in the library. Rather than working on something new, the previous work can be used to serve the current purpose by tweaking it a bit. They also added that if we wished and had the knack of deceiving, our BRS reports could be an exact reflection of some report that is present in the library. By using ‘ctrl c – ctrl v’, this could be easily achieved. Even though all of my batch mates looked convinced with this approach, I thought of the disadvantages of this approach and the advantages of taking BRS seriously. The reading habit of management topics is essential and it helps”

I thought I could take her words when she said she was a talker. Good that I had a look at the watch and I suggested, “Priti, do one thing. You already have my email id. So, please email me copies of the synopsis, presentation slides, and the submission report. I will go through it and provide my comments, if any. Now you have just two minutes for your hostel gate to close. So you better rush”

I stood up before her, didn’t look back at her, and left the library. I had to make sure we leave out of the library separately. I walked to the curb from where I could watch her entering the hostel. She went in looking back at me and waved at me. I smiled back at her and continued walking towards my hostel. Just as I had settled on my bed, I looked at my phone and saw five missed calls from Sadia.

Sameer, you deserve to be dead today - I told myself and called her back.

“Jaanu kahaan thee…..I was trying your phone for so long and you weren’t answering” she sounded desperate. I had put my phone on silent mode since I was in the library.

“I am so sorry ‘would be Mrs. Merchant’. Mr. Merchant was at the library and so had put his phone on silent mode. I know he deserves to be punished. So, what would be his punishment ‘would be Mrs. Merchant’?”

I knew she always gets smitten when she is addressed this way.

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