When I joined IIM Ahmedabad as Academic Associate in
September 1998, my first assignment was to assist the faculty in a course on
Finance. It was a first-year course,
which was taught by two Professors. One section
was taught by a senior Professor of IIMA, and the other two sections were taught
by a visiting faculty, who was also an alumnus of IIMA. I was asked to assist both of them. Since it was my first assignment, I had to put
in lot of hard work. I used to spend most
of my time in the campus, learning new things, preparing for the course, grading
the exam papers, helping students with their doubts etc. Though hectic, I thoroughly enjoyed the work.
Within few days, I realised that the senior professor of IIMA and the visiting professor were not in good terms with each other. However, this did not affect my work in any way, because they both were highly professional in their dealings with me. At the end of the course, when the last session of the term got over, the visiting professor summoned me to his room. He seemed very upset and disturbed. Without any provocation, he started scolding me, ‘You are an extremely incompetent academic associate. I don’t know how you got selected for this job’. Shocked, I did not know how to react. I did not understand what my fault was. Gathering courage, I asked him, ‘Sir, please tell me, what did I do?’. He said, ‘You want me to tell you. Please go, I don’t want to see you again’. Quietly I walked out of his room. I was feeling terrible. I went back to my seat. Seeing my fallen face, my friend Surya Krishna asked me what had happened. I told everything to him. He was senior to me by few months at IIMA. He said, ‘come let’s have a cup of tea’. We went to the tea shop near the main gate. Surya told me, ‘Look, there is no fault of yours. I came to know from reliable sources that there was a spat between the professors today morning regarding some issues related to the course. The visiting faculty has probably felt that you are more loyal to the other professor since he is a senior professor at the institute. You don’t take it seriously’. Though Surya pacified me, the feeling of being hurt remained with me for few more days.
After a week, it was time to finalise the grades of the course. The visiting professor had an office adjacent to his residence in the city. The Chairman of my area asked me to go to his office to finalise the grades. I was supposed to show him the details of grading that I had done, get his approval and get the grade sheets signed by him. I was apprehensive. I didn’t know how he would react. But I had no choice. I called him over phone, got an appointment and went there with all the documents and supporting files. When I reached his office, his secretary told me to wait. I sat there with butterflies in my stomach. After ten minutes, I was called inside. I greeted him. To my surprise, he greeted me back with a big smile on his face. He made me sit, had a quick glance at the grade sheet and put his signature, without even looking at the details. I asked him, ‘Sir, you don’t want to see how I have done the grading?’. He said, ‘I know you would have done it correctly. I trust you’. By then, his secretary came in with tea and biscuits. When I got up to leave, he said, ‘Thank you Ajoy. You have been a wonderful support to me in the course, Best Wishes’. I thanked him. I was wondering is this the same person who called me ‘most incompetent’ a couple of days ago?!
I learnt an important lesson from this episode. When someone shouts at you or scolds you, when there is no fault on your side, the problem doesn’t lie with you, it lies with the one who is shouting. Probably, it is that person’s frustration and helplessness that is manifesting as anger towards you. But what is important is ‘whether there is any fault on my side’ is a question that needs to be answered carefully, objectively, and rationally!
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