Kya Kare Kya Na Kare

It has been more then a month since I joined VIT University. I was one of the interesting decision I made, as those who know me for sometime can't imagine me in the academic field. I joined on March 25th, and it was most weird time to join any education institute in India. The reason being that it as almost term end as exams are there in late April and May. So, there I was... 

After joining here, soon I realized that there was nothing much to do till Summer Semester starts in mid of May, so whole day you are sitting in your office (which is (un)-fortunately in front of Director's office and just above Chancellor's office). I came to know that at least 20 more faculty members are suppose to join in coming months... and then it all started. Suddenly, you became the most senior faculty member among new joinees (although your age and experience clearly shows as you are the youngest one)... many new faculties come to meet me and seek some guidance about finishing some formalities and all those kind of things... they face my face first with a feel of nonacceptance that they are talking to a student (who has faculty ID card and wears tight T-Shirts and designer jeans with Nike shoes). Then they all start speaking some alien language (which indeed called Tamil) and after explaining to them that I don't understand, they move to some other room or talk in English (in last month I spoke the amount of English that I haven't spoke in my first 3 months in US). 

So that was the beginning, after a few days I started to feel alien in my own office as all the new faculties have been assigned room in some other building which is at last 2 Km from here so a whole group decided to stay in my office as I was sharing the office space with two more faculty members (temporarily). Now you feel to realize that you are a product of globalized market... people around you are speaking the languages which sounds very similar and very difficult to understand (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayam.... all in a single room). Also, sometimes you hear some interesting versions of English (Tamil, Chinese etc.) I must add that after Made in China products, and next globally available phenomenon is Made in China Students... 

Finally, you have been assigned some exam duties where you just have to stand for three hours in the hot afternoon and you feel like crashing down to sleep... (I HATE EXAM DUTIES). Somehow, you finished the exam duties and you have been assigned a subject for summer... you start to prepare lecture notes, quizzes etc. When all preparations are in full swing, one night at nine you get an SMS from your colleague that all new faculties will take classes from next Fall semester and your summer class has been canceled :(( The ABET accreditation committee will be visiting your campus this December and you have been assigned responsibilities to develop an Embedded Systems Lab and they also requested (?) to offer a course in Embedded Systems coming fall... and so your life goes on and you SUCCESSFULLY finished your one month in academic field :D