A student, part one

    He was my Ph.D. student. Unlike my college colleagues, I had neglected the work of guiding research students till the very end. When it transpired that for becoming a Professor, one had to have at least one or two Ph.D. students, I woke up.

   The procedure for becoming a research guide and for guiding students was a long, bureaucratic one which had no academic value. It showed distrust of guides at every possible juncture and its assumption seemed to be that guides were in a mad rush to have as many research students under them as possible. Learning the procedure was humiliating and a waste of time.

   Once I became a guide however, students started approaching me and I foolishly got taken in by their claims. I said yes, I would be their guide. I just forgot that commerce faculty's academic standards are very poor. These students were already in touch with touts in the market who promised to do statistical and quantitative analysis for topics they themselves suggested, for a fat fee of course. The students had happily decided that they would have to shell out money but the return was a secure path to academic progress: becoming heads of departments, principal, subject experts on university panels etc. etc. All these things were gleaned and pieced together by me bit by bit as time passed. No student was interested in any topic; nobody genuinely felt that s/he must explore a certain area to know it better. They had no puzzles of dichotomy between what the books said and what was happening around in their mind. One Assamese girl who had studied and who taught economics was the sole exception.

   Among the rest, one stood out for his smooth talk. He was a fair fellow with curly hair. He had good manners and had the gift of the gab. My colleague Shaila who shared my room was charmed by him.

   So this fellow came and chatted very nicely. He was teaching in an MBA institute. He had failed his SET examination. He was simultaneously preparing for it and for Ph.D. He said he was familiar with agriculture and so I suggested a topic related to agricultural marketing. He held forth on organic farming, indigenous seeds, evils of APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) and online marketing tools for farmers. He appeared to be knowledgeable.

   He talked about a land-owning friend of his who was experimenting with organic food and online marketing in his village in the command area of Gunjawani dam in Pune district, Bhor taluka. He invited me there. I said yes perfunctorily to fob him off. However, just two days before the promised outing, he phoned to remind me. I was touched.