The Eccentric Genius

A post has been long overdue [not just links], and its after a whole week of examination tension that I am finally sitting down to write it. If fact, this is the first time I am using BlogSend feature of Blogger, since my post create page was not opening properly. Blogsend did not work, and I am back to using Blogger's editor.

Now, this post is dedicated to one of the professors I had this semester [he is retiring and will not be taking classes after the mid term]. Well, this prof teaches us Financial Management and Accounting, as you would have guessed by the title of this post, he really is an eccentric genius.

Actually in the beginning of this semester, when we had to choose our breadth subjects [subjects you take from other departments, in addition to your depth subjects, or core requirements for the major], I was really in a fix. Breadths being offered ranged from Jet Propulsion to Rubber Technology, I did not seem to have an interest in any of them. So our group of friends decided to beat the system, ask a professor to start a new breadth.

As soon as we got down to business, we realized that it was an impossible proposition. You could count the stars in the sky, but you couldn't change the system here at IIT. However, somewhere during our quest, we did get to know about an M.Tech course being offered by the Vinod Gupta School of Management [VGSoM], and decided to try our luck at it. We decided to go and meet this professor [let's call him A]. I wasn't there due to some urgent work, but my friends tell me, as soon as they popped the question, he roared at them, making them justify their choice. After haggling for well over an hour, we finally did manage to convince him.

The first class the same story was repeated, once again he asked, "Why Accounting?". It wasn't a question, it was more like a command.

"It will help us learn about accounting",
"It will help us when we want to study management"
"Then all the money your parents are spending on your education here will go down the drain. And you will anyway learn accounting when you do management, WHY waste my time?"
"Sir, it will help us analyze our company even if we work as engineers"

One answer after another, he rubbished. Finally the retort which could pass muster with him was, "It will help us become better professionals".

The classes were very straining on my grey matter. The first two-three classes, and he had finished with the Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts. He only explained the fundamentals and we built on them. I could not believe we were cruising along at such a pace. The best part was that he never expected us to know the unnecessary details. He had a very clear idea of how he wanted to teach us. Any other professor would have spend weeks making us write down Vouchers, Journals and then Ledgers. However, he had a very clear idea of the fact that we as engineers will probably spend our time writing books of accounts. So from day one, it was only analysis. Somewhere, in the middle he also impressed upon us the importance of the Memorandom Book for a manager. And most of the last month has been spent on analysing various ratios relating to a company. He gave a list of 50 odd Ratios, and we grew mad trying to decipher it. I think they were more than 10 ratios of Assets Turnover itself. It was simply mind boggling. I have heard [never had the guts to ask him] that he is a consultant with one of the leading Accounting and Consultancy firms in India. That much for the genius part.

Now, for the eccentric. Most of the time, all the students never uttered a word they were unsure about. When you consider the fact that many of them were final year Dual Degree students, who after five years of penance [!] at IIT have grown weary of the system and don't care a damn about itsy-bitsy details, this is very very surprising. As soon as he heard anything which did not suit him, he would roar, and roar as if the next time we utter anything wrong, he would bring a dagger and murder us. At one point of time, we were analyzing the accounts of a company and someone asked a question "Sir what would happen if ...", he shouted back, "AND WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT! Why would you have so much inventory lying with you and not use them Will Ambani be happy about it? What about Ratan Tata?" He had a knack for personalizing things. So the managers would be us, shareholders Ambani, and Chairman and Board of Directors would generally be Ratan Tata. He would suddenly say, "Munjal says that he is down to 3 days of inventory..." or "but that would mean abetting Eisner's policies", it took a moment to compile [effects of my major ;-)].

We had to bear the brunt of anything shortcomings of the management in the book. If the no advances had been taken on a deal [in some question we were solving], he would grown at us about how were leading the company to the dogs. It was after all our [management's] mistake! When he was teaching us Adjustments entries which are passed at the end of the year, we would have to face all reprimands. Whenever an entry was left for later when it should have been passed earlier, he howled at us as if we had been the people managing Enron!

One day he remarked about how his daugher felt that he was a big miser, and I unwittingly started day dreaming of his daughter sending him a daily report at the end of the day everyday, a balance sheet and Profit and Loss at the end of a year, and actually having to make a Banker's presentation for getting some pocket money !

He was once taking a roll call, when he realized that a guy called 'D' had been absent for a long time now. He roared, "Tell that 'D' not to come for the exam, otherwise I'll ZAP HIM OFF HIS HEAD."

The best part about the course was that we never had a conventional exam. A week-and-a-half before the examination, he told us that we would have to select an unsolved problem from the book, prepare its financial accounts, analyze it using various ratios, and then compare it with a company of our choice [my case Hindalco], to suggest remedies etc. I really liked this way of testing since we had to actually apply our intellect instead of wasteful number crunching during the examination. And I would surely champion this system over any pravailing one.

Anyways, this was one helluva course. It was unconventional, we had to apply ourselves a lot, think, analyze, present, and also listen to some harsh words on the way. Over all a very different experience.

Now that he is retiring, I want to with him a happy retired life, and may God be with his family who would have to endure him much more now! And I hope the teacher continueing the course can match his vigour.

Current Mood: Bored!
Current Music: Steve Vai, Satriani, Rammstein etc.