Fighting Fairly

Blast from the past. One of those moments that taught me about fighting fairly. This happened when I was in college, my classmates, if any, read this may be able to recollect the moment.

We had a lab session, and generally, lab sessions are for 3 hours. This was in the afternoon, and I was busy coding away problems to glory (which roughly means solving other problems that were of interest to me since I already knew the solution). The computer lab was fairly large, and could accommodate at least two batches – there was another class of students with ours. A lecturer for one of our classes (Mr. L) also happened to play the role of the lab in-charge, which meant he was the person of authority as far as anything with respect to the lab. During the time we were supposed to work out solutions, other folks came in to use the spare computers to get some urgent work completed. There were two groups of students from two different classes, and they were using whatever computers were available on a time sharing basis. Things were OK till the evening, when the administrators in the lab realized that one of the computers was not where it was supposed to be. Now, we are talking about desktops here – even at that time, I knew that it would have been impossible for *anyone* to carry one in whole or in dismantled form (which would have been very unlikely since it would have drawn attention, and furthermore, these were the older models which had screws, nuts and bolts – if you know what I’m talking about). Following a frantic search, the computer was found safe in another location within the lab – one of the mischievous students from the 4 batches that were present in the lab decided to pull a prank, and did it very successfully.

Next day, in class, Mr. L bestowed some harsh words on us for quite a while. Mr. L was one of the more feared lecturers in our college and no one (including me) wanted to mess around with him. I was getting agitated with his speech for there were mistakes that had happened from the administration too. When I felt I’d heard enough, I stood up and raised my concern. This was the conversation that followed (the words may not have been the same – it’s been a while):

Me : Sir, excuse me for interrupting.
Mr. L : Yes, what do you want?
Me : There were 2 batches scheduled for the lab session yesterday. Is the other batch being questioned too?
Mr. L : What?
Me : There were 2 batches that were scheduled to use the computers in the lab. Apart from that, there were 2 more batches of students.
Mr. L : So?
Me : How can you be so sure that the person who pulled the prank is sitting right here?
Mr. L : [Brief silence]
Me : I feel it there was a mistake on the administrator of the lab in letting the other two batches without prior permission – the students just came in and went. I agree that something went wrong, but it is not correct to assume that one of the students sitting right here could have done it. You will have to question the other 3 batches as well.
Mr. L : Why haven’t you shaved?
Me : [Sputter, and realization that I hadn’t shaved in 3 or 4 days] I will do that today.
Mr. L : You’re in an engineering course, shouldn’t you shave everyday?
Me : I will do that today.
Mr. L : I do not want you in my class till you’ve shaved. Leave now.
Me : But sir..
Mr. L : Leave.

I walked out without speaking another word, which happened to be the first time I got booted out of a class in college. The mistake I’d committed was that I had not shaved in a few days. And no, I wasn’t upset with being booted out – I went to the canteen, had a snack and a cold drink, and was in time for the next class. The next day, Mr. L made me stand up and checked whether I’d shaved my stubble off or not before starting the class.

This incident taught me one thing – to fight fairly. Mr. L didn’t. When he didn’t have a reply to my question, he used his power and booted me out of the class. I’ve met several people since, who’ve abused their power and overruled an argument simply because they didn’t have an explanation to offer or they didn’t think of everything before a confrontation. I’ve forgiven most of them, since I know that this is the environment we are brought up in. I have no hatred for Mr. L either, in fact, we had a very good relationship since that exchange. Unknowingly, Mr L also helped me learn something that I did not know about before, and instilled it in me never to do what he did to me – so I have to thank him for that.

If you are in a position of power, fight fairly, and you will earn respect of those who work for you / with you. If you are a teacher, never, I repeat, never do this – most of my classmates lost respect for him after that exchange, which wasn’t my intention. It also instills an idea in the students that it is all right to use power to divert the subject of a conversation and throw someone out who’s been raising genuine concerns. On the other hand, if he’d acknowledged my questions, accepted the flaw in his argument and backed off from accusing us, I’m quite positive, if not everyone, I would have had a greater deal of respect for him.

And if you are curious, I eventually found out that it was indeed one of my classmates who’d moved the computer. Mr. L had, to this date, as far as I can say, has no ideas about who, from which class, did it.

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