Its amusing to do similar/same courses under teachers with totally different outlooks. This is happening with me in our OB course here, being done under Dr. Debashish Chatterjee. Having done an HR course under Dr. Rahul Varman at IITK, its interesting to see how the views can differ. Its almost amusing to think of what would the scene be if RV and DC were put together in some places and made to discuss some of the OB topics!

RV was skeptical about everything to an extent that would give you a headache at the end of the course. DC is so inclined to idealize some of the concepts and principles that you will start feeling skeptical, if you have some opinion of your own, that is. RV was an atheist and politically a hard-core communist. Don't know about DC's political outlook, but he would talk of such "Indian Insights" that RV would not even be ready to have a look at. And then he gets excited when someone asks, "Who is Sachchidananda?" in the class. DC will say "everyone is a leader" and RV would ask "who is a leader anyway?". DC would get so emotional while telling most of his stories of people or organizations; and RV's stories even those of the people, whom he respected the most, would be told in a most controlled and objective way. DC will talk of all the great organizations; put them before RV and you would soon think that no organization has been great after all.

These comparisons have been a major amusement for me in OB classes these days.

Categories: IITK, IIML, Thoughts