I teach in a University and like most human institutions it is full of petty politics, crass pursuit of personal ambitions and at times even downright thuggery. Yet none of this can account for the death at the age of 56 of one of the most senior professors of the University. His death just goes to show that when a man loses his position he sometimes ends up loosing his life as well. Let me start at the very beginning.
I met SVN when I joined the University in 1988. He was a professor in the School of Management and I often met him at the bank,library, coffee shop or in a common area of the University. He always entertained with a wry sense of humor and he had a definite taste for off color jokes. Yet he was human in his own way. He had the knack of turning even a serious situation into a moment of mirth. I cannot say I liked him, but I did find him engaging in his own way. He was well read and you could always find a stack of "Grisham" novels in his office. He was a very impressive public speaker as I have heard him speak a few times.
This individual had been the President of our University twice by virtue of what we call in this part of the world "seniority". On one ocassion I travelled to the capital and requested the then Minister for Education to appoint this individual as the acting President before the present one was appointed. I do not know what went wrong but the presidentm of the University chose to humiliate him form the day he arrived. First his office room was taken from him on the grounds that it was needed for some other purpoe. Then his courses were pulled from him and assigned to another. Then his colleagues in the Department were encouraged not to co operate or in any way interact with him. The crowning irony is that our University celebrated what it calls in a fit of bad English
its bi denennial celebration and as the only professor who was around since the inception of the University SVN should have found an honorable palce in the month long affair. He was savagely ignored and I saw him sitting in the large convention center of our University looking raher disgusted last month.
They say that it does not rain it pours. Thisd was true of SVN. First the legislation of the University was amended in order to remove the "senior most" from the succession to the Presidentship of the University. Then invoking a long ignored clause of the Statutes a new post of Director was created and succession invested in thast post. Therefore SVN lost his position in the University.
Being the most senor professor and the first professor in the School of Management he should have been made Dean of the School. However when he went away on leave the position of Dean was given to another individual. Even the Headship of the Department was not given to him.
SVN was deeply hurt by all this but did not show it outwardly. Last Monday when I met him in the Bank he told me that he refused to attend the Board of Studies meeting as he was not sure whether he was welcome at all. That same evening he had a cerebral stroke and died on the night of the 15th i.e. two days back.
He left behind his mother, a son who is in College and a wife. His death was deeply shocking and I am convinced that had the University been more civilised in its behavior SVN would have lived longer.