Miss Integrity

I just wrote about an unpredictable girl in my previous post. Here is a story of another unpredictable girl, with unbelievable integrity in a country like India, where people casually give and take one common thing: BRIBE.

This intelligent girl registered for an M.B.A degree in a renowned University. 3 semesters went by, and she cleared all the subjects at her first attempt itself. This is a correspondence course in fact. A software developer by profession, she spends 9-10 hours @ work, 2-4 hours in commutation, but still manages to find time and prepare for her course.

All-is-well until she started looking out for GUIDEs for her Final yr project. It appears that no one do projects on their own in that university. "Give me 4000 Rs, I will take care of it", was the shocking blatantly statement she heard. Our Miss Integrity is not one for indulging in such cheap activities. She wanted to do it on her own. After contemplating the possible options, she went to the University, taking off a day at work. She went to the senior most professor in the department, explained him the problem and blatantly blamed the faculty's shameful attitude. She expressed her I-will-do-on-my-own intention.

"I will be your guide. Don't worry. Go ahead and start your work", the professor acknowledged encouragingly. She felt like her voice was finally heard. Filled with excitement, she completed the thesis that totaled some 40-50 pages, and met the professor after two months.

"40 pages is too less for a M.B.A thesis. Even high-school projects total more than this. You better work hard and put in more content, then bring it to me" was the response. For her, it is like someone saying this:  "Functionality doesn't matter. Write a code for 100-200 lines. Then only we can convince the clients that we have done something".

Well, to be honest, the customers care only for the quality of the software, and not about the number of lines written. Similarly, the no. of pages used to express the idea is insignificant. She felt ignored but added more pages  and took it to the pages-loving-professor, one more time. After correction, one more comment. "Everything looks good but the font size is unreadable. Increase it".

Days rolled on and on, and her final review date is just one day away. This girl, having corrected all the stupidly pointed out mistakes, took it to the guide for signature. This guide makes her wait for 4 hours outside his room, and finally lets her in, takes the bounded thesis and gives one more statement to solidify his stupidity-quotient. "This Table of Contents is not looking like a table. A table should look like a table. This must be changed. I know tomorrow is your review, but you can easily do this. Go out now, change it before evening, bind it before night, bring it tomorrow morning, I will sign it and then you move to your viva."

This really pissed her off. She had no other way then. The exam was less than 24 hrs away. She did everything she could, took it correctly the next day. This guy makes her wait, like the previous day, and she didn't know what to do. There was his assistant, whom she knows very well as she used to stand outside his room for enumerous times, gave her the answer: "Didn't you know yet, why he is delaying the signature? You did not yet give him the real-thing? That's why he is making you wait. He collects 1000 Rs for every signature. Just give it and you are good to go."

She never gave away a penny. She waited and waited, as the exam got over, and she couldn't do anything about it. There was this stern mind that firmly stood by moral principles, which did not have the courage to go inside and blast him into pieces.

That was truly terrifying for her. He who gave her the confidence & go-ahead, made her wait and wait, avail so many leaves, in which some of them, on a LOSS-OF-PAY, only for a cheap 1000 Rs. Where the hell does these professors come from? Which college do they graduate from? This event is real, and it happened in a well-known university.

While we can salute this girl, who stood by her principles even giving up on the degree, what should we do to the corrupt and cheap professor? Isn't God watching this suffering, upright girl?  She had only one arrear which prevented her from getting the degree. That arrear is no other than this project!

Dear God, where in the world are you now?