An Outlet: Part 4

8 July, 2018.

We finally met Ms. Paula today! Gosh I missed her.

What I've learnt today that plans with these bunch of people are always subject to change until the last moment.

We had decided to meet Ms. Paula at a restaurant and then go to her house but Ms. Paula dropped out of the lunch plan for some reason. Kristen, Paul and I still continued to go with the lunch plans tho cause food.

But we were supposed to meet by 1 and when I was on my way, I get a calls saying that they've postponed the plan. I got damn triggered. I cannot stand change in plans especially when I'm already heading to the venue. I kinda screamt at both of them to come on time cause it's really unfair towards me.

Turns out, I was going to be late too. None of the trains I wanted to take were coming at the normal platform. I instead had to look for a way to reach another platform which is rarely used (it's mostly for fast trains, if for some reason, they decide to stop my station). Nonetheless, I reached the desired station and walked till I found the restaurant.

Kristen came soon after that and we waited for Paul to come as well. I think it's a new in thing to have board games at restaurants and cafes cause so we noticed yet another assortment (not as much as the last place tho) of games ready for the customers to use.

We decided to play a game called Sequence and continued even after Paul came. Towards the end, the game became monotonous so we left it incomplete.

Both Paul and Kristen own Zomato Gold so we could order 4 dishes for the price of two. Yep, I'm kinda exploiting their membership lol. We ate garlic bread, pizza, pasta and rissoto. I'd never eaten rissoto before and I don't think I really like the dish. It felt like rise in a pasta sauce which did not appease my taste buds. Overall the food was okayish, nothing great.

Paul and Kristen decided to avail the free Nutella shots offer by writing a review on Zomato. The restaurant gave me a shot too! Lucky me. And the shot wasn't bad. I wouldn't mind having another shot.

Paul knew the way to Ms. Paula's house which was walking distance from the restaurant. After getting a little mixed up with the floors, we finally reached Ms. Paula's place.

She gave us a house tour. The house is small but sufficient for two bachelors. We spoke quite a lot! And Ms. Paula- now that she is finally out of our college- finally decided to tell us more about the ugly side of our institution, including the Dean.

First she told us about Prof. DJ's story that we were all dying to know ever since we learnt that she is close to him and knows the real reason why he was fired.

Apparently, one day there was a guest lecture scheduled for the communication students and the guest was quite late for the lecture. Naturally, people started talking, joking around to while away some time. Since professors like Prof. DJ are also pretty chilled, even they spoke to and maybe played with the students. By the time the Dean came in with the guest, there seemed to be a total rucus in the classroom and the Dean did not take the whole scene well. Later on, apparently one of the faculty members (who is also not a part of the institution anymore), snitched to the Dean that Prof. DJ was fooling around with the students instead of disciplining them. The Dean was as it is furious so she apparently fired the shit out of Prof. DJ.

According to Ms. Paula, they played a very dirty game with him. The communication school was as it is understaffed right from the beginning and Prof. DJ was left to handle everything on his own. The Dean pressurized Prof. DJ and his small team to extreme limits. And I guess there was some issue about pay as well. All of this added up until eventually there was a messy showdown between the Dean and Prof. DJ during which he got fired.

All I have to say is that the communication school lost a very good, talented and an intelligent person and the poor aftermath of the situation can as it is be seen. Also, I was really surprised with how the Dean handled the situation. I have heard that she has such a such a big reputation in the industry but I never expected her to behave in such a manner. What Ms. Paula revealed next legit broke my heart.

In the chapter 19 July, 2017, I had documented how the Dean sorta pushed our club aside during a rehearsal and decided to introduce our club to the guest, before even listening to Mr. President's speech. I was very pissed at that point when the Dean didn't even give us a chance to prove that we are worth something, that just because we aren't the usual speakers, we won't be able to do a good job. However, it is only today that I came to know the real reason why she didn't allow Mr. President to speak and the reason is so fucking shallow.....

It was because of his looks. The Dean thought that the Mr. President was not good looking or charismatic enough to talk to a distinguished guest. The reason why Ms. Paula was so persistent on helping us, motivating us that day was because after the dry rehearsal, the Dean came to Ms. Paula and went "What kind of a President have you chosen for your club. You should have chosen someone who looks like one." 

THE FUCK BRO! HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU SAY THAT? WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO CALL SOMEONE NOT GOOD-LOOKING? AND THAT TOO ONE OF YOUR STUDENTS?! HOW CAN YOU DROP TO SUCH LEVELS OF SHALLOWNESS?

Another thing that makes sense is why Ms. Paula would continuously discourage Mr. President from defending himself for whatever happened that day. Apparently he was very hurt after the incident. Ms. Paula never got the courage to tell him the truth even to this day. 

Also, I used to hate Ms. Martha for being so superficial but I didn't know that she did all of this because the Dean wanted things a specific way. She wanted all the 'good looking' students in the forefront. She was the one who handpicked some of the club position holders even when they hadn't given any interviews. 

After hearing all of this, I could not stop crying. I was sitting in a position where only Ms. Paula could see me and thankfully she did not bring anyone's attention to me. 

Then Ms. Paula went on to tell us what all kinds of politics she herself had to face. Everyone made her write their PhD research. Dude what? What's the point of gaining the degree when you aren't even putting your own effort into it? She told us about how she made entire syllabuses for certain professors and did not get any credit for it. In fact she joined the institute as a research assistant and her work increased by manifolds and into diverse other activities in her three years with the institution. However when she left the institute, her designation still showed her as a research assistant.

We then went on to some positive and interesting stuff. Even with her hectic schedules, Ms. Paula somehow had the time to date and she had dated some of the professors. Woahhh... Ms. Paula left but her exes are still my professors. I hope it doesn't get too awkward now when I meet them, knowing that they used to date my mentor.

Ms. Paula's current job seems to be going very well and the owner even has plans to offer her ESOPs. I think its a bit too early to offer someone a part of your start-up but his life, his rules.

We drank some ice tea and ate some prawn curry rice and instant noodles. Delish. We then watched hilarious impractical jokers' videos while eating some amazing Gelato from a recently opened outlet. I had opted for a salty caramel and another flavour that Ms. Paula recommended and the shit was gooooooood. SO GOOD. I definitely see myself eating another one of those if and when I get the chance to do so.

We then went to a closeby popular sweets store and I loved the way everything was arranged in the store. It looked damn good. You do have store like this in my area as well (with less fancy arrangements) which is why I didn't buy anything from there. I called my parents up to ask if they wanted anything and I learnt that apparently the sweets that were distributed in my parents' wedding was from this store. What a small world! 

After having a great time, we finally left for home. What an emotional but great day!