PAT deserves a pat!

The clock struck 6 pm as I looked out of the window to catch a glimpse of the orangish red sky which was being gulped by surrounding darkness. I was confused and lethargic to decide if I wanted to put on my shoes and go for a evening walk .As my eyes shifted focus I noticed that I had a mail in my inbox waiting to be opened. The mail was sent by our class representative which read as follows
“Hey!

As you all know we have a session with Mr. Atul Tandon tomorrow. He was the director of MICA.

He said he will teach on topics we want to be covered. So just mail me if there is anything specific you want to be taught.

Please note that he is super awesome and is very knowledgeable so DON'T ask trivial or stupid questions just for the sake of asking. If sincerely there is something u want to be covered then reply back NOW!
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel”
. Instantly this reminded me of the last time I attended a guest lecture where in the faculty was flown all the way from Pune only to mind boggle us with simple concepts that went above our heads leaving us clueless if we finished our first semester at all!!The loud ringtone of my roomie’s phone brought me back to reality leaving me with a grimace on my face!
As I entered class the next morning there was an air of excitement about Mr Atul Tandon’s class. A few minutes later this gentlemen walked in along with our Director and the class representative. He was a tall and white bearded man who was dressed in a suit and had a “cute” white hair pony tail. He had a very assertive and charismatic personality. But that did not stop me from thinking about the kind of concepts that he would throw at us leaving us perplexed! Our Director Mrs Maya Chakravarthy introduced and welcomed him along with a brief history about his past work experience and achievements by Pradyumna(class representative).Having heard so much about him I wondered if I could avail an opportunity to leave the class! Thanks to the faculty who flew down from Pune!
At the end of it, Mr Tandon stood up from the chair he was seated in and questioned the class if at all he could live up to the expectations of the class!?Well his voice commanded the respect that his personality resonated. But with this statement of his I was confused if he was talking about the IQ level of the class or was he being sarcastic! He further went on to sort out the issue as to how he wanted his students to address him thereby deriving at his pet name PAT(Professor Atul Tandon).Thanks to his student way back in 1999 who gave him this identity! It was still hard for me to digest that a man at his age with this kind of experience and dignity and respect wanted to be called something like this apart from ‘Sir’. This also kept me thinking about the so-called generation gap that our parents keep talking about! As he kicked off the session with questions and discussion i was convinced that the session wasn’t as complicated as i thought it to be. Moreover I was more than glad to realize that he spoke of a lot of issues and concerns in a logical manner so as to get across his communication right. Though he was a man of such vast and varied experience he never had a condescending air about himself and instead was open to accepting his weakness and called himself a ‘student’. This further broke my misconception about ‘GREAT’ people (prof Udayshankar) who has had an opportunity to work with the business magnates of the nation. Voice modulation along with his presentation skills and the approach towards the subject along with a tint of humour got us stuck like barnacles having him in our vision field not realising that we had surpassed the usual break time unless his phone alarm alerted us.
He emphasised on the point of what creativity meant to our generation and what it actually means in the business of communication. He further went onto give a broader picture of India and focussed on the rural area communication thereby driving home a very strong point that rural India starts where distribution ends. The challenge lies in getting across one’s communication there and capturing the markets. Brand communication across various cultures also formed a chunk of his lecture along with the screening of a few ads. Thereby he concluded his class with the statement “40 years from now, I’ll sit up there and evaluate what u did!”. With his class, there was one thing that i realised if one needs to carve out a distinct persona like him it was important to focus on your career more than money and challenges more than comfort zone. He had left an everlasting impression on the class. As a matter of fact, I was so proud and thankful that I studied in this institution for getting an opportunity to hear such men of mettle.