IITians' Foundation - PART 1

This is Ganesh Hegde, a former teacher of IIT-JEE Mathematics coaching class (or crass) called IITians' Foundation,headquartered at Mulund in Mumbai.


For starters, I was associated with this sham of an institute from July 2005 to January 2006 before being asked to discontinue for lack of funds to pay my salary !


I still remember the day of interview when I reached Harshad Nimje's office. Nimje, a pot-bellied former IITian student (who some believed had not cleared his BTech from IIT Powai) and the boss of the coaching class was scrambling through some pamphlets trying to figure out his next strategy of milking the student fraternity.


He hurriedly asked me about my modus operandi of coming to his office.I reminded him about the telephonic conversation that I had with him earlier in the day about the job requirement that had appeared in the classifieds of an esteemed newspaper.The job required new lecturers in his class for the three subjects that decided the fate of an IITian aspirant.


I fitted the bill for coaching Mathematics and went to Mulund,Nimje's bastion, filled with enthusiasm.
After Nimje read my resume he muttered something to himself and asked me to comeback later in the evening since he was extremely busy.

I immediately nodded in agreement and left for my home in a nearby suburb called Dombivli.
Later on I rushed back to Mulund for the 'interview' with Nimje at 7:00 pm.

As soon as I reached his class and sneaked through his glass cabin, he smiled at me and called me inside. "Ya sir", he grinned. "Sir ko khurchi do..baitne", he ordered his peon who hurriedly arranged for a chair and requested me to relax. "Sir thodi der baad", Nimje grinned again pointing to the students (customers) who had come for CET counseling.

There were three of them, all HSC students, aspiring to get an engineering seat in one of the motley colleges affiliated to the Mumbai University.The students were pretty enthusiastic about their chances in the CET and praised Nimje's brainchild as the epitome of Mathematics coaching.

Nimje looked at the student with his characteristic ego-filled grin and nodded in agreement.
All three kept discussing about their career prospects with the be-spectacled cigarette addict,not realising that they were arguably making the worst decision of their juvenile life.

All three misguided souls decided to enrol themselves for the CET coaching in Nimje's Foundation that would decided their fate in the city of hope.As soon as they left discussing their uncertain future, Nimje the bespectacled scoundrel, decided to take a Marlboro break.He puffed for a couple of minutes and perhaps thought about his natural ability to take innocent students and their ignorant parents for a bountiful ride.

Nimje suddenly called me for a chat as soon as the cigarette was about to die a slow death.
"Sirrrrr....aa jao", he grinned again.I hurriedly got from the chair and rushed outside the class for my first tete-a-tete with the future "boss".Nimje asked me about my credentials and I told him that I was a BE graduate (first class) from the University of Mumbai in the Instrumentation stream.

Nimje remained calm and questioned me about my job profile."I was a teacher for PLC, an industrial automation tool in a defunct company",said yours truly.Nimje assured me that I need not worry about a single penny if I joined his class as a Math faculty.His looks suddenly became mysterious which should have sent the alarm bells ringing in my head about his dark nature.But nothing seemed to go to my cluttered brain as I nonchalantly accepted his job offer.

The payments were pretty similar to my earlier job and hence I gleefully agreed to be a part of the JEE circus.My soul must have cried foul but I went with my brain's gesture, not aware of the disaster that was to occur 6 months down the line.