georgie's musings

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

You have got Mail from OMA !!!

From: gautam bharadwaja <jumbo.1951@yahoo.co.in>
Date: Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 7:41 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: You have got Mail from OMA !!!
To: hodsonhouse@westnet.com.au

I fully agree with Gautam Kaul,this advt businee is a hoax to suit some guy who has been chosen already,the reqd qualifications r being modelled to suit this chappie.Its difficult to swallow this bullshit.Shame on the scamsters who have set this in motion.The Chairman of the board should be appraised of this development immediately.Cedric Innis., MLC who stays in All'bad could be asked to take up cudgels on behalf of the OMA.

Bharadwaja

From: hodsonhouse@westnet.com.au <hodsonhouse@westnet.com.au>

Subject: Fwd: You have got Mail from OMA !!!

Date: Wednesday, 9 June, 2010, 4:19 PM

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Gautam Kaul" Dear All OMA guys world wide,

I have been able to get a scan of an advertisement which appeared as a classified advt in the Lucknow's edition of TIMES OF INDIA. Please go to the pdf file and read it in the attachment.If this does not open, pl inform me seperately.

Classified advertising is resorted first because it is the least expensive form and secondly because it is focussed to local patrons who are looking for assignments which are advertised.

Here is a 170 years old institution called La Martiniere Boys College announcing it is looking for a new Principal for the school. "Administrative experience is preferred" What is this administrative experience? It can be a once upon a time being a burser and then teach for minimum 15 years in some higher secondary school , maybe even in Martinpurwa ! Conversely administrative experience need not be a qualification.( Hey what is happening in the College?)

I am ashamed to see such a purile announced seeking the services of a person to be considered as a future principal.

There is no suggestion for a SALARY and other perks offered for the assingment. The School is not offering a residence in the advt. or a compensation called the House Allowance. Not even a suggestion that the applicant should give his bid on what he is seeking as a financial package.

Why only '15 years experience'? A principal of LMC must be a person in my view who is already working either as a Vice Principal or Principal of a reputed School or College in India for an appreciable period. 15 years experience is no criteria of academic excellence for a Head of an institution. MA Ed. as degree is not sufficient. He should be a Second Division minimum person with a foreign language diploma and well travelled. After all the guy will certainly go to Lyon in his lifetime. He needs to interact with confidence,meet senior govt. official, fight for the recall of the land occupied by the Lucknow Gold Club, safe the grounds from Mayawati's land mafia and address crowds and parents. And what about his extra curricular activities. What games has he played in his youth. Was there Rugby? I dare say, the Governing Board may be looking for a person who has not even heard of rugger!

The whole advt. seems to me a big public fraud. Someone has already been selected and this selection process will be an exercise for public consumption. An interesting sidelight is the absence of no claim that LMC is a minority institution and the Principal from the minority community would be preferred, leave aside the church he serves. Will the Board set aside a highly qualified Non Christian candidate or a persons from the Seventh Day Adventists?

The Chairman of the Board is Justice Pradeep Kant Senior Judge of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. Elton is the Secretary of the Board.This poorly drafted advt. could not have been approved by Justice Kant. All members are ex officio members and this is what I have in the past been saying that the Board must be expanded to include more committed persons for the welfare of the College/School. It is presntly vacation time for the Court and Jus. Pradeep Kant would be more free. Elton will not stir on this subject. We have to petition the Board Chairman to highlight the hollowness of this public advertisement, the dismay of the old studnets, and get an outcry made if possible. A worthy head of any such delegation may be Dr. Rajendra Pachauri if he can spare a day for this job.

There is no OMA working in Lucknow. We have one in New Delhi and the there are OMA branches in Australia, UK . I suggest that the foreign located Branches should sent to the New Delhi Branch there resolutions expressing their concern on the type of the Advt issued and they can add their own particular sentiments. The New Delhi Branch will see its core group assembled and also take up the issue and we will petition the Chairman of the Board and meet him early. In the meanwhile we want someone in Lucknow to volunteer to revive the OMA since that is most suited to such jobs.

Let the discussion and action now flow. Circulate this note to OMA persons who are not listed here for wider reception and reaction.

Gautam Kaul
Hodson House 1953-59

-- Original Message --

From: hitech drillers hdpl_lko@yahoo.co.in
To: kaul60@rediffmail.com
Subject: advertisement

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

From across the Gomti

Taken from about 400 metres with my camera phone which is OK for shorter distances. The water in the foreground of two pics is not that of the river but what we had been told was an oxbow lake. I recall Mr Dignum mention it. However, the bottom pic was taken from the new railway bridge, which is yet to be commissioned, so we have the river flowing below and an abandoned pontoon that looks like a floating corpse or tree.

Friday, June 4, 2010

The CM's Riverfront plan

The squatters on Mart land, towards the south-east (railway track) have been evicted after, as some of them claim, 20 years. What surprised me was that even a temple has been demolished. Among today's (June 4, 2010) pictures there is one of Mr Vidhiyarthi's place now occupied by Patrick Filose and family. He is Donna Yeoward's son. They have developed their compound as a mini farm - geese, ducks and fowls. They even have a vegetable garden. The tiny figure seen is Patrick's dad, Mickey who is no less than a farmer.