Refreshed

So I today I got my certificate that says I am refreshed.

The last couple of lectures were embarrassing, to say the least. As these lectures were given by profs whom I know personally, a decision had to be taken whether to attend or not. In the end I attended them. As I slinked into the classroom today, the lecturer stopped his talk, said a big, cheerful hello, made a fatuous comment about sometimes giving lectures and sometimes attending them, and then continued with his interrupted talk. Of course, every one in the class turned around to see who had walked into the class.

Couple of days back it was even more embarrassing as the faculty giving the lecture loves to talk and crack jokes. All the jokes were of course cracked at our expense, there were 4 of us from the department doing the course and sitting in the back bench. He finally ended up addressing the talk exclusively to us.

Anyway the trauma is over till next year when I have to do one more refresher course to get the promotion to Associate Professor.

Meantime, UGC has said that we have to serve a 12 year sentence as assistant professor before we can be promoted to associate professor. At this point, we assistant professors are fuming because at this rate most of us would be approaching retirement before we can become professors.

The NBT moves at the speed of the snail. A book that I had written has been languishing with them for 4 years now. Today I was told that it is being illustrated. I guess I should celebrate because maybe in another year or two I might actually see it printed.