We had a Professor and Head of a department, who was quite peculiar. This professor resided in quarters provided by the institute. Actually she had a place of his own quite far away in the suburbs. But when she went to any meeting where traveling allowance was given, she gave the address of her home rather than her quarters, so that she gets more allowance. And the funny part is that she was not expected to be going there from home, nor from the quarters, but actually from the institute where she should have been working at that time of the day. Well, that is an attitude that does not show greatness of character. I call that an attitude of unscrupulous greediness. This same professor threw a tantrum when tea was given to her in a disposable plastic cup during one such meeting. “What do you think, I am a beggar or what?” she thundered, “give me tea in a cup and saucer properly”. But when even less tea was given to her in a thinner plastic cup in the Dean's meeting, she smilingly accepted it. I call it attitude of throwing one's weight around where one can, and becoming meek and polite when the other party has a lot more weight to throw around. We could call this lion-sheep attitude too. This professor once asked the gardener to let her water the plants in the institution's garden using the hose pipe. That was OK. One may have unfulfilled dreams from childhood which one may get to fulfill in adult life. But then she came to a meeting and bragged about what she just did. “I was just thinking about what if a reporter had been around and had snapped my picture. There it could have been in newspaper or on television, showing me watering the plants and saying “Professor and head waters plants in the institution's garden”. I failed to see any greatness in that. I could not also see how she saw this act as a great thing she did, as if doing such a lowly (!) task by a person of her stature was something that was expected to make headlines. I call it attitude of pseudo-greatness, or perhaps it is megalomania with poor perception of truly great things in life.
