124. From January and April

A meeting at the Principal’s office. The attendees are the Principle, his secretary, the NILS Zonal Head (Academics), NILS Zonal Head (Accounts), NILS Zonal Head (Management).

Head (Accounts): Do we have enough interested parties for a course on music appreciation?

Principal: A music school and two high schools with music departments have approached me. They want the parents to take up such a course to encourage their children.

Head (Academics): The parents of children who learn classical music are the target group.

Head (Accounts): And some participation is guaranteed through the schools?

Principal: Nothing in writing, but practically speaking, yes.

Head (Accounts): Then let’s go ahead with the music appreciation crash course from next April.

Head (Academics): It is called Understanding Classical Music to make it sound more informal.

Principal: Yes, then that is confirmed. We have another crash course on buying cars. It is called A-Z of Having a Car.

Head (Management): Please make sure you are not endorsing any specific brands.

Principal: I will give you the names of the faculty. We are looking at 4-6 teachers. Three have confirmed.

Head (Management): Fine, I will write to them.

Head (Academics): Then both crash courses are confirmed from next April.

Principal: Now, coming to the six month courses, we have zeroed in on two new courses and one repeat. We have talked to experts and we can proceed with the formalities if you all agree. The new courses are Creating a Startup and Savings and Investments. We are planning to repeat Social Media Usage.

Head (Academics): I read your proposals on all three. Fine with me.

Head (Accounts): All three are popular courses. Fine with me.

Head (Management): No issues.

Principal: Thank you. That means we have three long and two short courses. We can accommodate two more long courses.

Head (Academics): How about one on the share market?

Head (Accounts): The City-Parkside branch did a course on share market recently. They are going to repeat it next year. They have got good response.

Principal: I would suggest that we have this share market course from July and not from January. With a course on Investment and a course on Startups, we are already a little heavy on the business and commerce side. Adding share market to that might be too much.

Head (Management): I agree. Another course at Parkside that did really well was on parenting.

Head (Academics): Financially, yes. But I was not happy with the content. They dealt with parents of children between 3-14 and focused entirely on the upper middle class background with children from high-security gated communities. I have put in a note that the syllabus needs reconsideration.

Head (Accounts): How about childbirth? A course on childbirth and related complications and challenges.

Head (Marketing): Make it childbirth and baby parenting.

Head (Accounts): Baby parenting? Is that even a term?

Head (Academics): We will come up with some terms if need be. But I like the idea. Let us plan it this way: a six month course that deals with six most important months of a mother’s life. Three months before and three months after the childbirth.

Principal: We can do the course in chronological order with a prenatal and a neonatal phase. First three months will be prenatal and last three months will be neonatal.

Head (Management): Include a special childbirth session after three months. Make it an open session for public for nominal charges.

Principal: Sounds good. Let’s look at the finances…