Even in the days before he became the director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in November 2007, Prof. Samir Kumar Barua stood out from other faculty members. For one, he was perhaps the only professor who always arrived for class impeccably dressed in a full-sleeved shirt and tie. He was also known for his even temperament. Barua was the chairperson of the flagship Post Graduate Programme in Management from 2002 to 2004—a job where he managed the academic needs of more than 400 MBA students and close to 100 talented, and often eccentric, faculty. In short, plenty of reasons to lose one’s cool. This writer graduated from IIM-A in 2005 and knows this first-hand.
So when the “Diro”, as students call him on campus, ushered me into his bright, airy office in Wing 5 of the faculty block at IIM-A, I wasn’t surprised to be welcomed by the same infectious smile, crisp shirt and sober tie.
For the office of one of the country’s most high-profile educational administrators, Barua’s room is sparse. There is a picture of IIM-A founder Vikram Sarabhai on the wall, and a few cups and trophies on the low shelf behind Barua’s chair. The desk is abuzz with papers and correspondence.
Always the professor: Barua continues to teach even after taking over as director. Jayachandran / Mint
Is the job of director of IIM-A as powerful and influential as it looks? Is it fun? I ask him as we settle down with cups of tea. “To be honest, it is actually much, much more work than I anticipated. There is so much to do. I had no idea how bad the workload was when I shot off my application for the position,” Barua says.
He routinely clocks 16- to 18-hour workdays and yet, when he goes home, he has the institute on his mind. “When I was chair of the Post Graduate Programme, I had these great ideas for the institute. And I got upset when my ideas didn’t get implemented. Now I know how difficult it can be to change things even when you are the director.”
Still, there is no denying that Barua is amply qualified for the job; not to overlook the fact that he has been living on the campus for 36 years. “I signed up for my doctoral programme in 1976 and never left!” he says.
Barua was born in Raipur and after the reorganization of states— when Barua was four—his father, a lecturer in English, moved the family to Nagpur. After a postgraduate degree in engineering, Barua joined the manufacturing company Crompton Greaves.
But his life could have taken a different twist. Barua’s masters thesis guide asked him to move with him to a university in the US. “Of course, I was tempted to go. But I wanted to work for a while first,” Barua reminisces.
Also, being the only son, Barua wanted to be with his family instead of going abroad. So he decided to stay back, turned down an offer from TCS—“To this day, I can’t even think of coding for a living”—and joined Crompton Greaves.