Eccentric with a Vision Teaching is in Prof MJ Xavier’s blood and he hates jargon or obfuscation. No wonder, wherever he goes, a crowd of learners builds around him—currently on IIM Ranchi campus By Sangita thakur varma 52
EduTech July 2012
P
rof MJ Xavier says you may call him a mad man with eccentric ideas. But after you hear him out, it is clear that he is a man with unconventional ideas for which the world he inhabits is just about readying itself. Once he opens his heart to you, you won’t wonder for long at his strange choices in life. He landed in his current role as the Director of Indian Institute of Management Ranchi also because of his idiosyncratic style of reasoning. While others in the race for the directorship of the new IIMs went for plum postings at locations that promised better advantages, Prof Xavier opted for Ranchi, which no one wanted. Why you wonder? And he answers: “While teaching at XLRI Jamshedpur, I developed a liking for Jharkhand.”
Son of the Soil His reasons for his affinity with the countryside is not far to seek. Son of a postmaster, Prof Xavier was born in a nondescript village in Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu. But an almost nomadic life, with his father being transferred every three years, ensured