We were in the midst of a birthday celebration when Peder reached our floor, key in one hand and a soft-top suitcase in the other, looking for his room. Tall, lithe and radiant, very nifty, with a crew cut, he spoke good English for a Dane. Friendly and articulate, he shared a cup of ice-cream, refusing our offer of lunch. This was Peder Harbjerg Nielson, the professor flown in from Denmark's Aarhus School of Business to teach us Financial Management from scratch and make us exam-ready in a fortnight.Peder started off in the afternoon when, after writing the pesky paper on Financial and Cost Accounting and a heavy meal, we were more keen on a siesta. Bowing to the class, Peder began with a flourish imparted by his American training. His accent was a strange Danish-Yankee twang.It wasn't disconcerting when he mouthed the inanities of life, as on the day of his arrival. But in the classroom, coupled with the mystique of Wall Street stocks and Kroner bonds, it shook us. We presented a look so vacuous thatPeder was forced to ask if we followed him. ``No,'' said Rafatullah Burki, our dapper Pakistani friend. ``I'm sorry I can't follow your accent and keep pace with your speed. Could you please slow down?''Peder, exasperated albeit, promised to go slow. ``But how many of you think I'm fast for your ears and mind?'' Unfortunately, Rafatullah stood out as the sole sore thumb, though many hadn't a clue about what was being said. This emboldened Peder. Off he went, rattling his tales of stocks and bonds, mouthing convoluted calculations of Earnings Before Interest and Taxes after drawing the two balance sheets he called Book and Value on the blackboard, turning back to tick off the garrulous female duo and wiping off his writings with his right hand. He was energy personified. But much as we admired his enthusiasm, we hated the subject.On Saturday evening we went to his room, all hostellers. He was expecting us, on the basis perhaps of his past experiences. Everyone had the same question: where did thestocks and bonds begin and end in Corporate Finance? Half the lectures were over, and we hadn't the ABC of the subject? Peder was clearly scandalised, but he held his cool and explained from his hand-outs. We nodded our comprehension, erudition even, in an hour's time.``Could you please give us some controlled questions for the exams?'', someone piped up. ``There's no need of that,'' said Peder shortly. ``It'd be like giving the questions away!''``I mean,'' Cherian started. ``Can we have the kind of question you want us to prepare ourselves with in readiness for the exams?''Peder said with a mischievous grin, ``I like the way you said it, and I understand its import!'' Our gameplan had failed.We knew Peder was too smart for us to expect the exams to be a cakewalk, no matter what our intimacy forged by ice-cream and fortified by biryani. I blundered in the exams. As I trudged crestfallen towards the lift, I saw Peder with the pile of answer papers waiting for the lift to arrive. ``Your questionswere tough,'' I started. ``And I'm going to flunk.''``I hope not!'' Peder added, mostly as commiseration. I walked off, dejected, waiting to taste my first failure.Peder had different thoughts. He wouldn't be an ingrate! On the eve of his departure for Copenhagen, we invited him for a drink at the pub. He was touched by our sunny Indian hospitality. No sooner had we emerged from the pub, he headed for the department store round the cub. ``Let's carry some beer and wine for the night,'' Peder said. ``And that'll be on my account.''We drank a few more rounds and topped it off with Indian dinner after midnight. Peder was all patience though he had to catch his flight at seven. He wouldn't be a freeloader either. Teaching stocks and bonds had made him fair and square in every transaction!
