Arguments

In the room, some words were uttered, which seemed to be coming from gents. The site gave the appearance of a bright yet dusky environment induced by the struggles between curiosities and corruption that lay inside the human hearts. 

Tink!

The gaffer put the coffee cup onto the table while he spits out with his hands cramped, "Group of incompetent dolts! Can't even hide the simple shreds of evidence."

There was a letter sleeping on the table with small flutterings as Malaya breathed giving it small pushes. He gawked at the letter once again and began reading it.

"To the head, there have been some fraudulent cases in previous years claiming diagrams of Quagga and other animals were sketched by the biology department under Prof Kumar." 

The more he read it, the more turbulent his emotions became. After some time, Malaya took a deep breath and finally suspired with a frayed expression, and voiced out, "You may enter!"

Amita barged into the room with pitter-patter steps displaying a desperate expression, while Prof Jonas followed with heavy stomps as Shekhar stood outside.

Jonas slowly pulled the chair for Amita while he gaped at Malaya, and sat slowly on the chair beside her. The clock slowly ran on the time while its tick-tick sound penetrated the silence alternatively. After some moments, Amita stood up.

"Hello Prof Malaya, I am Amita, Pursuing a post-doctoral position in biology under the guidance of Prof Kumar, and encountered some major issues of credibility regarding his recent sketches."

She spoke in a bit nervous voice but managed to convey her thoughts. Even after sitting back, one could observe her body slightly shaking from anxiety. Silence once again lingered in the room, as Malaya did not say a word in reply.

Tap!

Jonas put his palm on Amita's hand and gently squeezed it making her a bit comfortable while his prying eyes fell on Malaya's forehead. Malaya shook his head and took out a pen signing his name on the letter, and gave it to Jonas. 

Jonas took the letter and looked at him. "I will give some thoughts regarding this, now it's my time to check some old registers, you both can leave now," Malaya's deep voice echoed in the room.

"No!" Jonas relaxed his posture as he gestured towards Shekhar.

He stood up and took the marker from the table as he drew some of the structures on the whiteboard. "Prof Kumar faked and copied the sketches creating some sort of ground-breaking discovery in the world of extinct animal kingdom and made our country proud,"

"You, of all, were the one who advocated national-level awards for him. But now, you see the problem arising due to these investigations, and you're trying to delay the decision, that's not very noble of you, the filthy politics of the college are spoiling my student's future, and I can't bear to see that."

One could hear the mockery in Jonas's voice while he took the data sheet from Shekhar's hand."I wonder if you know this brilliant student from the mathematics department, he is Shekhar, your all-time favourite student. He has discovered solid evidence regarding your national award winner Prof Kumar, who is an incompetent beanut with no understanding whatsoever,"

Malaya stared at Shekhar and amiably asked him, "Is that true? "

Shekhar straightened up his chin, "Large amounts of stolen sketches have been found in the directory of the biology department, and I am very much sure that Prof Kumar has been stealing, compiling, and presenting as his own."

"But sometimes, many profs from outside took inspiration from various sources and compiled it, for that some of them got even international awards, so I don't think it's that much of a big deal, right?" Malaya put forward some documents which scattered flashes of brilliance of sources and their compilers named as scientists, not stealers.

"Of all these documents, not a single scientist who didn't derive something new, but in case it's very much visible he just put some unnecessary information and claimed it as his own," Shekhar let out his voice in a logical manner.

"Well, maybe I will admit he hid the information that he took inspiration from the source, but that doesn't mean you have any right to say that he put unnecessary information, you're a student of maths, not of biology, Shekhar," Malaya faced three of them in arguments.

One side kept pushing for shreds of evidence while the head did not budge from his stance and defended Prof Kumar with all his might. Even though Malaya realised that there was something shady with Prof Kumar's research, he did not mind it as long as it did not harm anyone.

Deep down, being the head of the most prestigious institute, he wanted to see innovations but the amount of funding they received from the government was pitifully low. If it wasn't for some recent simple discoveries, the government would not even spend half of the penny it had in its pocket.

"Oh cmon Malaya, It's common sense to see he didn't put anything useful," Jonas spread his arms in a disagreement manner.

"Prof Jonas, you have some beef with the biology department, I can't take your words as proof, I apologise," Malaya pointed the finger towards him.

Jonas was about to retort when Shekhar gestured for him to stop while Amita took out another diagram. "Then Head, there is this sketch I got from another university," She drew the diagram and inputted some new data on it. 

"The level of information I provided here on my own is no different from Prof Kumar's level, it's very much visible that it's unnecessary here," Amita spoke clearly as her grief let out her thoughts easily.

"You're his student and you know more than Prof Kumar, very lovely. I guess then this college's professors are not worth your time, Ms Amita," Malaya put a stern face this time.

One could feel the thirst of a human being who wanted to embark on the journey of knowledge, who considered himself to be an utter fool, and Malaya was no different than that.

But could he go against his own most famous professor in recent times, who was the main source of funding from the government, the answer was no.

"That's an excuse, sir! I don't think you can just shrug it off like that," Shekhar argued with Malaya.

"See Shekhar, The girl and Prof Jonas are clearly in a relationship and she is doing it because she wants revenge for him, don't wash your hands in it, you have a bright future ahead of you, don't ruin it," Malaya once again smiled gently.

"Malaya, I will not let it go away easily. If you wouldn't give any sort of judgment regarding this, I guess the Supreme Court is always open for us,"

Jonas spoke condescendingly. "And for verification, let's see if you can say a professor from Stanford has less knowledge than Kumar in the field of Biology,"

"Are you trying to involve another professor from outside of our country, Jonas, are you out of your damn mind?" Malaya looked at him with threatening eyes.

"Yes."