Cancers

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No, this is not about the deadly diseases that go by that name; nor the folks born under that Zodiacal symbol.

This is about crabs and crablike folks in my academic life.

One of the major shocks of my childhood was my visit to the sea beach at Vizagh at the age of 4 at eventide. Like any kid of that age, I was fascinated by the first one I saw. I rushed towards him trying to catch and make friends. I was aghast when he made a neat perpendicular run into his hole. I was stunned that his legs point one way and his run an entirely different.

I didn't check, but maybe this is how the deadly disease got its name. It appears, say, as a lump on the shoulder. You try and remove it and it slips and reappears in the groin...

In short, as one of my ex-students fondly labeled me recently: 'a slippery customer'

Before I forget: This kid who did his Project under me, took a 3-year Jumbo course along with me and rose to be a Professor cautioned an innocent colleague of his who was trying to make me 'work': "Forget about it: gps is a slippery customer. I tried to make him write an Optics book with me after his retirement, but he gave me a neat slip on telephone praising me sky-high but the message was clear: Hands off!"

He is right and why not? Slipping away from people who wanted me to work was my specialization at IIT KGP. But I was deeply wounded when a customer who was more slippery conferred this title on me long ago.

It was this way: This gray eminence was a most reputed GR researcher in the Math Dept. Unfortunately for us (and maybe fortunately for the Math Dept) there was no vacancy of a Professor Post in his parent department which he eminently deserved. The then Director did the famous Parkinsonian Lateral Arabesque and promoted him as a Professor in Phy Dept, because GR had the name of Einstein tagged with it and Einstein dabbled in Physics too.

That was the beginning of the end. Instead of continuing his GR work, he tried to learn and do research in QM at the age of 50. SDM retired just then and his mantle somehow fell on DB (richly deserving) and me (richly undeserved). He started with reading up Dirac. And taking lectures in it for all those who wished to learn the subject from a Mathematician's point of view. He tried to induce several people to attend his classes. DB flatly said no. So did CLR. So did several other Theoreticians. He tried to catch me and have me. Unfortunately I could never say a blunt no to anyone but used to send signals by body language and other subtle means. He mistook it and pestered me till I attended one of his classes and nodded my top the wrong way, as it turned out. He misread that too and thought that I would continue attending his classes.

After a couple of weeks I was told that he declared aloud in public: "gps is a slippery customer".

Anyway it is good that wisdom dawns on one later than sooner.

There was this kid who did his M. Sc. Project under me and left for Calcutta. As it turned out, I got busy then solving Irodov problems for 2 years. Then I picked up the old M. Sc. theses and it turned out that his thesis led to 4 papers jointly with me. I used to send him reprints to his Cal address. He was a litle taken back and somehow felt that he didn't deserve all of them or so (he was fresh and didn't know the collaboration game). Since then he never touched base at KGP again for 20 odd years till I left. He never acknowledged receipt of those reprints. But whenever anyone from KGP happened to meet him, he would remember me and threaten that he would be coming to KGP next weekend to meet me. That never happened!

After SDM left KGP, at least half a dozen Professors (including DB) tried to make me work with them and write research papers, but they got to know know the hard way: "gps is a crab!"

The antithesis of Cancer is the Capricorn. Etymologically it means: 'Battering Ram'

If you wish to meet one of this species, visit:

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http://patihas.blogspot.com/2010/03/hassled.html?utm_source=feedbur
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Thank You!

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