The Three Cheers

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Abdul Mazeed, my erstwhile colleague at IIT KGP (he figures namelessly in one of my earlier blogs) told me this joke (before explaining to me the meaning of his name, 'Servant of the Glorious'):

Man and wife go to a Party. The Ladies gather in a group while the Men crowd around a VIP Guest.

Suddenly there is a burst of laughter from the Men's ring.

On their way home wife asks him why he was laughing uproariously. The husband replies: "I don't know. Everyone else was laughing at the VIP's joke. I too joined"

Just while falling asleep, the husband laughs again. Wife looks at him quizzically. "I just understood the joke"

Next morning just before getting up he laughs again. Wife is really curious. "I misunderstood the joke last night. What a fool I was!"

I find that there are three such cheers in Family Life too (read: 'sex')

When he waits long years, gets married, has his First Night, Honeymoon and cozy homecomings, he smiles and knows what Family Life is.

3 years later he gets an anxious telegram that his wife gifted him a son. He fights for leave with his boss, travels a 1000 KM, reaches the Leela Bai Maternity Home, his wife smiles and points to the crib, he pokes the newborn in his ribs, gets a knowing wink in return, he smiles again and and says to himself; "Oh, this is the meaning of Family Life".

He grows into impotence and senility and at 67, he gets a phone call and goes forth to his daughter-in-law's place, the son and his wife drop his grandkid gently into his fragile lap, he plants a wee kiss on his chubby fortnight-old granddaughter, he smiles again for the third time and knows finally THE Meaning of Family Life.

There are three cheers in the life of a teacher too:

When he struggles for long, finds a perfect Ph. D. guide, enjoys working for 5 years, gets glorious comments from a Caltech Professor, he smiles and knows this is what Acads is all about.

When he retires and gets an extra-special At-Home Farewell from his 'Students and Admirers' with a sweet memento etched to that effect, he smiles again and knows the meaning of a lifetime of teaching.

5 years later, when he has forgotten all Physics, takes to mindless blogging to beguile his idle hours and suddenly he gets a Comment like this from an anonymous grandstudent:

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Don Quixote said...

"As a KGP physics passout who never had the fortune of being a fellow woolgatherer with you while you still adorned the KGP campus, can I implore you to kindly expand 'DT', the rest I know"

April 19, 2010 12:49 AM

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he finally smiles again and understands the true fruit of his 40 years Labor of Love!

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