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Had you entered the Hallowed Hall of the high-ceiling-Central Library in the late 1960s (before the false ceiling came up) and took a leisurely stroll along its book-shelves, you would be amazed at the number of books 'Donated by Dr S R Sengupta' (say a thousand on random sampling).
This SRS was the Director @ IIT KGP when they made the fatal mistake of recruiting me (too late now). A stern and austere figure to look at but his Collection of Books spanned every subject under the Sun from Jeeves to the Royal Society Christmas Lectures like Perry's Spinning Tops & Gyroscopes and C V Boys's Soap Bubbles of which I talked in my Spin Series of Blogs.
Like so many famous public figures in Bengal those days, SRS was a Singlet; i.e. semi-educated: imagination seethes and boggles how many more thousands of books he would have collected and donated if he were a Doublet or even Multiplet like our Laloojee & his extended family {;-}
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Then there was this Professor of GG, about a decade my senior: Supriyo Mohan Sengupta. Whenever we met we talked of his collection of books; and whenever I mentioned an author of whom I read in Reviews and Quotes, he would reel out paragraphs from their books, stunning me.
He was just a Doublet; still, something is better...
*******************************************************************************
Then I come to my contemporary in GG, Professor Saradindu Sengupta.
My Friend & Bengali Language Guru of Ag E Professor Hrishikesh Das (Singlet again) taught me the rather little-known but Heavenly Konika: "poth bhabhe ami deb...".
I flaunted this to the Senior GG Sengupta mentioned above, and he had to look up his Rabindra Rachanavali.
But when I did the same to this Junior GG Sengupta on the cement bench under the Bodhi Tree of the Canteen, he stunned me by reciting its first half (untaught to me by HD): "Ratha jatra janaranyo...".
****************************************************************************
Then we have this Professor of Bio-Info @ JNU: Supratim Sengupta
....now that we have embarked on this Sengupta Convention, let us try and see how far we can go...
In addition to making me read two fat books of 500 pages each in a single post-retirement semester, he is threatening me thus:
"...Talking of which, I was wondering if you have a leftover copy of your first (?) booklet 'Limericks & Light Verses (2009)'. It was before I got back in touch with you and so I missed out on being a lucky recipient. If you have any leftover, I will greatly appreciate a copy. I was once thinking of creating my own edited version of your limerick collection, and I will probably do that if you don't have a copy left...." (italics mine)...
...Pure & Simple Arm-Twisting...
******************************************************************************************************
Let us now come to Professors Khastgir:
There are many... one of them was in the Phy Dept @ BHU during my childhood....rumor went that he was our Paper-Setter in Spectroscopy while I was larking about at AU....I must have failed miserably in that Part I if I know my Khastgirs... luckily we had this other Part II of Optics....
Like the Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr (Autocrat) & Jr (Supreme Court Judge) father-son duo, there are two more Physics Khastgir Professors in my ken....
Of their vast book-collection, let Junior Khastgir himself speak:
"...The most awful question I face frequently from new visitors is 'Have you read all these?'; I tell them 'Collecting books is my business'. (courtesy Raymond Chandler). The most interesting comment I got for books was from our colleague Prof. B. N. Das when he visited us for the first time: 'Progressive bujhi natun branch khuleche?'...('Looks like Progressive Book Stores has opened a new branch here)'..."
If you think Khastgirs are a different branch than the Sengupta Convention, you are sadly mistaken: they are like Tweedledum & Tweedledee...or like Felis Leo & Felis Tigris.... ask Pratik...
****************************************************************************************************
When I joined IIT KGP in 1965, my friend NP, then a Lecturer in ME, used to take me to his Lab; and once introduced me to the Lab Asst Nag Babu..a charming figure with soda-water-bottle spectacles and the default paan.
35 years or so later, NP was DD and Nag Babu STA (perhaps retired). NP visited Nag Babu's home to invite Nag Babu for his son's Wedding Reception; and found him studying a book keenly under his table lamp.
Rejoicing the timely visit of his old friend NP, Nag Babu apparently held forth on the book he was reading: History of the Vijayanagar Empire; to hold our DD spellbound for a good while before he could proceed with his Invite.
*****************************************************************************************************
Professor Amalendu Mukherjee of ME was younger to me by a few years. He was practically brought up in Rajasthan where his father was a Professor at a College.
Amalendu told me once that the abiding image he has of his father was that of a man wrapped in multiple shawls in the biting Rajasthani Winter and poring over fat books in the flickering light of a hurricane lamp long long into the wee hours of the morning.
One morning while I was gathering wool under the Bodhi-Mango-Neem Combo Tree of Harry's, Amalendu came in, sat beside me and asked for a penny worth of my wool.
And when I said that I was recalling Ishopanishad's famous verse:
....he asked me where he can find it......
I told him that the 1000 page Principal Upanishads by Radhakrishnan is available at the Progressive, he left at once, started his scooter, and was back in 10 minutes with a copy of the book...
**************************************************************************************************
This is just the tip of the bookberg...
******************************************************************************************************
The other day I saw a ticker in Yahoo News titled: "Indian American's book rated among the Top Ten Best Books by NYT".
Before clicking on it I bet with myself (always safe...it is a win-win..) that it is either a Mukherjee or a Sengupta (....Siddhartha or Gautam...the same fish...);
...and I won hands down:
"...Just three weeks after publication, Indian American cancer specialist Siddhartha Mukherjee's first book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' has been rated among 'The 10 Best Books of 2010' by the New York Times..."
****************************************************************************************************
The other evening I was in the Smoking Lounge of Drones Club and I collared Bertie and asked him:
"What is this thing between Books & Bengalis?"
He scoffed at my ignorance and replied:
===================================================================
Had you entered the Hallowed Hall of the high-ceiling-Central Library in the late 1960s (before the false ceiling came up) and took a leisurely stroll along its book-shelves, you would be amazed at the number of books 'Donated by Dr S R Sengupta' (say a thousand on random sampling).
This SRS was the Director @ IIT KGP when they made the fatal mistake of recruiting me (too late now). A stern and austere figure to look at but his Collection of Books spanned every subject under the Sun from Jeeves to the Royal Society Christmas Lectures like Perry's Spinning Tops & Gyroscopes and C V Boys's Soap Bubbles of which I talked in my Spin Series of Blogs.
Like so many famous public figures in Bengal those days, SRS was a Singlet; i.e. semi-educated: imagination seethes and boggles how many more thousands of books he would have collected and donated if he were a Doublet or even Multiplet like our Laloojee & his extended family {;-}
******************************************************************************
Then there was this Professor of GG, about a decade my senior: Supriyo Mohan Sengupta. Whenever we met we talked of his collection of books; and whenever I mentioned an author of whom I read in Reviews and Quotes, he would reel out paragraphs from their books, stunning me.
He was just a Doublet; still, something is better...
*******************************************************************************
Then I come to my contemporary in GG, Professor Saradindu Sengupta.
My Friend & Bengali Language Guru of Ag E Professor Hrishikesh Das (Singlet again) taught me the rather little-known but Heavenly Konika: "poth bhabhe ami deb...".
I flaunted this to the Senior GG Sengupta mentioned above, and he had to look up his Rabindra Rachanavali.
But when I did the same to this Junior GG Sengupta on the cement bench under the Bodhi Tree of the Canteen, he stunned me by reciting its first half (untaught to me by HD): "Ratha jatra janaranyo...".
****************************************************************************
Then we have this Professor of Bio-Info @ JNU: Supratim Sengupta
....now that we have embarked on this Sengupta Convention, let us try and see how far we can go...
In addition to making me read two fat books of 500 pages each in a single post-retirement semester, he is threatening me thus:
"...Talking of which, I was wondering if you have a leftover copy of your first (?) booklet 'Limericks & Light Verses (2009)'. It was before I got back in touch with you and so I missed out on being a lucky recipient. If you have any leftover, I will greatly appreciate a copy. I was once thinking of creating my own edited version of your limerick collection, and I will probably do that if you don't have a copy left...." (italics mine)...
...Pure & Simple Arm-Twisting...
******************************************************************************************************
Let us now come to Professors Khastgir:
There are many... one of them was in the Phy Dept @ BHU during my childhood....rumor went that he was our Paper-Setter in Spectroscopy while I was larking about at AU....I must have failed miserably in that Part I if I know my Khastgirs... luckily we had this other Part II of Optics....
Like the Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr (Autocrat) & Jr (Supreme Court Judge) father-son duo, there are two more Physics Khastgir Professors in my ken....
Of their vast book-collection, let Junior Khastgir himself speak:
"...The most awful question I face frequently from new visitors is 'Have you read all these?'; I tell them 'Collecting books is my business'. (courtesy Raymond Chandler). The most interesting comment I got for books was from our colleague Prof. B. N. Das when he visited us for the first time: 'Progressive bujhi natun branch khuleche?'...('Looks like Progressive Book Stores has opened a new branch here)'..."
If you think Khastgirs are a different branch than the Sengupta Convention, you are sadly mistaken: they are like Tweedledum & Tweedledee...or like Felis Leo & Felis Tigris.... ask Pratik...
****************************************************************************************************
When I joined IIT KGP in 1965, my friend NP, then a Lecturer in ME, used to take me to his Lab; and once introduced me to the Lab Asst Nag Babu..a charming figure with soda-water-bottle spectacles and the default paan.
35 years or so later, NP was DD and Nag Babu STA (perhaps retired). NP visited Nag Babu's home to invite Nag Babu for his son's Wedding Reception; and found him studying a book keenly under his table lamp.
Rejoicing the timely visit of his old friend NP, Nag Babu apparently held forth on the book he was reading: History of the Vijayanagar Empire; to hold our DD spellbound for a good while before he could proceed with his Invite.
*****************************************************************************************************
Professor Amalendu Mukherjee of ME was younger to me by a few years. He was practically brought up in Rajasthan where his father was a Professor at a College.
Amalendu told me once that the abiding image he has of his father was that of a man wrapped in multiple shawls in the biting Rajasthani Winter and poring over fat books in the flickering light of a hurricane lamp long long into the wee hours of the morning.
One morning while I was gathering wool under the Bodhi-Mango-Neem Combo Tree of Harry's, Amalendu came in, sat beside me and asked for a penny worth of my wool.
And when I said that I was recalling Ishopanishad's famous verse:
The face of Truth is covered by a golden disk;
Unveil it Pooshan so I, a lover of Truth, may have a peek!
Unveil it Pooshan so I, a lover of Truth, may have a peek!
....he asked me where he can find it......
I told him that the 1000 page Principal Upanishads by Radhakrishnan is available at the Progressive, he left at once, started his scooter, and was back in 10 minutes with a copy of the book...
**************************************************************************************************
This is just the tip of the bookberg...
******************************************************************************************************
The other day I saw a ticker in Yahoo News titled: "Indian American's book rated among the Top Ten Best Books by NYT".
Before clicking on it I bet with myself (always safe...it is a win-win..) that it is either a Mukherjee or a Sengupta (....Siddhartha or Gautam...the same fish...);
...and I won hands down:
"...Just three weeks after publication, Indian American cancer specialist Siddhartha Mukherjee's first book 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' has been rated among 'The 10 Best Books of 2010' by the New York Times..."
****************************************************************************************************
The other evening I was in the Smoking Lounge of Drones Club and I collared Bertie and asked him:
"What is this thing between Books & Bengalis?"
He scoffed at my ignorance and replied:
"It is them Hilsa they eat, Old Man...."
===================================================================
1 comment:
You are the true embodiment of the ageold saying ' Vidya dadati vinayam'. None can miss the great scholarship of yours while getting enlightened about the other ''bookbergs'.Exploring your blog is a perennial source of joy of knowing you more closely everytime.
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