Escapades

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Psalm 90:10

King James Version (KJV)

....The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away...

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No, don't worry, this isn't going to be a gloomy blog.

But my Father was always referring to this 'threescores and ten' but he lived exactly to 'fourscores'; and I intend to break his record.

It just happens that the other day I inched up closer to the Biblical 'threescore and ten'.

And how!!!

There is a strong streak of escapism in my Y genes.

As I described in an earlier post, an Uncle of my Father, called affectionately Kashi Mama, ran away from his home in his teens and resurfaced twelve years later by when he was an accomplished Junior Panda at Benares where he lived and died till he was 'fourscores and ten':

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/02/propitiation.html

But few of my generation were that accomplished in their escapades which were terribly short-lived (except my extended 'trip' to Bengal which was of 'twoscores'; and how!).

My paternal cousin, a couple of years older to me, ran away from home because his school teacher poked fun of his tonsured head. There was a boy-hunt for three days when he was discovered loitering on the railway platform of a town a hundred miles away.

"...If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Lord I'm one, Lord I'm two, Lord I'm three,
Lord I'm four I'm 500 miles away from home

Not a shirt on my back
Not a penny to my name
Lord I can't go back this a'way
This a'way, this a'way, this a'way, this a'way
Lord I can't go back this a'way..."

http://www.lyricstime.com/campbell-glenn-500-miles-away-from-home-lyrics.html

Like me, he too ran away later, but again to Benares to retire as a Professor at BHU after 'twoscore years'.

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My elder sister, a couple of years older to me, was blessed with a horoscope that said she will be an adventurous sort till she grew to ten, and may meet with a watery grave before that.

And then I was born with a horoscope that said I would be the meekest of the meek (and so inherit the Earth, Biblicaly speaking).

And my parents decided to admit me in my sister's girl school as an escort and a spy.

And on our way to school, she would dump her school bag on my lap and ask me to stay on the bank of a notorious pond on our way. And she would walk down the mossy steps to 'wash' her feet in the water...all the while I crying quietly. And she would return and threaten me with all sorts of chastisements if I squeal to our parents.

That, sort of, started me on the dozens of moral dilemmas that are unresolved to this day.

And, after school, she wouldn't return home, but drag me along with her on an unplanned excursion to the nearby mango grove that belonged to the Village Reddy. There would be a search party and when we were retrieved, it was me that got the thrashing...girl kids are let off with a severe rebuke.

One early morning when a temple fair was on, she dragged me from my bed to accompany her, without even brushing our teeth. A search party discovered us an hour later and both of us were jailed my HM Father in the junk room till our loving auntie released us on the sly.

But she shed all her adventurous spirit suddenly and grew to be the ideal partner of an IAS adventurer, and retired as a Professor of Microbiology.

Bengal was an eye opener to me. During my seven year stint at my Andhra University, neither students nor teachers could enter our HoD's Office without prior appointment, which was routinely denied by his Chitragupt Secretary.

But, the very first day I joined IIT KGP as a junior faculty, our HNB invited me in, asked me to take a seat (!!!) and talked like a fond uncle about my welfare.

And throughout his tenure his Office was an Open House for all and sundry.

I too kept an Open House to my students.

One of my cherished students is the HoD now. And he called me on Teachers' Day a week or so ago and invited me to the Diamond Jubilee Get -Together of Physics Alumni coming up on Dec 3.

For more info, mail to:

physkr@phy.iitkgp.ernet.in
pratik@phy.iitkgp.ernet.in


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