"...'Try another Subtraction sum. Take a bone from a dog: what remains?'
Alice considered. `The bone wouldn't remain, of course, if I took it -- and the dog wouldn't remain; it would come to bite me -- and I'm sure I shouldn't remain!'
`Then you think nothing would remain?' said the Red Queen.
`I think that's the answer.'
`Wrong, as usual,' said the Red Queen: `the dog's temper would remain.'
`But I don't see how -- '
`Why, look here!' the Red Queen cried. `The dog would lose its temper, wouldn't it?'
`Perhaps it would,' Alice replied cautiously.
`Then if the dog went away, its temper would remain!' the Queen exclaimed triumphantly..."
.........Alice Through The Looking Glass
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Lord Krishna was ever the naughty boy...he knew everything past, present and future as He declared in Gita. So He was the embodiment of composure...ever smiling.
But He famously lost His temper once and that too in the battle field of Kurukshetra where He accepted the Position of the Charioteer of His B-i-L Arjun. There was this tacit agreement between the two that Krishna would expertly drive Arjun through the enemy lines and keep giving tactical and strategic advice to Arjun; but never would take up arms and start attacking the Kauravas.
Everything went on well in the beginning but the fight between Arjun and his granpa, the venerable Bhishma was turning out to be one-sided. Arjun couldn't cope with the missiles of Bhishma, and Krishna was getting irritated. According to one version of Mahabharat, one of the missiles grazed past Krishna Himself while Arjun could do nothing to protect his charioteer which is supposed to be the primary duty of a warrior.
THEN, Krishna loses His temper, curses Arjun for his pusillanimity, forgets His solemn promise not to take up arms, jumps down His chariot, calls up His Wheel and was about to launch it; while Bhishma jumps down his chariot, kneels in reverence to Krishna declaring that his mission in life would be fulfilled if it takes the Lord Himself to vanquish him; and Arjun jumps down his chariot, chases his B-i-L with profuse apologies and entreats Him to heed His promise and please turn back to His driver's seat...which He does after His temper cools down.
The description of this dramatic episode is wonderfully done and sung in Telugu by that absolutely adorable artist Balamurali Krishna: "Kuppinchi Egasina..."
http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/album/A0002009.html*************************************************************************************************************
The sight of handsome Krishna losing His temper must have been delightful.
Unfortunately, the sight of all persons whom I watched while they were losing their temper was anything but delightful...most people look uglier than they are when they lose their temper and throw tantrums.
Except one.
That was Professor KVR. He was very very fair, delightfully rotund, extremely courteous...almost to a fault, smiling and bowing and exuding cheer and goodwill...except when he was enraged, which was often. As I mentioned before:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/09/protocol.html
he was a stickler for his own version of protocol.
But when he lost temper, his red face would GLOW like a furnace, his words would flow like a Niagara, his white hair would turn red...all in all it was a beautiful sight to watch. But he would be himself in a couple of minutes and smile. This sequence used to happen invariably in Faculty Meetings while he was chairing them as HoD.
Once, Professor CLR was a wee late and entered the Seminar Room casually, but was stunned when KVR rebuked him as if he was a student of his final year Dielectrics class. And, before CLR could recover, KVR asked him to "Sit down!"; and Professor BKS, the earlier HoD had to intervene and cajole CLR who was preparing to stage a walkout.
I generally used to cut all Faculty Meetings, but during KVR's tenure, I used to go early, take a back seat and pray that KVR would lose his temper, which he did; just to watch the alchemy of his face.
KVR once narrated to me the famous episode when he was a Junior RS in B C Roy Hall. He was upset with the poor quality of mess food, and one day he barged into the Assistant Warden's Room and started shouting at him. It just happened that the Warden, who was the Seniormost Professor and No 2 in the IIT Hierarchy happened to walk in and finding the young chap losing his cool, attempted to cajole him and lovingly placed his arm across the young KVR's shoulder. KVR turned around, brushed off the Warden's hand from his shoulder as if it was a lizard, and asked him never to repeat it. The good old Warden didn't know what hit him and KVR staged a walkout before everyone could gather their senses.
KVR also told me the episode when he himself was at the receiving end. That was 20 years later when he became the Warden of the selfsame B C Roy Hall. Apparently he threw a tantrum in public and abused the Hall President for his indecent attire.
They had a GBM and a No-Confidence Motion was passed against KVR.
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I don't remember to have lost my temper at KGP except with one HoD, which episode I described in one of my earlier blogs...I forget which.
After settling down in Hyderabad there was only one occasion when I blew my top. And that was against a Traffic Policeman. The chap was so taken by surprise that he didn't know what hit him...otherwise I could have been hauled up.
That was one morning at around 9 when I was driving my good old Maruti to drop my D-i-L at her Office in Balanagar. It was peak commute time and the Y-junction at Balanagar was notorious for its traffic snarls. As I approached the junction and was taking a right turn, I noticed that the Traffic Cop deserted his post and was buying a beedi maybe and chatting up the sales girl...he kept the traffic on auto-pilot...i.e. signals.
And I didn't see the signal turning amber, so I moved on and was stranded plumb in the middle of the oncoming traffic with horns screaming and truck drivers howling.
The Cop heard the noise and ran in to me and brusquely ordered me to drive into the kerb. I kept my cool and refused to do so, but asked him to give me the challan. He didn't have the challan book on him...maybe he left it with the sales girl. The traffic went pell-mell and he started shouting.
I then lost my temper and shouted back in such fluent English of which he could make out only the words: 'beedi' and 'sales girl' and 'duty' and 'Commissioner of Police'.
Gruffly he asked me to get going...which I did.
That was the only time when my D-i-L watched my rage...and that serves the purpose {;-}
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From DC today:
"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children"
....Charles R Swindoll
gps: If you are a teacher, replace: 'children' with 'students'.
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