"...Any news that mentions the atoms becomes suspect these days. I only hope this does not mean that belligerent folk are going to be in possession of a new weapon; a combination of figures and symbols with which to paralyse the thinking powers of an enemy nation...."
......RKN (circa 1955)
****************************************************************************************************************
Once when all my world was young I was introduced by my M.A. (Economics) IAS B-i-L (Collector & District Magistrate) to his Assistant Collector (IAS), as another young Physics Graduate. The following is a snatch of dialogue between He and Me:
He: What is your current specialization?
Me: NQR...Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance
He: What is that?
Me: A cousin of NMR...Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
He: Ya, I understand...you must be working with Uranium, Thorium, Heavy Water and stuff...I was at BARC the other day
************************************************************************************************************
Another noon I was introduced to a Cashier at SBI, IIT KGP, who joined Banking after graduating in Physics a long while ago.
He: What are you working on these days, Sir?
Me: Cherenkov Effect
He: Does it come under Mechanics, Heat or Sound?
Me: Electricity & Magnetism
He: Ha! All those Swimming Man's and other Rules...very very complicated
**************************************************************************************************************
My wingmate in the Faculty Hostel at IIT KGP was employed as a Dairy Scientist at IIT KGP after doing his Post-Graduation from NDRI, Karnal. He had just returned from a one-year visit to the US, getting an MS in Dairy Technology there. He entered my room for a bit of chitchat and found me winding up the first Section of Introduction to my Ph D thesis...(I was young and immature and it started bombastically like: "It is amazing that the discoveries of the present century that did so much violence to our picture of matter and motion left Maxwell's Equations practically untouched...," a sentence that tickled my Guide SDM's formidable sense of prose).
My wingmate picked it up and started reading the two-page essay and remarked:
He: You have referred many times to Taylor, Fourier and Bessel
And winked ;-) and said:
He: Your Guide must be planning to send your thesis to them
Me: Could be
*******************************************************************************************************
After two months of arduous waiiting, I was sitting in the Banerjee Typing Center, packing up at last the typescript of my Ph D Thesis:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/05/shyama-o-shaymali.html
I was not only young but looked boyish then. A QIP (Quality Improvement Program) Lecturer in Mech Engg (from Raipur), fortyish, entered the Center puffing on his fag and looking very Senior. And asked Shankar-da if his Ph D Thesis typing is over. Shankar-da said, Yes, only the Acknowledgment is left; and quit the room for refilling his snuff box.
Here is the dialogue we had meanwhile:
He: Are you here for your M Tech Thesis typing?
Me: Ph D thesis in Physics
He: Is the typing over?
Me: Just now
He: What is that in your hand?
Me: Acknowledgments
He: (puffing away nonchalantly) Let me have a look
He then browsed through the single page quickly, sat down, and read it slowly, and said:
He: Can I copy it?
Me: Sure
And he was copying it ferociously as Shankar-da returned and smiled. The first sentence was again poetic like: "Words do not suffice to express my profound gratitude to Professor S Datta Majumdar for his close supervision and constant guidance but for which this thesis would never have been written..."
And after a few minutes, he asked Shankar-da to tear off his earlier draft and replace it with this new one.
I can only hope he changed all the names aright, in particular, in the last sentence: "Thanks are due to my father G Radhakrishnaiah for going through the Introduction closely with his blue-pencil..."
My friend Prof NP of the same Mech Engg Department will attest to the truth of the above episode...
**************************************************************************************************************
Tailpiece
One evening while I was waiting for Shayma Babu in the Banerjee Typing Center a young Research Scholar arrived and asked Shankar-da if his Fourth Chapter is ready. This is the dialogue that followed:
Shankar-da: Heyn...kinthu ekti doubt aachey ek jagaythe...eta dekhoon...million hectares hobey kimba billion hectares?
RS: Dekhi...eta ami senior thesis thekey tookeychi...apnaar ki moneihoy?
Shankar-da: Billion ti hovaa uchit
RS: Thayi type koroon..
============================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment