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I was saying that cataract is a fuzziness of eyesight coeval with old age.
Old age is all about fuzziness and Keatsian autumnal mellowness and and Shakespearean ripeness.
Man starts with his views on everything black and white. And as he grows, things moral, mental, ethical, spiritual and social acquire tones of grey...till he becomes a doddering Lord Emsworth if he lives long enough.
This is true in politics...mostly in the BJP politics.
The canonical vikas-purush started off as a firm swayamsevak and mellowed down to govern with some success a weird Jumbo coalition of a weird Jumbo country with a record-breaking 24 parties of all regional hues.
The canonical loh-purush had to yield place as a not-so-loh Home Minister. But as he ripened he went overboard on a visit to his country of birth and started praising a taboo man and ended up losing some of his loh-sheen permanently...till he was gradually ousted and replaced by the current rising star of the party that he had built from scratch.
This star started as a neo-loh-purush but found it expedient to metamorphose into a vikas-purush as he grew up. And now he vacillates as a linear combination of the two...much like the electron which was supposed to be a particle and a wave on alternate week days.
Not that the Congress is much different...the current incumbent of the government chair is undecided as to whether he would retire gracefully or not. And the amount of patience he exhibits with nonchalance to all that is ungraceful in his ministry is truly monumental...a paean to his old age.
It is no different in academics...at least at IIT KGP when I was there.
Students loved to be taught by young teachers but evaluated by senior professors. Young teachers are energetic and enthusiastic and mix well with students but strict in their marking...no elasticity there.
While senior professors teach old subjects in old ways with chalk and blackboard instead of PCs and power-point. But set easy questions, grade liberally and give high-fi recos. They are amenable to bargains. There was a senior professor in Chemistry who would pass a failed student when the student pleads that he has his whole life to learn the benzene ring and its derivatives but a year's backlog is irreversible.
I myself grew mellow gradually as I proceeded from a young Associate Lecturer of 21 to an old Professor of 62. In my first year of teaching I was attacking the blackboard relentlessly, rehearsed my lectures, was into practiced theatrics giving no time for students to think but applaud. But I was kanjoos with marks and never changed the grade I gave.
In my valedictory year at 62 I took a Summer Quarter (for 22 failed students). During the whole Quarter I never left my chair during my lectures. Made them do 200 problems in the class and at home. And made them learn too. And gave away 2 Ex grades, 15 A grades and the rest B grades. I was told folks in the IIT faculty were scandalized by my liberal grading of failed students but of course nothing happened.
Same story in the administration as well.
During the early 1970s there were quite a few girl students in the SN Hall but no lady professor to be appointed as Warden...there was this rule that every Hall had to have a Senior Professor as a Warden. So, a male greying professor, with poor eyesight as well, was appointed the Warden of the ladies hostel. And he was supported by two young lady Lecturers as Assistant Wardens.
And boys were allowed to loiter in the lawns of the ladies hostel till 7 PM chatting with their girl-friends. But they had to quit the hostel premises after that.
And there was this case when a certain young man was taken to her single room by his girl classmate and entertained for an hour which was as against the rules as Mary's Lamb following her to her school.
And it happened that time went too fast and it was 9 PM by the time their chat finished. And then they decided to continue it till daybreak.
But of course the other girls in the wing didn't like it and reported the matter the next day to their lady Assistant Wardens. Who promptly reported the matter to their male Warden with advice of strict penal action on the pair.
And the Senior Male Warden called the boy and asked him (adjusting his specs):
"Don't you know that it is against the rules to overstay for the night in the ladies hostel?"
"No, sir!"
"Yes, it is!"
"Sorry, sir!"
"Don't do it again, all right?"
"OK, sir!"
"You may go!"
"Thank you, Sirrrr!"
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Old age is all about fuzziness and Keatsian autumnal mellowness and and Shakespearean ripeness.
Man starts with his views on everything black and white. And as he grows, things moral, mental, ethical, spiritual and social acquire tones of grey...till he becomes a doddering Lord Emsworth if he lives long enough.
This is true in politics...mostly in the BJP politics.
The canonical vikas-purush started off as a firm swayamsevak and mellowed down to govern with some success a weird Jumbo coalition of a weird Jumbo country with a record-breaking 24 parties of all regional hues.
The canonical loh-purush had to yield place as a not-so-loh Home Minister. But as he ripened he went overboard on a visit to his country of birth and started praising a taboo man and ended up losing some of his loh-sheen permanently...till he was gradually ousted and replaced by the current rising star of the party that he had built from scratch.
This star started as a neo-loh-purush but found it expedient to metamorphose into a vikas-purush as he grew up. And now he vacillates as a linear combination of the two...much like the electron which was supposed to be a particle and a wave on alternate week days.
Not that the Congress is much different...the current incumbent of the government chair is undecided as to whether he would retire gracefully or not. And the amount of patience he exhibits with nonchalance to all that is ungraceful in his ministry is truly monumental...a paean to his old age.
It is no different in academics...at least at IIT KGP when I was there.
Students loved to be taught by young teachers but evaluated by senior professors. Young teachers are energetic and enthusiastic and mix well with students but strict in their marking...no elasticity there.
While senior professors teach old subjects in old ways with chalk and blackboard instead of PCs and power-point. But set easy questions, grade liberally and give high-fi recos. They are amenable to bargains. There was a senior professor in Chemistry who would pass a failed student when the student pleads that he has his whole life to learn the benzene ring and its derivatives but a year's backlog is irreversible.
I myself grew mellow gradually as I proceeded from a young Associate Lecturer of 21 to an old Professor of 62. In my first year of teaching I was attacking the blackboard relentlessly, rehearsed my lectures, was into practiced theatrics giving no time for students to think but applaud. But I was kanjoos with marks and never changed the grade I gave.
In my valedictory year at 62 I took a Summer Quarter (for 22 failed students). During the whole Quarter I never left my chair during my lectures. Made them do 200 problems in the class and at home. And made them learn too. And gave away 2 Ex grades, 15 A grades and the rest B grades. I was told folks in the IIT faculty were scandalized by my liberal grading of failed students but of course nothing happened.
Same story in the administration as well.
During the early 1970s there were quite a few girl students in the SN Hall but no lady professor to be appointed as Warden...there was this rule that every Hall had to have a Senior Professor as a Warden. So, a male greying professor, with poor eyesight as well, was appointed the Warden of the ladies hostel. And he was supported by two young lady Lecturers as Assistant Wardens.
And boys were allowed to loiter in the lawns of the ladies hostel till 7 PM chatting with their girl-friends. But they had to quit the hostel premises after that.
And there was this case when a certain young man was taken to her single room by his girl classmate and entertained for an hour which was as against the rules as Mary's Lamb following her to her school.
And it happened that time went too fast and it was 9 PM by the time their chat finished. And then they decided to continue it till daybreak.
But of course the other girls in the wing didn't like it and reported the matter the next day to their lady Assistant Wardens. Who promptly reported the matter to their male Warden with advice of strict penal action on the pair.
And the Senior Male Warden called the boy and asked him (adjusting his specs):
"Don't you know that it is against the rules to overstay for the night in the ladies hostel?"
"No, sir!"
"Yes, it is!"
"Sorry, sir!"
"Don't do it again, all right?"
"OK, sir!"
"Thank you, Sirrrr!"
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