Monday, November 4, 2013

If you don't mind!

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In 1971 there lived for a short while in our Faculty Hostel at IIT KGP, an English Lecturer, Basudev Ghosh. And in a few weeks I became his admirer for his scholarship in English Language and Literature, and for his caustic tongue.

One day when we got talking to each other, walking along the Salua Road, I happened to use the word: "nuance". He stopped in his tracks and stared at me in  amazement and said:

'You are a physics guy...how come you know the word, "nuance"?'

That was the typical attitude of Eng Lit professionals those days at IIT which they considered a place peopled with hammers, blowers, and soldering irons.

A decade later, "nuance" became a buzz word all over...

I recalled this today when I saw this 'anonymous' comment on the post: "Obstinacy":


Anonymous said...

I always wanted to have a Parsi surname! Daruwala or Batliwala or Bandookwala would have been my pick (no offence)! 





And I thought what a mighty difference it would make, in its nuances, had the comment been just:

Anonymous said...

I always wanted to have a Parsi surname! Daruwala or Batliwala or Bandookwala would have been my pick! 




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