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A month after I joined the brahmin wing of research at our university in Vizagh, I saw a gentleman who had just then returned from Michigan State University. Dr CRKM was then a Reader at our university back from his sabbatical year. He drove an ancient jalopy, wore jeans pants (unheard of then at Vizagh), smoked Marlboro cigarettes (leftovers from his US visit) and was very Yankee in his speech and manners. He looked very much a Chaplin clone but I found him a very dedicated researcher in NQR experiments.
He met me one day in my room and handed me what he called Dean's Thesis just out in the US. And asked me to make a hard copy of the entire thesis for the benefit of all the scholars in our lab. The entire thesis was enclosed in a small box the size of a cassette record container. And he said it was a microfilm that he got as a gift from Dean...and the blurb on the box read:
"University Microfilms Limited, Michigan"
And he asked me to go to our brand new Central Library building which had a Microfilm Reader. I was simply charmed that a thesis of 200 odd pages could be squeezed inside a cigarette box...remember I am a village kid.
The next day I visited the Library and was told that the new microfilm-reader was housed in an air-conditioned cubicle in the basement. And found a liveried attendant manning its entrance who asked me to wait since the microfilm-reader was 'engaged'. I cooled my heels hanging around here and there till a couple of Eng Lit scholars emerged from the cubicle. I couldn't find any microfilm box in their hands but only broad smiles on their faces...they tipped the attendant handsomely on their way out.
I was then allowed to enter the A/C cubicle and was told to get my job done and quit within an hour! And I found on a centered table a device the size of a B&W TV of a later era. And opened the packet and inserted it into the assigned slot...and lo and behold, the entire thesis appeared on the screen blown up page after page just by pressing the 'next page' button.
It took me all of 3 months to make a hard copy of the damn thing in my note book...circuit diagrams, sample holders, graphs and tables included. That was the kind of research I was engaged in for the next 2 years till I ran away happily and went to IIT KGP where I was asked to teach the best of students without getting thrown out bodily...something I relished a 100 times more than hand-copying Dean's thesis...whoever that Dean was...Google tells me his first name is Charles...bless him!
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A month after I joined the brahmin wing of research at our university in Vizagh, I saw a gentleman who had just then returned from Michigan State University. Dr CRKM was then a Reader at our university back from his sabbatical year. He drove an ancient jalopy, wore jeans pants (unheard of then at Vizagh), smoked Marlboro cigarettes (leftovers from his US visit) and was very Yankee in his speech and manners. He looked very much a Chaplin clone but I found him a very dedicated researcher in NQR experiments.
He met me one day in my room and handed me what he called Dean's Thesis just out in the US. And asked me to make a hard copy of the entire thesis for the benefit of all the scholars in our lab. The entire thesis was enclosed in a small box the size of a cassette record container. And he said it was a microfilm that he got as a gift from Dean...and the blurb on the box read:
"University Microfilms Limited, Michigan"
And he asked me to go to our brand new Central Library building which had a Microfilm Reader. I was simply charmed that a thesis of 200 odd pages could be squeezed inside a cigarette box...remember I am a village kid.
The next day I visited the Library and was told that the new microfilm-reader was housed in an air-conditioned cubicle in the basement. And found a liveried attendant manning its entrance who asked me to wait since the microfilm-reader was 'engaged'. I cooled my heels hanging around here and there till a couple of Eng Lit scholars emerged from the cubicle. I couldn't find any microfilm box in their hands but only broad smiles on their faces...they tipped the attendant handsomely on their way out.
I was then allowed to enter the A/C cubicle and was told to get my job done and quit within an hour! And I found on a centered table a device the size of a B&W TV of a later era. And opened the packet and inserted it into the assigned slot...and lo and behold, the entire thesis appeared on the screen blown up page after page just by pressing the 'next page' button.
It took me all of 3 months to make a hard copy of the damn thing in my note book...circuit diagrams, sample holders, graphs and tables included. That was the kind of research I was engaged in for the next 2 years till I ran away happily and went to IIT KGP where I was asked to teach the best of students without getting thrown out bodily...something I relished a 100 times more than hand-copying Dean's thesis...whoever that Dean was...Google tells me his first name is Charles...bless him!
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