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Life is funny...when you ask for ghee it gives you water; when you ask for water it gives you ghee; when you ask for both it gives you olive oil and coke; and what it giveth with one hand it taketh away with the other.
Then there was this Prince Nala. He was taking a stroll in his garden one evening and finds a milk-white swan snoozing behind a bush for his forty winks. Nala slyly approaches and catches the swan. The swan is taken aback and begs Nala to free him, which of course Nala refuses to do. Then the swan tempts him saying that if he releases him, he would do him an immense good turn...Princess Damayanti, the most beautiful of all girls, is about to announce her Swayamvara in which she invites whosoever wishes to marry her to gather in a public auditorium where she would make her choice with a garland, acting as a One-Woman Selection Committee.
And the swan says he would go to Damayanti and praise Nala pumping up his looks, courage, nobility etc and plead his cause with Damayanti.
Nala agrees and the swan meets Damayanti and gives him such a terrific reco that Damayanti decides to marry him and none else but him.
A day before the Swayamvara, four demi-gods who wished to participate in it and win Damayanti discover that Nala had already won the first round. So they cunningly get hold of Nala announcing that they were gods that can ruin or bless him and so he should obey their command, go to Damayanti's palace wearing a ring they give him that makes him invisible for the nonce, and praise each of them and convince Damayanti to choose one of them and none else.
So, Nala enters the palace of Damayanti incognito and in turn praises the qualities of Agni, Vayu, Varun, and Indra (the perennial sucker) sky-high. But Damayanati is a tough kid and she asks Nala:
"Why do you want me to marry them when all I want is to marry Nala?"
"They are gods, you know, while Nala is a mere mortal!"
"Oh, I am like a thirsty woman asking for water and you are offering me ghee instead!"
You can Google for the rest of the story in case you haven't already.
And then there was this 12-year-old naughty boy, Nachiketa, who catches his father cheating and giving away old, sick, and dry cows as gifts to Brahmins keeping the healthy ones to himself. Nachiketa teases his father saying he can as well give away his own son, asking:
"To whom will you give me away?"
His father gets angry and curses:
"To Yama, the Lord of Death!"
And swoosh...Nachiketa reaches Yamaloka and waits for three days and nights without food or water and finally gets an appointment with Yama himself. Yama is pleased with the boy and grants him three boons asking him to choose whatever he wants. Nachiketa first asks his father to be mollified, second that all his ancestors should be sent to Heaven right away. Yama is pleased to grant him these two simple boons and asks him for the third.
Nachiketa then asks Yama to tell him the secret of life and death and what really happens to one after she leaves her body here on earth.
Yama is trapped since that happens to be his trade secret and certainly he doesn't wish to reveal it...IPR and all that.
Instead, Yama asks Nachiketa to choose gold, land, women...anything...anything but THAT!
Nachiketa refuses to oblige and Yama had to ultimately reveal ALL.
No ghee...just simple water.
Not much is known of what happened to Nachiketa then on...our sacred books are sloppy in the aftermaths.
After 5 of my six sisters got married, I was ready for my own marriage and asked my parents to find a suitable bride.
And the day I next reached Gudur, my Father showed me a letter written by the Grandfather of one Rukmini proposing her for an alliance with gps whose Resume' it seems they got hold of in the inter-family-web.
I asked my Father:
"What are the qualifications of this Rukmini?"
"She is an MBBS and doing her final year MD thesis"
"I asked you for drinking water and you are offering me ghee instead. What will I do with an MD in Microbiology in the god-forsaken Campus of IIT KGP...a BA in English would do...she could then teach kids in the St Agnes School to while away her boring leisure. Please write to the gentleman thanking him but with a firm NO!"
And then I traveled to Nellore to fetch one of my pregnant sisters home. And while there, another sister of mine and her Medical-College-Librarian-husband pumped up Rukmini's qualities to such an extent that as soon as I returned to Gudur that evening, I asked my Father:
"Have you written that regret-letter?"
"Sorry, no...I will do it right away"
"Oh, no! Don't!!!"
And that is how I married a ghee-and-water combo a la carte.
Towards the end of the 1980s there was a terrific demand from students of M.Sc. at IIT KGP Phy Dept for an Elective on General Relativity. They were all mesmerized by blackholes, quasars, CMBR, Big Bang and such. There WAS a GR course in the Math Dept which they didn't like because it was all math and had no physics in it.
So the batch of Somnath caught hold of me and asked me if I was ready to give such an Elective. At that time I was reading and working out Weinberg's tome for pleasure and told them I would be willing to give such a course but not go through the administrative wrangles that it would entail.
So, that whole batch gave a written and signed appeal to the HoD to introduce such an Elective in their final year mentioning that gps was ready. Prof KVR was the HoD then and somehow or other he didn't like the idea and it didn't go through the Senate.
I felt happy enough and relieved. But Prof KVR thought I was hurt and approached me with a counter-proposal:
"I can give you the Prep Course (the -1 level) next semester"
"I don't want it"
"There is money in it...Rs 120 as honorarium"
"No, thanx!"
"It is my order!"
"Ok, fine then...but can I give out some Review Projects to interested Final Year students on General Relativity?"
Then KVR's face turned black and blue since he couldn't very well say no to such a watered-down proposal:
"Oh, OK...OK...OK..."
That was how I got water when I asked for ghee. But it was good because for the next six years till youngsters joined and things changed, I got to guide some very very keen and gifted students, like this one:
June 29, 2011 Cardiff
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Life is funny...when you ask for ghee it gives you water; when you ask for water it gives you ghee; when you ask for both it gives you olive oil and coke; and what it giveth with one hand it taketh away with the other.
Then there was this Prince Nala. He was taking a stroll in his garden one evening and finds a milk-white swan snoozing behind a bush for his forty winks. Nala slyly approaches and catches the swan. The swan is taken aback and begs Nala to free him, which of course Nala refuses to do. Then the swan tempts him saying that if he releases him, he would do him an immense good turn...Princess Damayanti, the most beautiful of all girls, is about to announce her Swayamvara in which she invites whosoever wishes to marry her to gather in a public auditorium where she would make her choice with a garland, acting as a One-Woman Selection Committee.
And the swan says he would go to Damayanti and praise Nala pumping up his looks, courage, nobility etc and plead his cause with Damayanti.
Nala agrees and the swan meets Damayanti and gives him such a terrific reco that Damayanti decides to marry him and none else but him.
A day before the Swayamvara, four demi-gods who wished to participate in it and win Damayanti discover that Nala had already won the first round. So they cunningly get hold of Nala announcing that they were gods that can ruin or bless him and so he should obey their command, go to Damayanti's palace wearing a ring they give him that makes him invisible for the nonce, and praise each of them and convince Damayanti to choose one of them and none else.
So, Nala enters the palace of Damayanti incognito and in turn praises the qualities of Agni, Vayu, Varun, and Indra (the perennial sucker) sky-high. But Damayanati is a tough kid and she asks Nala:
"Why do you want me to marry them when all I want is to marry Nala?"
"They are gods, you know, while Nala is a mere mortal!"
"Oh, I am like a thirsty woman asking for water and you are offering me ghee instead!"
You can Google for the rest of the story in case you haven't already.
And then there was this 12-year-old naughty boy, Nachiketa, who catches his father cheating and giving away old, sick, and dry cows as gifts to Brahmins keeping the healthy ones to himself. Nachiketa teases his father saying he can as well give away his own son, asking:
"To whom will you give me away?"
His father gets angry and curses:
"To Yama, the Lord of Death!"
And swoosh...Nachiketa reaches Yamaloka and waits for three days and nights without food or water and finally gets an appointment with Yama himself. Yama is pleased with the boy and grants him three boons asking him to choose whatever he wants. Nachiketa first asks his father to be mollified, second that all his ancestors should be sent to Heaven right away. Yama is pleased to grant him these two simple boons and asks him for the third.
Nachiketa then asks Yama to tell him the secret of life and death and what really happens to one after she leaves her body here on earth.
Yama is trapped since that happens to be his trade secret and certainly he doesn't wish to reveal it...IPR and all that.
Instead, Yama asks Nachiketa to choose gold, land, women...anything...anything but THAT!
Nachiketa refuses to oblige and Yama had to ultimately reveal ALL.
No ghee...just simple water.
Not much is known of what happened to Nachiketa then on...our sacred books are sloppy in the aftermaths.
After 5 of my six sisters got married, I was ready for my own marriage and asked my parents to find a suitable bride.
And the day I next reached Gudur, my Father showed me a letter written by the Grandfather of one Rukmini proposing her for an alliance with gps whose Resume' it seems they got hold of in the inter-family-web.
I asked my Father:
"What are the qualifications of this Rukmini?"
"She is an MBBS and doing her final year MD thesis"
"I asked you for drinking water and you are offering me ghee instead. What will I do with an MD in Microbiology in the god-forsaken Campus of IIT KGP...a BA in English would do...she could then teach kids in the St Agnes School to while away her boring leisure. Please write to the gentleman thanking him but with a firm NO!"
And then I traveled to Nellore to fetch one of my pregnant sisters home. And while there, another sister of mine and her Medical-College-Librarian-husband pumped up Rukmini's qualities to such an extent that as soon as I returned to Gudur that evening, I asked my Father:
"Have you written that regret-letter?"
"Sorry, no...I will do it right away"
"Oh, no! Don't!!!"
And that is how I married a ghee-and-water combo a la carte.
Towards the end of the 1980s there was a terrific demand from students of M.Sc. at IIT KGP Phy Dept for an Elective on General Relativity. They were all mesmerized by blackholes, quasars, CMBR, Big Bang and such. There WAS a GR course in the Math Dept which they didn't like because it was all math and had no physics in it.
So the batch of Somnath caught hold of me and asked me if I was ready to give such an Elective. At that time I was reading and working out Weinberg's tome for pleasure and told them I would be willing to give such a course but not go through the administrative wrangles that it would entail.
So, that whole batch gave a written and signed appeal to the HoD to introduce such an Elective in their final year mentioning that gps was ready. Prof KVR was the HoD then and somehow or other he didn't like the idea and it didn't go through the Senate.
I felt happy enough and relieved. But Prof KVR thought I was hurt and approached me with a counter-proposal:
"I can give you the Prep Course (the -1 level) next semester"
"I don't want it"
"There is money in it...Rs 120 as honorarium"
"No, thanx!"
"It is my order!"
"Ok, fine then...but can I give out some Review Projects to interested Final Year students on General Relativity?"
Then KVR's face turned black and blue since he couldn't very well say no to such a watered-down proposal:
"Oh, OK...OK...OK..."
That was how I got water when I asked for ghee. But it was good because for the next six years till youngsters joined and things changed, I got to guide some very very keen and gifted students, like this one:
June 29, 2011 Cardiff
Dear GPS,
You may not remember me. I did my Integrated MSc from IIT-KGP 19 years back (1992)! I also did a MSc project under you on Brans-Dicke theory. Still proudly displayed on my CV.
Recently I was randomly googling IIT-KGP and found your blog which I now read regularly. So thought will bother you with an email.
Recently I was randomly googling IIT-KGP and found your blog which I now read regularly. So thought will bother you with an email.
...Posted by Ishani
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