Arrogance of Humility

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Jesus famously declared from the Mount: "Blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the Earth"

At the height of the British Empire on which Sun never dared set, Mark Twain twitted: "English are the meekest, for, they have inherited the Earth"

I watched the Gandhi movie intently. I found that as the movie progressed, Gandhi became a strip-tease artist, from a suited booted Anglican to the half-naked fakir of Churchill. As Gandhi's attire and lifestyle 'grew' simpler and humbler, he became more and more of a terror to the King and Churchill. And grew arrogant enough to say to the King, who asked what he could do to please him: "Just get off our backs". He also is reputed to have twitted that the King had more than enough warm clothing on to cover both their bodies. And ,when the Empire was tottering in WW2, he discarded all his humble cheek-turning Non-Violence and asked the British to get lost: "Quit India"

Jesus, that epitome of humility, rocked the all-powerful Romans after his martyrdom, while Gandhi the all-powerful British before his.

I was told that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was the pinnacle of humility, enough to carry the luggage of a commoner, but that he brushed off as great a saint as Ramakrishna as no good for him.

In our own pantheon of Gods, Shiva is supposed to be the epitome of simple living and intellectual innocence. He is always clad shabbily in half-naked Tiger skins (before they became expensive smuggled goods), lived on alms and retired to Himalayas away from the cities, was foolish enough to grant booms to his Bhasmasur-type devotees that boomeranged on himself; but once he opens his third eye, the whole Universe is supposed to burn up into ashes.

Coming to academics, we have the other extreme: "Humility of Arrogance" in Feynman. To anyone who reads his own life-story, he is the summit of Arrogance and Brashness of the intellect. He ridiculed one and all of his famous contemporaries, including his own Ph. D. guide Wheeler (an unpardonable sin) for which his portrait among the Nobel-winners of Princeton, I am told, hangs in a dimly-lit corridor hidden away from spotlight.

But Bohr knew better. I recall reading that, in the thick of the Bomb Project discussions, Bohr dismissed all other Physicists overawed by his reputation, but asked Feynman to hang on for further discussions simply because Feynman was too brash to hide his thoughts: "The Kid who saw the Emperor naked and said so"

I am told that a generation of simpleton Physics students at IIT KGP mistakenly regarded DB and GPS epitomes of humility. There are cultivated reasons for this. They avoided the trap: "Don't you know this simple thing?" cleverly. Never were too afraid to tell students (not colleagues): "I don't know the answer...ask GPS or DB as the case maybe (as per mutual contract)" (MSMA). Both led reasonably simple & shabby lives: DB never owned even a push-bike, GPS never had a sweater on in chilly KGP winters. One never went abroad nor took a Ph.D. student (out of fear); the other never dared set a JEE Question Paper nor take the 4th year lab (out of fear again). Neither had Project Money, nor wrote any books during their tenures. Never cared for promotions...they were gifted 'compassionate appointments' at regular time-lapsed intervals. Never attended august Senate Meetings (out of boredom). Shared a dingy smoke-filled Office and refused to move till their luggage was thrown out. Never asked for a PC which was a status symbol. One of them had a PC forced on him, but never learned even e-mailing. The other did nothing but e-mailing.

By all this they created an aura of (false) humility among the students.

But their wives knew better.

In the context of academic egos and arrogance today I asked Mrs GPS, who observed the Phy Dept closely for 25 years: "Who is the most arrogant faculty member in the Phy Dept?"

She at once replied: "Of course DB"

She also volunteered the known and declared opinion of Mrs. DB if the same question was put her: "GPS..that fool!"

I rest my case!

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