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With Best Compliments:
A week before I quit KGP, many came to know of the event (GRBR: 'Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish') and were particularly nice to me.
HoD Professor Ghatak did me the rare honor of inviting my wife also to the Official Farewell Party in the HNB (May His Soul Rest in Peace!) Seminar Room. Limericks were composed, laurels handed over, figurines awarded, speeches made, photos and videos taken etc etc.
On top of that, a dozen or so of my younger friends in the Phy Faculty conspired and planned a surprise attack on my Qrs B-140 one evening with a beautiful memento. It is another matter that I had my spies and KK leaked out the date and time to me. So, I bought a dozen 'Thums Up' Bottles and put them in the fridge. And a 1 Kg packet of Pillsbury's Variety Mix bought from Saha Dukan, which my wife turned into about 100 Pakoras hot and ready. It went like a song for 3 full hours. Pratik reminds me when he was here last June that I had also bought 500 gms of Salted Cashew from Harry's, which I forgot. All the snacks and bottles were empty by the time the Party dispersed.
But the Best Compliment I got was from a totally unexpected kid. He was a 'semi' like me and was a Senior Faculty in ME. Let us call him 'R'. He was in his First Year B Tech in 1974 when I was taking one of the Tutorial Groups of his Section. The topper Sidharth Chatterjee (74 EC 001, and the eventual winner of PGM + BCRGM) happened to be in my group. This guy who was a friend of SC started sneaking into my Class although he was in another group. I promptly expelled him.
Fast forward a decade; He joined as a junior Faculty in ME. The first day our paths crossed, he wished me and asked me if I remembered him. Of course I did: as a 'deserter'. Both of us laughed. And then we met occasionally while in and out of the Co-Op Canteen, smiled and split.
The morning of my retirement, I was sitting alone under the famous Mango Tree (equivalent of Maha Bodhi tree in Gaya) on the cement bench and sipping Tea. He happened to be going in with a crowd. He separated from them, came and sat beside me, and after a few words of by-bye, he said: "Professor Sastry, you have kept your dignity for 40 years here".
I smiled a wan ThankQ smile and we split.
Both of us being 'semis', I knew what he meant and cherished his One-Line Farewell Speech. To this day.
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Physics & Engineering:
Myself (Ph), NPR and JSR (both ME) were more or less batch-mates at our University. NPR was my close friend and we were neighbors in the Faculty Hostel. All three of us belong to the Brahmin community of the caste-ridden AP.
Early 1970: One day, NPR relayed to me a question put to him by JSR: "I am the youngest Ph D in the Institute and the First in ME. I am already on the verge of promotion to the highest Professor Post. I will surely be HoD and Dean in the next few years. I am married and well-to-do. I teach Final Years and I am the Best Teacher at that level.
Your friend gps is still an Associate Lecturer 5 years after joining here. He has not even registered for his Ph D. He has lots of family and financial responsibilities. He only teaches First Years. He smokes all the time.
Yet, why does he look so HAPPY all the time?"
I smiled and declined to reply to such a loaded question.
I can reply now:
JSR spent his 7 years at IIT by then learning only one thing, viz. the newfangled 'Finite Element Method' and applying it to Mechanical Vibrations of all silly kinds of which he became an expert.
I spent all those years reading all books on Physics and learning it my own way from A to Z. And I was teaching virgin minds in the First Year, like Arjun Malhotra who was in my very first Tutorial Group. Rest of the time I was reading my entire collection of P G Wodehouse.
Physics and Wodehouse make an unbeatable combo as far as HAPPINESS goes!.
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Buffaloes & Bicycles:
Students of Patel Hall in a body were teasing their go-wala in front of their cycle-shed: "We see 50 buffaloes crossing the road in a herd near your khatal blocking the road at Puri Gate. All of them are dark, fat and have the same bass voice. How do you recognize which one is yours?"
"Saab, I see 350 cycles in your shed, all have two wheels with worn tires, one rusty chain and the same broken seat. How do you recognize which one is yours?"
Don't mind the comparison, but umpteen times, an ex-student of a few decades stops me or mails me with the words: "Sir, I hope you recognize me...I was in the 1983 batch...etc."
Then I assure him or her; and to satisfy them I give their names or at least their fixed position in my Class Room (front or last row) or their batchmates or their quirky habits till they are satisfied. Nowadays, it goes as: "In a random search over the Net I came across your blogspot and got your mail id from there..."
Of course I remember my buffaloes. They belong to ME. I milked them and became rich.
Actually, the thing is simple: It is not that I remember the 1000 odd students I taught. But, the guys or girls who ask me this question do it because they are more or less sure I remember them for one reason or the other.
It is as simple as that.
Only once I failed completely, because I was surprised and taken aback.
While I was taking a blind turn cautiously on my TVS Moped coming out of the Rear Gate of the Main Building one noon around 2000 AD, a fat and bald guy held the handle of my moped firmly, brought me to a halt, and commanded gruffly: "Naamoon, Naamoon!". I was wondering what traffic rule I broke or what offense I gave to this pedestrian. And, as he brought me down, he bent and touched my feet and rebuked me: "How could you forget me sir!". And then I recalled: "Hey, what happened to you? You got so fat and so bald at such a young age". "But, you still remain the same sir, but for a few strands of grey hair and broken teeth".
And we exchanged banter after I told him his co-ordinates as a student of Belur College Lateral Entry Batch 1990, classmates Ms So & So (always remember the batch by its minority community!).
None who wasn't so sure that I would remember them would do that kind of an Assault Pronam to me!
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