India Calling!

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Some time back I set forth my lifelong philosophy of always looking for compliments and pocketing them any which way.

They are so rare coming our way that we can't afford to read between the lines.

Here are some more kind words:

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Professor Anushree Roy:

"Few days back, I read your Blog and it was interesting to learn about the CRP of MI. Truly speaking, I never thought of this question."

gps:

It feels good to note that the post on Michelson CRP that troubled me for more than a decade off and on has been read by someone who is an expert on Fourier Transform Spectroscopy which, in principle, uses the same Michelson technique we used in our meek and humble 4th Year Lab presided by Tarapado-da.

So, it can't be just a passing remark, but a 'considered' one.

Anushree again:

"Why don't you write a separate column in your blog, only with such great nice ideas?...I am sure, many of us have lot more to learn from you."

gps:

Now I feel rather like an embarrassed duck since many Physics topics on which I had my serious say, like on Fresnel Zone Plate and Poisson Spot ('Beauty Spot'), were earlier buried deep in loose talk like:

"Take, for instance, Madhuri Dixit. I mean, figuratively. Everyone knows that MF Hussain in Dubai and gps in Hyderabad are the sole surviving undying Senior Citizen Fans of Madhuri."

I don't think these can easily be Bowdlerized and sanitized.What a shame!

I really ought to have been more careful. But these asides were for non-Physics readers who would otherwise evaporate. I could have run a separate blog as suggested but that would be rather presumptuous since I am after all a 'relapsed' Physics Teacher as Supratim would put it.

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Kedar writes:

"I have been reading your recent blog posts with great interest. The stories of KGP from old-times and the 'spin' posts are simply masterpieces. Also it was great to read about Arnold Sommerfeld's life."

gps:

Many have said rather kind things about the 'spin' posts, but it is nice to know that the Sommerfeld 'copy-paste' thing also touched someone. As I said, SDM used to have a childlike gleam in his eyes whenever he talked about Sommerfeld.

Kedar is in great company!

Kedar again:

"There was some big puja going on (in a temple in NY suburbia?) and when I inquired, I was told that the puja was meant to celebrate 'Guru Pournima'. I immediately thought of writing to you."

gps:

There are already too many Teachers' Days in our Calendar. It is time we have a "KGP Physics Students' Day".

I have just taken a head-count and found that there are as many as 35 IIT KGP Physics students whom, in the words of one who knows, I have knighted in my 'My Swan Song / Duck Quack' (which quack turned out to be a hoax call since the duck turned a hen overnight and is clucking away merrily as Professor Sayan Kar says).

So, I intend to celebrate "Khadgpurena Bhouthik Shastra Vidya Vareeya Chhatra Diwas" (KBSVVCD) the day my fo(u)rthcoming booklets are 'released' (like so many ribboned pigeons).

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Saswat writes:

"I have come to the realization after 10 years in the US that New York City is the only place in the US where I can live away from India and still be happy. The rest of the US is way too quiet and empty compared to India. And New York with all its craziness is as close as it gets to India."

gps:

This is what I call "Needless Nostalgia" (NN).

Why not come home and embrace the real thing rather than the fake imitation?

It would be far nicer if you return to India and pine nostalgically for NY than the other way round. Time for some 'Reverse Osmosis', man!

Now India needs you more than your dollars.

Bhagavan Ram was apparently offered Sri Lanka throne by Vibhishan. And everyone knows Sri Lanka is emerald paradise. But Ramjee declined saying:

"Jananee Janma Bhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi"

Meaning that the troubled and polluted Ayodhya-on-Sarayu, his birth place, is more than Heaven for him.

Ten years is a long time; Bharavi couldn't stand six months of separation fom home.

I am not joking. I guess in a few months' time there would at least be half a dozen vacancies for Faculty Positions in the Physics Department of the alma mater of Saswat & Co.

Can anything be better? New pay-scales and perks are fantastic compared to my (Rs 375 + DA) when I joined in 1965 (even then I had doubled my income from a CSIR JRF of Rs 250, which itself was double the Demonstrator Post's Rs 125 at my alma mater which I was denied.....KGP is my alma pater since I am its alumnus by virtue of taking my Ph D there and donating a hard-earned Rs 1500 to its Technology Foundation).

And you can revisit your US as often as you wish in the Summer and Winter Vacations. They support and encourage attending International Conferences. And the Physics Dept there is no longer clogged with gray eminences like me. The average age, by the time these vacancies are filled up, would be nearer the 30s, rather than the 50s it was during one of my spells there.

So, every day in every way, you will get better and better.

Come on yaar! What prevents you really?

Can anyone be jollier than my KGPian son of a thope in Hyderabad who travels to the US, coast-to-coast frequently, stays there in Star Hotels, and when he returns home after a week or two he has his mother, father, wife, and his cutest daughter, and at times his in-laws too {;-( waiting to receive him at the world-class Shamsabad Green Field International Airport followed by a joy-ride on the longest in India (11.6 Km) PVNR Express-Flyover?

BIG Sales Talk, no!

My pleasure.

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P S: The last piece, 'Local to Global', in the forthcoming booklet is now replaced with 'Bharavi's Atonement'.

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