Saturday, February 12, 2011

Pen & Wink

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Here is something that sounds very like a TRIBUTE!!!

Let us assume so as we used to do in our good old Physics Days.

If it IS a tribute, this is the first I got in what I am told and DQ agrees is the sweetest tongue in the world: Urdu (or is it Hindusthani?).

This kindles many fond memories of Professor STA (now in the US?). To him Urdu couplets, triplets, and quartets used to come like sweet tweets to a warbler; many famous, some original. He was always a big draw in Intro & Farewell Functions which wouldn't be complete without him (audience would walk-out if the HoD drools,,,).

Soumendu hit back with this sher or (is it sahiri?): can't let it get buried as an obscure Comment (we have to highlight everything that looks like a compliment..there are so few coming our way):

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arz kiya hain ...

Unhe pyari hain students ki chitthi
Unhe pyari hain watan ki mitti
kabhi dohratein yaad purani
to kabhi farmatein nayii kahani

hain woh chiriya apni hi dhun mein
dimag chalate hain blog likhne mein
dhoond rahe ho tum unki pata thikana ?
rastein bahut hain padh tum gulmarg se hi jana !

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Here is my humble riposte:

Spellcheck is dicey
Giftcheck is pricey
Paycheck is nicey
But Soumchack is ever whimsy!

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This morning I was quietly sitting and gathering wool in a plush sofa in the Axis Bank, waiting for my son to finish his quota of backlog transactions (he visits his Bank once in a blue moon).

And there rushed in this obviously Software kid, unshaven, in Jeans & T-shirt (without a pocket) to beat the Saturday Closing Time, picked up a Check-Deposit Form hurriedly and sat beside me.

And, in no time, looked at me and said: "May I borrow your pen?"

Nothing new in it...my pen gets borrowed in every queue.....

And for a few seconds, he was pondering wistfully and dubiously, looked up and asked:

"What is the date today?"

This was new....double-dealing...

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I always carry a pen in my shirt pocket...feel naked without it; and a decade later get ridiculed for it by my ex-madchen students:

"...Awww...cho chweet...Sonoo is becoming a reflection of you. Not only does he resemble you more and more these days but he also has a pen in his pocket (even on his honeymoon!!!)...."

THIS is the reward I get for lending my pen in the Class to the front-bench girls.....most other Teachers borrow pens from them for marking Attendance and ruin them (I mean their pens).

There was hardly a Class at KGP when some student or the other didn't borrow my pen. And I used to tell them loudly: "Don't feel shy to return it!", so it evokes a laugh and gets registered.

Students always returned my pens (Grade-Consciousness).

Not so the stranger-gents in the queue. Either I or them forget and part forever.

For a few days I tried lending my pen but retaining its cap....but what is the big use of a cap without its pen?...The chap who took my pen away (looking for its owner everywhere) can still use its bare-headed torso or perhaps borrow a tight-fitting cap from another cloudy Senior-Citizen.

RKN's Umbrella Devotee would surely have declined (not very politely) to lend his pen...but it requires guts (here is Hemingway's celebrated definition of "guts" = "grace under pressure"); especially to refuse pens to Kolkata girl-students of Phy Dept of IIT KGP now sitting in sunny California (I do hope it gets buried under boulders of snow this winter due to this unprecedented Global Cooling....I guess Obama should release more greenhouse fumes);

And then ridiculing her ex-Teacher and his Honey-Mooning Golden Son...


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2 comments:

  1. Pratik says:

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    Dear gps,

    Spell check says:

    "dhoond rahe ho tum unka pata
    thikana ?"

    instead of

    "dhoond rahe ho tum unki pata thikana ?"

    What is DQ's opinion?

    -----------------------------------

    Professor STA asked me in `Intro':

    "One who learned one Veda is called a `Vedi',

    One who knows two of them is known as `Dwivedi',

    One who has a knowledge of three is `Trivedi',

    And the one who has mastered all four has the title `Chaturvedi'.

    Tell me the name of one who read none?

    ..I was clueless.

    He himself answered: `Abidi'.

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    gps Reminiscence:

    I always say that Bengal is free from caste-prejudice.

    It IS...

    But the day I joined PHY DEPT, HNB asked his Clerk (Office Assistant), Shri Dulal Ghoshal, to escort me to the Establishment Section to complete the formalities of joining (form-filling).

    On our way DG asked me: "You are Shastry; are you a Brahmin?"

    I said: "Yes".

    Then he embraced me and said: "I too am a Brahmin. And do you know that there is a Muslim Brahmin in our Dept?"

    I was taken aback since I thought Islam is free from castes and all Muslims are Brothers.

    But DG said: "Yes, Professor STH Abidi is a Brahmin...a well-read Muslim Pundit".

    And I often used to rag STA-saheb about it much later,

    Also DG said Ghoshals are into match-making; but I wasn't interested right then...

    Fun times then since pressure was minimal in every sense of the word on the very few residents of that nascent campus...

    ReplyDelete
  2. He He.
    Honored to be consulted!
    I believe "unka" is what should be the right thing. In Hindi it is the object which determines the gender of the connector (I don't know the grammatical category of unka, unki, uska, uski....Some sort of connector pronoun?)
    To remember this rule may be this can help (with apologies beforehand lest any innocent mischief be taken as malicious calumny):
    "Gps KI Biwi ne, kaha unse
    Dekhi Ji, Aap aur AapKA beta
    kya kya likhte parhte rehte ho
    Jaa Taa , Ehtaa-Shehta"

    ReplyDelete