Silencers

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That was the title of a 1966 hilarious Hollywood blockbuster starring Dean Martin at his best...Comedy cum Action movie.

The Silencer referred of course to the gun that silences all arguments and settles disputes instantly.

Coming to the 'silencer' attachment to the gun, the first I saw and heard silently was the one that Gregory Peck used to silence his 'love angle' Gia Scala (?). David Niven speaks at his rhetorical best challenging a silent Gregory and stops. In the deafening silence, there goes Gregory's 'dhub', as silently as the drop of an answer script on the floor of Raman Auditorium, missing its intended 'love angle' (wind correction not taken care of).

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The Doctor is called in and escorted by the husband of olden times to the bed of his ailing wife.

The Doctor keeps his bag down, takes out his brand-new Zinton clinical thermometer, inserts it into the mouth of the wife who is forced to keep quiet for a whole minute.

As the Doctor was leaving, the husband asks him in a hushed tone: "Tell me Doctor, how much does it cost?"

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In the few Grand Vivas I was forced to be present (on the right side) at KGP, I always resented 'hints' (mostly misleading) by colleagues who wanted to show off.

By and by I learned that the Bilinear Covariants of Dirac Equation was the 'silencer'...the students knew that was my favorite question and jumped on the blackboard while the Hassletons stayed spellbound.

Now of course the Phy Dept is surfeit with Theoreticians and I would have been forced to ask about either 555 Timer or the CRP of the Michelson Interferometer.

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This afternoon, we were visited by my only saalasaheb; and we were rather thrown together while everyone else was away or asleep.

Since I was in no mood for small talk about the SBI of which he is a Branch Manager, I asked him: "Do you read English books?"

He replied: "Not after joining the Banking Services...but earlier I was an avid reader of English books".

I went in, brought the 3 Ishani booklets, and dumped them in his lap and retired to my bedroom.

There was grim silence for 5 long minutes, after which I heard the ETV Station blaring out the latest crazy Telugu song, accompanied by perhaps a slim girl dancing in rain wet to the skin.

TV: the Ultimate Silencer (after Ishani booklets)...

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