High Living

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It happened!

You know we live in an apartment on the 13th floor:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/04/lucky-hands.html

Yesterday Ishani (all of 18 months now) hurled the remote of her split-window AC down her window.

I couldn't beat gravity and so it dropped like a stone, fell on the head of the smoking Security Chap and broke into several pieces (I mean the remote).

She was kind enough to drag her mom to the window to show off her achievement.

My D-i-L looked down and found the Security Chap gesticulating wildly (serves him right for dereliction of duty).

I at once took the opportunity of giving my wife a picnic in monsoon weather. We two drove down to our earlier apartment block near Banjara Hills to buy a replacement. My wife loves her earlier haunt and I am always looking for an excuse to drive my ancient jalopy to prove to myself that I am driving fit...it was a 50 km drive along the arterial Bombay road with deadly potholes.

She bought some Coffee Day coffee powder (60-40), onion samose', garlic-mango pickle, tamarind achar, and pakori...(all out of bounds for my tummy).

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Five Point Great One

Prof B B Pandey of CE once told me that a Structural Engg Firm from Bihar asked him to recommend a CE B Tech graduate with a five point CGPA.

He was curious and asked them why.

They said they had recruited a nine pointer a couple of years back and all that they could learn from him was that:

"Stress Tensor is symmetric"

On the other hand they hired a five pointer last year and he turned the Company upside down and brought a huge profit.

Reason: The guy didn't like CE subjects and took some Industrial Engg courses as electives.

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Yankeeland

Late Prof R C Arora (DOSA) was living in our Apartment Complex and we had a nodding acquaintance.

Once we happened to meet at the B C Roy Hospital waiting to look up a mutual friend who was being examined by the Doctor inside one of the hallowed cabins.

This is the conversation that ensued:

He: Which year is your son in?

Me: Final Year

He: What CGPA does he expect?

Me: About 7.90

He: Guys below 8.0 have no chance of getting jobs through T & P

Me: What do you advise?

He: He should go to the US.

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Flies Inc

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Hyderabad is a historical city with many crumbling palaces, stinking lakes, teeming masjids, tottering museums, towering sky-homes and a cosmopolitan culture.

It has a colorful character of its own...like say Calcutta.

It has a salubrious climate being dry and at a height away from the seacoast.

If I were younger by half a century, I would have taken innumerable bus-rides and enjoyed its attractions.

As it is, I am bed-ridden in the sense that I stay lolling in bed most of the day.

But I enjoy the whole gamut of the city vicariously by a wonderful vehicle called Deccan Chronicle.

This daily has an ineffable character of its own.

In 2004 it was but an unreadable rag limited to the hoi polloi of the city.

But then M J Akbar, the Great, took over as the Editor-in-Chief and transformed it within a couple of years into a widely read daily with numerous editions in many towns of AP as well as Chennai, Bangalore and so on.

I love it and spend the most part of the day browsing it. I also take ToI, but it is a filler.

It has many features that grip me.

Its print is clear and easy on the eye. It has several stunning color photos on each page. Also several on its header-banners on each page. It has wonderful cartoons by Subhani and Sudhir Telang. It has an Editor's Page and an Op-Ed page with several pleasing articles from the stalwarts of not only Indian Journalism but from syndicated columnists from NY Times, London Times, Guardian, Spectator, Herald Tribune and many others.

But its forte, for me, is that like me it is totally erratic in its English. This was an inspiration for my booklet: Limericks & Light Verses and several blogs.

But the best part is that it comes up with piquant tidbits that excite my fancy.

RKN wrote that he used to read newspapers for their tidbits, human interest and others, which not only pleased him but gave him several ideas for his blogs.

Today, for instance, this 'news' item took me by storm and led me to nostalgia:

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London, June 28:

People who have consumed a pint or two of beer are 15% more likely to be bitten by a mosquito, according to a new research.

Researchers believe the pests are attracted to odour and breath changes caused by alcohol. They added that mosquitoes could have learnt to associate the beer odour with an increased lack of defensiveness against bites from boozy drinkers.

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I leave it to the imaginative readers to explore for their own pleasure the various ramifications of this invaluable piece of research which are mind-boggling.

In my boyhood in my seaside village I don't recall having met with any mosquito. Maybe, I was so tired after a whole day of outdoor play that I didn't just feel their bites. But for sure there were no mosquito nets, not to talk of repellents. Perhaps, the sandy soil absorbed all water and they couldn't breed these bloodsuckers.

The first mosquitoes that bled me were the giant king-sized animals at KGP. The Faculty Hostel where I lived for seven sucker years was prone to all-night power cuts whenever there was a Nor'Wester. I didn't have the cash to buy a mosquito net under which all Bengalis lived most of their lives. And I was claustrophobic to boot.

So, I used to heave myself to the iron bench on the lawn and spend the whole night sky-watching and smoking.

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Flies are the first cousins of mosquitoes. But unlike these vampires, flies are a hell of a nuisance.

When I was staying in my MD Doctor uncle's place for two years, I developed a hostile aversion for them. His wealthy patients used to gift him gunny bags of delicious mangoes. That was it...the whole house became a swarm of flies. Since then I run away from any mango I see and never buy them for myself.

The problem with flies is that they land on your nose, ears, and such other tender body parts and tickle you. And they are so smart and 'fly' away before you can 'land' them.

But they are diurnal creatures and don't disturb you in the night, as opposed to mosquitoes. Between the two, they trouble you the whole day.

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Then there were bedbugs. These are the real vampires...mosquitoes are just kids.

My University town of Vizagh was overflowing with them. One could see armies of bedbugs crawling up the walls in the daytime; and they 'fall' down on beds in the night.

They are insidious...they wait till you are sound asleep...and they inject a very tiny but effective dose of anesthetic and lull you before they start feeding on your blood. You realize the harm done to you much after these buddies left your body...you start itching all over..and can't go to sleep again.

I have taken readings and found that they swell ten times their volume after they are done with you...in the daytime they look like ants...and at dawn they look like beetles.

Tik-20 eradicated them.

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Then there were leeches.

Most of you might not have seen them.

They reside in ponds and riverbeds.

And when you jump in and take that refreshing bath and come out, you will notice that there is a tiny worm that attached itself to your leg. You try to shuffle it off first by shaking your leg, then by dancing, then by literally holding it and trying to tear it away...no way.

You run home and by then the leech would have swollen by a factor of ten and still going.

There is only one way to get it off you...add a pinch of lime (choon); and it will drop down and crawl away.

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If you thought that this blog is merely about the flykind, you are mistaken.

It is an allegory...

Webster:

allegory

: the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence

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Comment on First Class Encounter

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Today I find a curious comment on First Class Encounter 3.5 years after my posting it:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2008/01/first-class-encounter.html

Anonymous said...

I am an undergraduate student at IIT Kharagpur. But nowadays the student environment is completely anti-intellectual especially in science departments. I would like to know whether students were serious about studies during 70s and 80s.

June 28, 2011 12:26 AM

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I would like to respond to it at some length as best as I can. I am sure I will be repeating things ad infinitum, but as Feynman said: Redundant Truth is never a problem. Also Pratik says that every edition is different because the context is different.

Firstly the student touched on a blog very dear to me.

I joined the Faculty at IIT KGP at 21, a slip of an ignorant lad and retired in 2005, like one who loved IIT well but not wisely as they say.

The day I retired and was walking out of KGP near Netaji, Prof PS halted me and asked: "Prof Sastry, are you happy or unhappy today when you are quitting KGP after 40 years?"

As RKN famously said: There are some questions which do not bear a straight 'yes' or 'no' answer; like: "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Still and all, I said: "Very happy", since there was no reason I should be unhappy, given that IIT KGP has given me a cornucopia of everything anyone can ask. Also because during my last five years, a host of young talent joined the Dept and all of them were very kind to me and my presence was at best superfluous, except perhaps I would have enjoyed a few more Jumbo Classes of 350 freshers. It was thrilling; but one shouldn't be greedy.

I then tried settling in Hyderabad with my only son and loving wife. I thought it would be a breeze.

But totally unexpectedly I sank into a very severe depression and took almost two years to think coherently, read and write. Every morning I used to get up dreaming of IIT KGP and getting up forlorn with tears in my eyes (adult tears are a sure sign of clinical depression...my Psychiatrist asked my son: "Does he weep?")

When I recovered enough to start writing, IIT KGP of course was (and is) the main topic.

One morning I recalled my first tutorial class at KGP and tried to put it in words with the title: First Class Encounter.

I 'submitted' it to the alumni magazine KGPian and was glad that it was published...my joy knew no bounds...because mind is a very tough thing to lose and if you get it back, it is almost akin to a rebirth.

Much later I chanced to get hold of Arjun Malhotra's id and wrote to him about it:

-----Original Message-----
From: Prabhakara Sastry [mailto:gps1943@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 2:41 AM
To: Arjun Malhotra
Subject: "First Class Encounters"

Attached please find a 'Thank You' Note that appeared in KGPian, October 2007, from a retired teacher.

Sir,

Thank you for being so kind to remember after all these years

Happy New Year

Arjun

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Noblesse Oblige!

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Coming to the comment on it:

Firstly, the feeling expressed that IIT students these days are not 'serious' about studies.

To put it bluntly, a vast majority of students at IIT KGP were never so 'serious' as to be hospitalized except during exams, never did their sessionals 100% on time under the hated honor system of the US, never took honest readings 100% in the labs, never prepared regularly 100% for their exams instead of doing nightouts the day before, always bunked (mentally if not physically) classes which didn't interest them, in short played truant like any typical Indian (self included).

There were two main reasons for this:

1. There was a feeling that once you made it to IIT you are the 1% cream and rest of the life is a 'served' food on a platter...all that you have to do is to quit IIT with an honors degree and without a DC against you.

This was true to a large extent since IIT was a 'brand' that sold internationally...like Dettol...you don't have to spend much effort to 'sell' yourself.

There is also an 'upside' to this...since IIT KGP was in a rural setting, for much of the time that was not spent sleeping, the run of the mill IITian was acquiring what are now called soft skills that are very very important...also the system of a thousand vivas helped face what my son calls "gang rape" without batting an eyelid.

Let me not talk about the top 1%...they were devils...and took the hindmost...

In spite of all this childishness, I have known of no KGPian failing in life and career except for reasons of health.

This was true for the 40 years I was there and there is nothing new in it.

2. After clearing the toughest entrance exam in the world at the JEE level, IITians find after their first semester that cracking IIT Exams is a breeze. But they don't realize that cracking exams is not the whole story...

Also there was this perennial complaint that the subjects and classes were not 'interesting'. Here we come to the Archie Syndrome I talked about...no one can make the subject of say X-Ray Diffraction 'fun'...but look at what Crick and Watson did with what Roentgen discovered a whale of a time back.

In any case, the ones that 'got away' find their own feet despite or because of IIT...I haven't come across any of my students who couldn't crack the US Graduate Programs except for health reasons.

As for the faculty of IITs I must admit that the difference between one and the other is 'unnis-bis'...simply because most Indians in India are not born to scientific free thinking...the scientific and industrial revolutions missed us by a wide gap of three centuries...it will take time.

Many of my students and visitors used to tell me that IIT Kanpur Phy Dept is world-class. I used to smile and reply that the number of Nobel winners in Phy at IIT Kanpur is precisely the same as IIT KGP...not one more nor less.

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I now come to the 'anti-intellectual' part of the comment.

I don't precisely understand what the young one has in mind, but I have my take on 'intellectuals'.

'Intellectuals' were always a snobbish lot...like Boston Brahmins of whom I used to tease my MIT friend Edwin a lot and he used to demur and feel much maligned and misunderstood.

Here is what wiki says about this attitude:

The nature of the Boston Brahmins is summarized in the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Harvard alumnus John Collins Bossidy.

"And this is good old Boston,

The home of the bean and the cod,

Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,

And the Cabots talk only to God."

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You know I came from a Village School scoring about the first rank in English in the entire SSLC Board. But couldn't speak a single sentence of English till I came to KGP...there was no need.

DB also came from a Village school in Bihar...and his first experience at Calcutta was a sneer from the city-slickers when they found he hadn't heard of Somerset Maugham.

Here is what Aravind Adiga says in his ToI interview:

"In 1990 I stood first in Karnataka in the annual SSLC exams. When I came to Bangalore to collect an award from the education minister, I was humiliated by the rich boys there...all of whom I had beaten...because I had a thick accent when I spoke English and I did not know who Lionel Richie was..."

In my humble case, when I joined a posh University with the pedigree of C V Raman and S Radhakrishnan as ex-faculty members, I was simply cowed down.

In the University (unlike at IIT), the 'intellectual' rankings started from the English Dept...they looked down on everyone else as uncouth outcasts. Then the Arts subjects like Law, Economics, History...without fail the Student President who was elected was from an Arts subject...they could debate.

Among the sciences, which came next in the 'intellectual' order of precedence...indeed Prof S H Rao told me that the 'intellectual culture' of a University depended on the vivacity of its English and Physics Departments.

All of us looked down on Engineers as 'professionals' like say intellectual tailors and tinkers.

And the Engineers looked down upon Medicos as practically illiterate...the poor blokes had no time to read anything other than the Anatomy tomes that have no rhyme or reason.

And the Medicos looked down on Pharmacologists with their Materia Medica..

Coming from this culture, I was dumbfounded to note that Mechanical Engineers in 1965 with whom I chanced to mix a lot thought that science subjects were 'coolies'. Indeed there was intense resentment that a Lecturer in ME was paid the same as a Lecturer in Physics...they were practically heartbroken at this injustice and came up with the formula:

"A B Tech in ME is equal to an M Sc in Physics...an M Tech in ME is equal to a Ph D in Physics"...there were no Ph Ds in ME then...

HNB told me once that the Engineers at KGP suffer from an inferiority complex. I asked him why. He said they go to the Central Library and are aghast at the miles and miles of science books and journals stacked there.

SDM who was just a Reader at Cal Univ thought that a Professorship at IIT KGP was a demotion since he told me: "IIT is after all a glorified Engineering College".

But he served IIT under an exceedingly well-read Director with a CE Degree under his belt...Professor S R Sengupta who donated his entire collection of his books to the CL on all subjects under the sun...a thousand?...a true intellectual in every sense of the word...and a bachelor to boot...


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Heavenly Havens

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A few days back I posted excerpts from Amitav Ghosh's talk to Kaushik Mitter in DC.

I was aghast at the crippling cost of US College Education which an average student has to keep bearing for the next 20 to 30 years of their working life:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/06/ours-theirs.html

I thought Britain was different...apparently it was...till last year.

I was amazed to read the gripping article 'Hard Times in Britain' by Farrukh Dhondy in the center-spread of DC last Saturday and am tempted to quote from it:

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....The present coalition government has passed an act which will require, for example, my youngest daughter Tir, who applies later this year for a university place, which she takes up in 2012, to borrow from the government....[anything up to 70,000 pounds sterling (half a crore rupees) including fees and living expenses]...her brother and sisters who all went to very good universities (Leeds, Sussex and Cambridge) didn't have to borrow and don't have to spend years of their earning lives paying back.

This new fee hike, against which students have vigorously protested, will certainly mean that fewer pupils from the working classes will consider a university education. It may be that the Tories whose philosophy stresses the virtues of pluck, competition, entrepreneurship, survival of the fittest, dog-gently-eat-dog and proposes that reduced welfare benefits support the hindmost, don't have the same ideas of meritocracy as the Oxford dictionary.

The electoral parliamentary system requires that all politicians have to pose as as generators, facilitators and reformers of the mechanisms of social mobility. They all have to tell the population that Arbeit macht Rich, but in a world in which bankers, who gamble with other people's money and charge them back charges for doing it take millions of pounds in bonuses each year while workers face inflation and increases in tax on normal purchases and fuel, it's not very convincing...

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Strong words...

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The other day I was talking about how the Scandinavians feel proud to pay their taxes.

Here is why:

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http://www.linkedin.com/answers/finance-accounting/economics/FIN_ECO/722180-1952514

Bottom line about Scandinavian nations:

-Get free healthcare

-Get free education from kindergarten through university (free BSc, MSc and even PhD degrees)

-Give 1 year of maternity leave to women and 3 months paternity leave to men

-Get generous unemployment benefits (money and even a place to live and food if necessary), but people don’t take advantage of those benefits.

-Have an almost homogeneous standard of living, everybody has good living conditions. There are no ghettos or bad parts of the city

-They all have a similar after tax income, so there is not much envy or frustration.

-They have a high level of transparency and honesty when getting job opportunities. You don’t get a job because of your network of contacts or friends; instead you get the job because you are the one with the best qualifications.

-There is a very low level of corruption in the government, public and private sectors

-On a per capita basis, violence levels and theft incidents are much lower

-On a per capita basis, they have a highly educated workforce (university level)

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gpspeak

Would I be rather born there next time around?

No, sorry sir, I am a child of sunshine, warmth and riotous color round the year...and Chinthal Bastis...

Ramakrishna Parmahamsa Garu said it sweetly:

"Take a dung beetle and place it in a flower basket...it will die instantly of suffocation...chatpat morey jaabe"

I love the pell-mell of India.

Heaven is most boring...ask Mark Twain or Bernard Shaw.

http://twainquotes.com/Heaven.html

For me it is Repeat Order...again and again...


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Hundredweights

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Here are some tidbits for KGPhians:

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DB weighed 100 kilos or more (as he said) in his College Days.

Reason was that he was the youngest of nine brothers (apart from a few sisters), and he was living under the loving care of his elder sister-in-law who used to fret over his frail health and somewhat overcompensated it.

DB told me that he developed a complex and was trying to run away from home; which he did at the earliest opportunity after his M Sc, running away to Delhi forsaking his fond Cal. He hated the Delhi climate, its rough and tumble culture, and lack of hilsa and rosogolla, but took the first chance to doggedly reduce his weight to about 45 kilos when I first saw him at KGP (he was a bachelor then). He said he did it by simply starving and substituting tea and fags for food, apart from one roti each for lunch and dinner (no breakfast).

Mind over Matter!

And this news of his 'ultimate' thinning was used against him by an unkind Senior Prof @ KGP to try and block his marriage proposals, saying that he must have been seriously unwell...but the bride's party let bygones be bygones...very wisely.

By the time he joined me in C-239, he recovered and gained a healthy 20 kilos...Baudi is a great cook and caregiver as I know from personal experience.

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When I joined KGP, HNA was already an RS and subsequently he joined us at the Faculty Hostel.

He must have been about 80 kilos then while I was about 42 kilos.

That worked to my advantage because during our horseplay, I used to punch him in his stomach and run away while he was constrained to merely hurling some choice Punjabi galees...he would say that there was no way he could punch me back because, "What would public say?"

He used to tell me that he weighed more than 100 kilos during his College Days, and he was unanimously elected Student Leader for his weighty presence in battles with opponents and faculty members.

Working with Silicon for decades ruined his health and at one time he was just about my weight (marriage and scooter enhanced my weight by about 5 kilos).

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These 100 kilos stuff were hearsay for me since I never actually closely SAW someone weighing 100 kilos till I shifted to Hyderabad.

There was this restaurant in front of which was installed a Digital Weighing Machine...the one that doesn't spew a ticket but displays your weight digitally in an LCD window after you stand up on its platform and insert a one rupee coin.

There was also a crowded ATM beside it and me and my son were standing in a queue when two giggling girls came up and weighed themselves...girls in AP are slim before their marriage...and joined the queue behind us.

Then came the turn of a golmattol Punju lady in her 50s to stand on the platform and insert the coin.

Nothing happened and the display went dead.

She was flummoxed and wished to check if the machine had gone out of order; and kindly requested one of the two girls to stand on the platform and inserted the coin on the girl's behalf; and the machine came back to life and showed the true earlier weight.

That pleased the mahila and she took her turn again; and once again the display went dead.

It was a great sight to watch her stunned face; and then my unsporting son compounded it by showing her the legend on the sticker of the damn machine:

0 to 100 kgs only

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Incometax

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Nothing quite competes with the relief of submitting Tax Returns (that I did just now).

Edwin used to ask me to go easy on mailing him during the fortnight before he was due to file his Tax Returns (most unwillingly).

Like there are about one percent perverts in any random sample of men, so too in nations...I am told the Scandinavians feel proud to pay their taxes...a chilling revelation.

Not so the Americans I am sure...everyone over there looks reluctant just like us; and the two great Political Parties thrive on their different outlook as to who should be taxed more, why and why not...Yankees have their hearts in the right place...their pockets.

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I never heard of Income Tax till I joined IIT KGP. Neither my father nor my two literary uncles ever fretted over them...

As I said earlier, I joined my job at KGP in 1965 with a whopping gross salary of Rs 465 = 00 (the cost of a packet of nappies for Ishani).

And on my first payday, I had to join a crowd of about hundred walking to the Account Section in the Old Building wading through thigh-high grass, stand in a queue, and get paid in hard cash...altogether a sweet experience.

And the high continued till the next March when I was sent away empty-handed...my pay was not released since I didn't file the IT Returns...I asked what are they?

I was then guided to the IT Clerk, who scowled at me and seeing my crestfallen face, he asked my Name and Roll Number, pushed the IT Form in front of me, and started dictating all the entries offhand (with a reprimand or two for trying to backchat)...he was the first genius I met at KGP...he knew all about me...the only question he asked was if I was a bachelor to which I proudly replied 'yes' and asked if it mattered...he said, of course...I would have got immense tax relief if I had a couple of dependent parents staying with me, a wife and kids...he calculated and told me that if only I had six kids I didn't have to pay any tax at all, citing offhand three or four Sections of the Tax Code... a hefty tome.

This truly was a double whammy...1. No wife and 2. Double tax.

After seeing that tome which was twice the size of both volumes of Morse and Feshbach combined, I decided that the exercise was beyond me and fell on his benign feet every year.

Things changed within a decade. During the Emergency of 1975, Sanjayjee rather peremptorily withdrew all concessions for kids as a disincentive...rather too harshly as the victims reported...Bengal as usual escaped the trauma...at least I knew of none in our Bachelor Hostel who was dragged and sanitized...at least they didn't report to me...perhaps the incentive for undergoing the surgery was the pittance of Rs 100 and a glass of milk...later on the incentive became more aggressive...one full increment as 'special pay'.

I didn't succumb...one has one's notions of privacy if not principles...

But by then my Guardian Angel IT Clerk had retired and I got tired of catching the duplicate feet which didn't seem so attractive.

So, I took up the Code Book and 'studied' it...and found that it was no tougher than cracking Wyckoff's Crystal Structures...a compendium of which only one pertinent page is required to be mastered depending on which crystal you seek the structure of.

By then DB joined me in our Office; and was mystified, stupefied, petrified and electrified all at once when he watched me fill up my IT Returns all by myself...he used to go to the only IT Lawyer on Campus and fall on his costly feet.

DB never handled Wyckoff...being an out and out theory man...

So, between me and he I was declared the IT Genius and he just copied my IT Forms...we had the same lousy pay and no extra income.

Once I was away from KGP when the IT Forms reached our Office and DB thought rather uppishly why not he do it himself with a li'l bit of effort and a couple of fags.

When I returned, his face was ashen and he declared that for donkey's years we had been paying only about half the due taxes and we would duly go to the Midnapore Jail and lodged in the same double-dungeon.

I knew what was the matter with his calculations...one learns by prior experience.

So, I asked him if he deducted the Standard Deduction allowed to us from our Gross Income.

He said: "Standard what?"

To this day I recall his chagrin with pleasure since it reminded me (lightheartedly) of Jerome's crack:

"When George is hanged, Harris will be the worst packer in this world."


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Titanfights

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One summer afternoon, when my friends and I were playing marbles on the sandy street of our seaside Village, Muthukur, all of us lost in our single-minded pursuits, we heard from afar the tinkling of bells which we knew were from cattle. As the sounds grew louder and we saw clouds of dust obscuring our vision there were shouts of, "Get in!, Go in!!"; and we all ran inside our house.

And curious as all kids ever are, we climbed up a nearby branch of our tamarind tree and landed safely on our open roof and saw that the two great bulls of our Village belonging to the two great rival Reddys at either end of our street were locked in their intertwined great horns and were pulling and pushing each other back and forth and back and forth all along the street in a gigantic combative mood.

The heavy stamping of feet, the loud jingling of bells and columns of dust kicked up were all a great free show for us.

And we were terrified and petrified.

The seesaw battle raged for more than an hour, and we relaxed and were betting on the one or the other...but after all that bellowing rage and fury on display, the two suddenly came to a standstill, unlocked their horns, turned back and strolled to their respective courtyards.

It was a tame draw.

I recall this scene vividly because only the night before that battle I was reading under our hurricane lamp the story of the mighty fight between Hector and Ajax which made a great impression on my young mind.

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Sixty years later, I recalled this fond incident when I read the other day the following story in DC, with a lovely color photo, dateline June 21st:

"...The Union Cabinet Minister (UCM) and the local MP on Tuesday abused each other in foul language in full view of the public.

When both the public representatives attended the inauguration of a school building, the MP found fault with the Collector over his name being placed at the bottom of the inaugural plaque and not prominently on top.

Hearing this, UCM intervened and supported the district authorities and told MP that he is making unnecessary noise over a non-issue. This irked the MP who immediately took the UCM to task by leveling corruption charges against him.

At this stage the minister raised his tone and retorted, "I know how much you have collected from the Congress candidates in Cantonment elections."

The exchange between UCM and MP lasted for some time. Followers of both the leaders abused each other and almost came to blows. A shocked District Collector left the place followed by UCM.

Later, talking to media-persons, the MP said that he will ensure that the UCM is removed from the Cabinet.

He added he will complain to the Chief Minister and the Pradesh Congress Committee Chief about the corrupt activities of the UCM.

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Once again a tame draw, sigh!

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A Sheaf of Leaves

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Once upon a time at IIT KGP everyone was entitled to 12 Casual Leaves every year. Casual in this context meant Chancy...unpremeditated. Meaning you don't have to be provenly sick, vacationing, delivering a baby or assisting the process...there were other leaves meant for them. But you have to inform the HoD and arrange your classes and duties.

And if you didn't take these 12 CLs, you would forgo them...they don't accumulate...you start with a clean slate next January.

So, everyone would try and accumulate them till December and take all the 12 at a go...with the result that the Institute would look ghostly at the year-end.

Then came the 5-day-week, and the number of CLs were reduced to 8...and one couldn't take them more than 3 at a stretch, and couldn't prefix or suffix them with other leaves...the screws were tightened.

Alas!

*****************************************************************************************************************

Then there were 20 Special Casual Leaves apart from the regular ones. Special means for academic purposes...like attending a Conference.

These had to be approved beforehand.

Calcuttans did some research and discovered that Journals like Revue Roumaine de Physique were not subscribed to by our CL and were only available at the Jadavpur Library...and Fridays and Mondays (preferably together) were auspicious days for Outstation Library Work.

Then these screws were tightened by arranging what was called Inter-Library Exchange or some such ingenious device.

Alas!

*****************************************************************************************************************

Then there were Earned Leaves. For non-faculty who don't have Vacations, these were earned automatically (about 33 per year). These could be availed in a bunch for valid reasons. The catch was that these accumulate and add up; and could be encashed at the time of retirement...but with an upper limit which was raised from 100 to 300 days during my tenancy there. Since the overflowing excess could be added to Puja Holidays, and Leave Travel Concessions came up to boost tourism, Labs wore a deserted look before and after DP (that was perhaps one of the reasons for upping the number of encashable ELs).

For Faculty however, these were not automatic but have to be 'earned' by staying at KGP during vacations and doing proven Research or teaching Summer Quarters.

Alas!

************************************************************************************************************

Then came Maternity Leaves...sad to say there were almost none who could avail them...

I am told that there are Paternity Leaves nowadays...but I guess, male truancy being what it is, I am sure very few of these are availed.

By the way, PLs (only 3 or so per paternity) were also imposed on Software Firms and were eagerly availed.

My son and D-i-L planned their child so professionally that my son could add in series 3 PLs, 8 CLs, 5 ELs and 8 Christmas-New Year Leaves, and weekends, amounting to almost a whopping month.

His Ultimate Bosses (a very kind KGPian couple) scolded him the day after the good news spread what the hell he was doing in Hyderabad instead of running to Nellore and assisting the Maternity...but his immediate bosses were not that kind and perhaps grumbled with every good reason.

Alas!

****************************************************************************************************************

Then there were Medical Leaves and French Leaves and so on and so forth.

In 1975 when I was still a Reluctant Bachelor, our HoD (HNB) called me to his Office and dumped on me the onerous duty of Time-Table-in-Charge which during those Emergency Days was a very powerful post, with many senior claimants.

I refused but he insisted.

I squealed, "Why me?"

And he said, "I have scrutinized the Leave Registers for the past ten years and I find you are the only one who didn't avail of any kind of leave including CLs".

True, spending even weekends was a big bore for a lonely bachelor in that god-forsaken campus...

Alas!

***********************************************************************************************************

It is beautiful monsoon nights here and I have been applying for a few days of any kind of leave from blogging; but my Ultimate and Immediate Boss (read wife) is refusing...she says that for at least a few blog-hours everyday I leave her in peace...

Alas!

But one should try try and try again like Robert Bruce and his Spiderman...I will let you know.


=======================================================================

Impertinence

=======================================================================

I use 'impertinence' here in the general sense of 'non-pertinence' that includes irrelevance and such legal jargon as in

Perry Mason's "Ice-cold hands":


*********************************************************************************

..."And what did she say in relation to that statement?" Norris asked.

"Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial," Mason said.

"Overruled."

or:

"Where did he say he had received all the money in his wallet?..."

"Objection," Mason said. "Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, calling for hearsay evidence."

"Sustained", Judge Miles snapped...

*********************************************************************************************************

Impertinence, second nature to some gifted souls, or practiced to perfection by others comes handy in arguments and debates at home or in office.

*************************************************************************************************************

From:

The House that Nino Built:

....One evening at supper the idea of country sausage swam into my mind.

"Cornmeal and sausage!" I exclaimed. "That's what I crave!"

"We'll have them tomorrow," Margherita assured me.

But the next day we had neither one nor the other, and I had to remind Margherita of her promise. The day after that we spoke of them at both lunch and supper, for the very simple reason that neither was on the table. And the following day it was the same story all over again.

"Cornmeal and sausage! Cornmeal and sausage!" Margherita exclaimed. "Haven't you anything else on your mind? We can't go on eating cornmeal and sausage for the rest of our lives!"

As usual, Margherita had passed from the defense to the attack, and now she had the effrontery to present herself as a victim to the public eye.

************************************************************************************************************

Or take this passage from:

Clarence Day's Noblest Instrument:

...Schopenhauer, in his rules for debating, shows how to win a weak case by insidiously transferring an argument from its right field, and discussing it instead from some irrelevant but impregnable angle. Father knew nothing of Schopenhauer, and was never insidious, but, nevertheless, he had certain natural gifts for debate. In the first place his voice was powerful and stormy, and he let it out at full strength, and kept on letting it out with a vigor that stunned his opponents. As a second gift he was convinced at all times that his opponents were wrong. Hence, even if they did win a point or two, it did them no good, for he dragged the issue to some other ground then, where he and Truth could prevail.

When Mother said it surely was plain enough that I had no ear (for music), what was his reply?

Why, he said that violin was the noblest instrument invented by man...

*************************************************************************************************************

I once watched an Ashtavadhanam (in Telugu) by a Celebrity at my home town.

And was simply bowled over.

The program takes 3 hours upwards. The hero called Avadhani is like a Grandmaster in chess. Only, it is a brilliant achievement in impromptu composition of poems, arithmetic, memory and much else besides.

The Master is ringed by eight accomplished opponents tackled one after the other in a revolving series. One will ask him to compose poems in a certain obscure prosody on given themes. He has to compose them line after line. The next will ask him to compose another poem letter by letter, with the additional complication that, after each letter let out by him, the challenger will prohibit the next letter from being one chosen cleverly by the challenger. Another chap will ask him to come up with the answer to an arithmetical query like what day of the week will next year's August 22 be. There is another one whose duty is to ring a distracting bell at random and at the end the Master should come up with the number of times the bell rang during the entire performance.

But the most challenging task for the Master is to keep up a witty and entertaining conversation with an opponent who tries to distract his attention by asking absolutely impertinent questions on all topics under the sun from politics, sport, or family planning devices.

It is said that the task of the impertinent chap is the toughest, and some taskmasters are as renowned as the Grandmaster himself!

All in all it was an amazing multitasking exhibition of an 8-track mind.

***********************************************************************************************************

As I mentioned earlier, SDM could think best while talking nonsense continuously.

Once I was in his Drawing Room with a problem on analysis.

He was in a great mood to solve it as was evident by a knit-brow for a second, after which he relaxed and started talking about Naxalism, Tolstoy, Bertie Wooster, Departmental Politics completely at unconnected random.

By then I was used to his ways and had to play the role of an intent listener since he would ask intermittently: "hai na?"

Anyway, after 15 minutes he suddenly said:

"Try Faltung"

That solved my problem because I too had been thinking about it while answering his hai nas.

He never called it by its English name, Convolution Integral.

And he would say:

"Faltung in German means Folding"

And he would triumphantly continue his impertinent talk till Tea Time when Mrs SDM would invite both of us for enough loochies and chai.

************************************************************************************************************

Recently I learned 2 nouns used as verbs:

1. Tap-dance:

: to do something suggesting a tap dance; especially: an action or discourse intended to rationalize or distract


2. Moonlight:

:To work at another job, often at night, in addition to one's full-time job.

************************************************************************************************************

Good Night!

========================================================================

Truancy

=========================================================================

By truancy I mean running away from what you are supposed to do.

Every truant has his valid excuses...note my use of masculine gender...from historical records truancy looks like a male prerogative predominantly.

*************************************************************************************************************

Don't take it otherwise, but I guess Sage Vishwamitra, whatever his extenuating circumstances (big word for excuses), played pretty truant abandoning his love child Shakuntala with Menaka.

Not done, these days.

************************************************************************************************************

Not only Menaka but her poor daughter Shakuntala too had to suffer for this male malaise.

Dushyant, who fell drastically and inconsolably in love with Shakuntala at her ashram, couldn't wait but married her then and there but soon forgot about her as soon as he returned to his royal duties which must have conveniently looked more pressing than his marital obligations.

They had a son called Bharata who gave his name to our India, that is Bharat.

Looked at it dispassionately we seem to be the product of a second order truancy.

That explains.

***************************************************************************************************************

Again, Lord Buddha, who was christened Gautama and became Siddhartha, played pretty truant (for the benefit of mankind though) abandoning his wife and son at the dead of the night.

Much good, it seems, comes from valid truancy.

****************************************************************************************************************

It happened again this evening for the umpteenth time.

The doorbell rang and since my D-i-L and Ishani were away to Kittapiya and my wife was resting, I had to open the door.

And in barged our nice Landlord accompanied by a young geek to whom he (the Landlord) wanted to show off his prime property.

And I was needlessly introduced as a retired Physics Prof from IIT KGP.

At once the young one shook my hands warmly and said:

"I suppose you are busy coaching students"

"Not exactly, but I do write some booklets"

"That is even more beneficial to students because the reach of books is wider than personal coaching"

And I left it at that...feeling shy to display my Ishani Collection.

As I said above:

Much good, it seems, comes from valid truancy.

*************************************************************************************************************

Truant Stud

From DC News Item:

A 12-year-old retired stud-service stallion died while chasing a mare at a Temple Town administered Dairy Farm on Monday.

The robust stallion with a fine tan-colored coat was donated to the Temple for it to be used in processions of the Lord. It was duly housed at the farmhouse for acclimatizing with the temple services.

After a week of quarantine, on Monday morning, it was allowed to graze with seven mares. However, it suddenly turned violent and darted towards a young mare and chased it round the grazing zone for about half-an-hour.

When the mare resisted its move for mounting on it, the stallion grew even more furious and madly started kicking it, terrifying others. In the combat, the stallion fell on an iron bar and suffered a head injury. With blood gushing out from its mouth, nostrils and ears, it struggled for sometime and finally died, as farm workers watched petrified.

gps:

Moral: Once a stud always a stud...retired or not.

*************************************************************************************************************

Truant Mares

ibid

Two women teachers working in a primary school fought with each other in front of students here on Monday. They also beat each other with chappals much to the amusement of the students.

Incidentally, one of them is the headmistress of the school.

****************************************************************************************************************

gpspeak

If you read the two news items carefully you will see that the common symptom is Monday Morning Blues.


=========================================================================

Conscience

===================================================================

"People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper and is more easily obtained"........

......Jerome K Jerome

***************************************************************************************************************

Maybe true, but for a chap born with a weak digestion worsened by incessant smoking during years when food was not there for money or love at KGP, Jerome's recipe is like a flower in the sky.

So, I have ever been the gnawing victim of a weak conscience though I have watched some very robust ones during my life...and sought their succor ever and anon.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Nothing like King Henry's though.

During the roaring 1960s there was this movie "Becket" in Netaji Auditorium which was spoken of as terrific. So I put aside my claustrophobia and ventured watching it.

And was pretty much moved by the scene where a lanky Peter O'Toole (King Henry II) enters the Cathedral, throws his royal raiment aside, kneels, and gets ceremonially whipped for wishing to get Richard Burton (Thomas Becket), whom he himself appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, killed in a fit of rage.

Later Kings & Queens apparently followed Jerome's formula to ease their conscience...

**********************************************************************************************************

In our Village during my childhood there was this magnificent Kodandaram Temple which we used to frequent in the evenings...the elders used to pray as we used to play.

Legend has it that a few centuries ago, the prosperous Village Reddy Garu (much like Henry) got his friend murdered in a fit of rage and repented endlessly and took to bed with frightful nightmares.

And he did try Jerome's recipe but as and when he used to sit for his meal, the rice looked reddish and turned his stomach.

And a passing hermit told him to build this grand temple to overcome his grief; which apparently worked.

*************************************************************************************************************

Well, my cases were never that frightful.

Let us take this typical instance:

When I was living in the spacious Qrs CI - 97 in the Dandakaranya Area at IIT KGP, I was hassled every three years or so by this Contractor employed for 'whitewashing' IIT Property.

This meant that one fine morning 3 able-bodied ruffians accompanied by two village belles enter our house and boot us out of their way and turn everything topsy-turvy for 6 long hours.

And I am a very private individual.

So, I used to ask them to get lost and come to our Qrs at the very end...and the Contractor would throw the rule book at me. And I used to offer that I would sign his pocket note book: "Job done wonderfully, thanx!"

But he would say that the Supervisor would come to inspect....

Then I used to bargain, saying that I would get it done at a time of my own convenience as a private job. And he would quote Rs 270 or so (Rupee was very strong then).

So, one year I asked the chaps to come on the very last working day before the Durga Puja Holidays.

But found that I didn't have the wherewithal (a favorite euphemism of my Father for dough).

As I was moodily driving my Chetak (with my kid son in the front and my understanding wife in the pillion to the Gole Bazaar for Puja purchases) I suddenly took a detour to the Post Office which was then within the Main Building for dropping a letter.

And as we approached the deserted blood red Post Box, my son cried: "Money!" pointing to the ground.

And me and he picked up loose flying currency notes worth Rs 270 or so.

My wife at once said: "My prayers are answered!"

But that lousy conscience thing started pricking me.

And I saw my friend VR cycling by and stopped him and asked him his precious advice.

And he listened to me carefully and took out a white paper from his file, tore a small piece about 2" x 2" and scribbled:

"Money Found! The owner may contact gps at Qrs CI - 97 within 48 hours and collect it"

And pasted it in one obscure corner of the Post Office and let me go.

Since it was the beginning of DP holidays, the chances of anyone retrieving it were minimal, I thought.

But next evening, I found who looked like an impoverished Research Scholar knocking at our door.

"How much?"

"Rs 300"

"In what denominations?"

"Does it matter?"

"Very much"

Pregnant silence.

"2 hundred rupee notes and the rest tens"

"Sorry"

I almost heard Ukridge saying:

"No harm trying, no?"

====================================================================

Ours Theirs

========================================================================

Some days ago Supratim voiced his concerns at the direction Indian Education System is heading and asked me for my thoughts on the subject; which I wrote up in the blog:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/06/pullout-blog.html

Again, a few days back I was struck by some plain-speaking by Obama which I posted in another blog:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/06/archieland.html

And today there is an op-ed interview of Amitav Ghosh by Kaushik Mitter in Deccan Chronicle touching on this subject.

And I am taking the liberty of quoting excerpts from the article below:

*********************************************************************************************************

"...I think what's happened in America, the reason it made such an impact is that Americans have begun to realise that their is something problematic about their system of education. For years they've been accustomed to thinking their education system is the best in the world; now they realise it has very deep problems. I've brought up two children there, they've been through the whole American educational system---and I'm happy that they've done very well in that system. But I certainly realise this system is riddled with terrible problems.

I also think the strengths of our system are never properly articulated. The whole world has become battered and bullied by this constant talk about the excellence of American education by people who have no experience of it, who don't know what it is to bring up children in different places...people automatically accept there is something magnificent in that system and that our system is horrible...And it is not really true.

I've taught at Harvard and at all these places...One of the reasons I really feel relieved not to be teaching anymore is that I don't think in many significant respects that the American system works...

School education, college education...From top to bottom, it just doesn't work. In some ways it's become like entertainment (Archieland...gps)...When as a college teacher in America you are offering a class, the children "shop" for classes. So which are the classes they are going to take? The classes that are entertaining, the classes where they are marked very liberally. This is exactly what happens; they put their evaluations on their websites so that the students who are following know exactly who are the strict teachers, who are not strict teachers, and they game the system very, very well...

Education is not all fun. Education is difficult, but the idea that you have to make education fun at some point becomes self-defeating. You can't make certain kinds of mathematics fun. You can't make difficult things fun. And that's not why you are doing education. Learning poetry by heart is not fun. But it's very necessary to have that poetry in your head if you are studying English literature...I sometimes ask my children: Can you recite a poem?---and they've been to the top institutions in America---and no, they can't.

They (Americans) think that rote learning is bad...But it is such an idiotic idea---what's learning but rote learning? How can you learn the multiplication tables as though it was fun? And learning is in fact 90% rote learning...if you constantly attack this idea of rote learning, it's ridiculous...

If you go to American Universities now, why is it that all the departments of mathematics, engineering are filled with Asian students? They come from systems where the rigor is drilled into them from an early age. If it hasn't been drilled into you from an early age, you have to be truly exceptional. America is a country filled with very brilliant people, and many exceptional students. But the institutional structure doesn't always support them.

...For example, my niece in Kolkata, when she has to go through exams, the whole house shuts down. For two or three months no one will go out, (someone) will sit with her every evening, no one will turn on the TV, literally...the kind of things that every parent in India, every household in India does. Can you imagine this happening in America? It's inconceivable.

...I'm not saying our system is without faults. There are many faults, many things wrong with it. But there's lot of stuff which I see is constantly being said---from education ministry people and so on, most of whom have no connection with education. I look at it and just laugh to myself...These people have no conception of what they're saying---they are going to destroy what's good in our system and take everything that's bad in that system and end up with the worst possible mess.

When I went from Delhi University to Oxford, I thought I was going into a place where there's so much higher learning, so much a "life of mind" and it was exactly opposite...My education in Delhi had been much better than anything Oxford would have provided. I was far ahead of those other students; I'd read all the books already...I knew more than my teachers there, for heaven's sake.

There were also wonderful things about Oxford. It let me explore avenues and byways I could not have done in Delhi, but that was possible because I'd been through this whole rigour...What really worries me is that they are in danger now of throwing out the baby and keeping the bathwater!

One thing that is never factored into the debate here---do people even understand the level of cost involved...For each of my two children I'm paying $50,000 a year for college education...each year for four years...so at the end on each child you spend something like a crore of rupees on their college education.

Our system is delivering an education which in many ways competitive internationally---and at what cost? It's less than one percent of that cost. How will our society generate this kind of money for this (American) kind of education? It's ridiculous. Even America can no longer sustain this. Everyone there is talking of the next big bubble being in American education, and I think they're absolutely right...

Do you know what they have to do to put their children through college? People don't realise this here---they take out these loans, and a staggering percentage of American children now come into life with a burden of loans which amount to $200,000---$300,000. These loans have crippling rates of interest---they can never get rid of these loans, and they are specifically exempted even from bankruptcy claims...So if a person declares bankruptcy, even then they cannot get rid of these loans. For the first 20-30 years of their lives they are working to pay off these loans. Is such a system conceivable here? What impact will it have on the poor and all those who can't afford it?"

****************************************************************************************************************

gpspeak

Taylor & Wheeler came up with Spacetime Physics many decades ago. The book was on SR and specifically meant for students afraid of Calculus. I enjoyed it and learned many things from it because I knew Calculus and SR already.

A few years back they came up with Exploring Blackholes. The book was on GR and specifically meant for students afraid of Tensor Analysis. I enjoyed it and learned many things from it because I knew Tensor Analysis and GR already.

Edwin asked me if I could teach GR from their book, which IMPORTS the Schwardschild Metric out of their hat.

I replied that Supratim would catch my throat...and strangle me if I do that in our class room...

========================================================================

Docility

=======================================================================

As I said the other day, monsoon has arrived in AP, covering all of it and bringing cheer to one and all, especially the farming community who were awaiting the rains with bated breath to start their tilling operations with gusto and fanfare.

And there was this piquant news item with color photo of a Senior Politician (SP) getting kicked viciously on his chest by an otherwise tame bullock. SP was knocked down, picked up by his admirers promptly and escaped with minor bruises cheerfully (nothing compared to being 'shoed' by even more vicious premeditated journalists).

Apparently SP was invited to a farm festival to inaugurate the ceremonial plowing in a rural setting; and SP brandished to the crowd his rural upbringing by patting one of the two bullocks harnessed to the ceremonial plow on his (bullock's) hind parts; and he (the bullock) didn't take it kindly.

The explanation of the unexpected kick that was dished out to the press was that the bullock was hassled and annoyed by the politicking crowd.

But it happens in life all the time...the humble and the docile can take only that much and no more.

*********************************************************************************************************

RKN wrote a famous eulogy to the saintly donkey in which he avers:

"Its kick is supposed to be lethal, but I shall not accept the view until I hear someone speak of it from first-hand experience, either as a sight-seer or a near victim".

Well, RKN spent his formative years in Madras and Mysore instead of my Muthukur which had as many donkeys as cows spending most of their time on the sandy bank of our Village Tank.

I did watch with lots of amusement our rowdy school seniors getting kicked pretty viciously while they were trying to molest unsuspecting donkeys...but I must say some of the experts did succeed...

***********************************************************************************************************

During his decade in the Phy Dept at IIT KGP, SDM was the most misunderstood man...only HNB, DB and myself knew and condoned his eccentric ways...others mostly left him alone as he did them.

Except for the year when he most unwisely accepted Headship to "prove that for a Theoretical Physicist administration is child's play".

There was this Prof K who was the most gentle, urbane and suave Physicist I knew and who bowed and smiled to one and all cheerfully and admitted rather candidly that he was a 'zero' in Physics except in his specialization which happened to be Dielectrics.

One evening as I was entering SDM's Office, Prof K was coming out banging the door behind him and smiling at me rather triumphantly.

And as I entered and took my seat, I was struck by the dazed look on SDM's face as if he was kicked by that molested donkey of my school years.

For a good 5 minutes SDM kept unusually quiet and broke his silence asking:

"You know Prof K well...what has gone wrong with him today?"

And then we talked about the Referee Report on our Paper; but SDM was clearly in no mood to genially crack a couple of jokes at the Referee's plight.

The next day, Prof K met me in the Canteen and told me his story, recalling the event a fortnight ago when SDM and I were talking in the corridor about the limit of the permittivity (epsilon) of a dielectric as the frequency (omega) tends to infinity.

I told SDM that it is mentioned in Landau & Lifschiz that it tends to unity and he agreed.

Prof K happened to be passing by and bowed to both of us genially but was stopped by SDM who asked:

"You are an expert in dielectrics...tell us what happens to epsilon as omega tends to infinity"

Prof K was unprepared and blurted:

"It can tend to anything".

Upon which SDM smiled his vicious smile and let it go.

Apparently, during the next fortnight, SDM repeated the question, got the same answer and gave the same smile whenever he met Prof K on the corridor.

Prof K didn't know that with SDM it was a reflex action...he was completely unaware that he was repeating the sequence endlessly.

Finally on that fateful evening Prof K had to see SDM in his Office to get one of his Project Papers signed; and as he was signing them, SDM repeated:

"You are an expert in dielectrics...tell us what happens to epsilon as omega tends to infinity?"

Then shit hit the fan...

Prof K told me that he was rather expecting this question and fully rehearsed his answer, which was a vituperative 5 minute abuse of all that was unbecoming in the crude and notorious behavior of SDM from his Calcutta days and challenging him angrily to draw the Cole-Cole Plot.

As I said, one should never take anyone for granted, however nice they happen to be.

***************************************************************************************************************

Men, Women & Statistics

"London: Men begin thinking about professing their love 97.3 days into a relationship, says a new study. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, however, said men who press their love early in a relationship are 'not to be trusted'. Women actually prefer it when males wait to get serious, the Daily Mail reported. The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, questioned 45 men and women"...IANS

Take your time please, no hurry!

=======================================================================

Now & Anon

====================================================================

My Uncle (85), who translated Gita into simple and lovely Telugu verses, shlok by shlok, and who has an envious sense of sound, once told me that 'anon' is a word he first saw in my 'outpourings' (as my B-i-L dubs them); and loved it.

I guess each of us has our own likes and dislikes for words. We are a verbocracy (sorry for that ugly word).

Whenever I see the word 'eclectic', I am stung to the quick. And today I read that word twice in DC and also its noun form 'eclecticity' (which is not there in Webster).

As a rule I avoid baby talk. As kids grow up they have their own way of repeating our words and corrupting them in the process. For instance, lisping 'daddy' as 'danny'. There is a strong tendency in parents to fall into the trap of saying 'danny' to them instead of insisting on 'daddy'.

But I have made an exception for Ishani. In the lovely Gated Township we live in here there is a kids' park which is boldly labeled: 'Kids Play Area' (speed limit: 10 kmph), to which she loves to be taken daily in the evenings.

And she calls it: 'Kitapiya' which to me sounds much more sensible; it is too much to expect any kid that is taken there to call it by its high-sounding name: 'Kids Play Area'.

So, 'Kitapiya' it is for all of us.

*************************************************************************************************************

I guess I should take a copyright or patent or IPR or whatever on what I write in my blogs.

There is a long Editorial today which is practically the 'essence' of what I have been talking about recently about our Indian Education System in:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/06/pullout-blog.html

and later posts.

On the other hand it feels good to be 'seconded'.

**************************************************************************************************************

Apart from Saints and Communists, most of us do have our bias in various matters despite our boasts to the contrary.

MSS at KGP was an unshaven but non-practicing Sardarjee. But he was very simple and reminds me of our PM (MMS). His views were catholic and he used to joke at his community's touchiness on various secular matters. Scientific in his thinking.

But after the Operation Blue Star in 1984 on the Golden Temple he was very upset and emotional and was practically reduced to tears.

And he confessed to me that it is impossible for most of us to deny our roots...they are too deep.

*****************************************************************************************************************

One very talented Material Scientist quit his cushy job in England where he stayed for 30 odd years and chose to return to India and join IIT KGP.

On being asked why, he said he took the decision when his 8-year-old daughter one day returned from school and asked him:

"Dad, everyone says you are a great scientist; can't you invent a cream which will turn my skin white?"

**************************************************************************************************************

I felt a lot of reverse discrimination due to my Brahmin caste in my student days in AP and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I shifted to Bengal where, Sunanda Datta-Ray once said: "Caste doesn't matter in Bengal" to the owner of The Hindu where it is joked that only Tamilian Brahmins used to be employed half a century ago.

But I must admit that when I read about so many Babas nowadays, I feel drawn to know which caste they belong to!

************************************************************************************************************

Here is Boston's Autocrat talking frankly about it a century and half ago on Sepoy Mutiny or The First War of Independence (take your pick):

***********************************************************************************************************

- Who was that person that was so abused some time since for saying
that in the conflict of two races our sympathies naturally go with
the higher?  No matter who he was.  Now look at what is going on in
India,--a white, superior "Caucasian" race, against a dark-skinned,
inferior, but still "Caucasian" race,--and where are English and
American sympathies?  We can't stop to settle all the doubtful
questions; all we know is, that the brute nature is sure to come
out most strongly in the lower race, and it is the general law that
the human side of humanity should treat the brutal side as it does
the same nature in the inferior animals,--tame it or crush it.  The
India mail brings stories of women and children outraged and
murdered; the royal stronghold is in the hands of the babe-killers.
England takes down the Map of the World, which she has girdled with
empire, and makes a correction thus:  [DELHI] Dele.  The civilized
world says, Amen

=====================================================================