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1970s were a curious time in West Bengal.
The centuries-old Dharmtala Street became Lenin Sarani overnight. The Harrington Street got the new name: Ho Chi Minh Sarani, out of spite for the American Embassy that was its landmark. We heard the slogan: 'Mao's Chairman is our Chairman' everywhere...but the Mao Brigade was hounded by the Lenin Troopers and had to escape to Srikakulam in AP. All Halls of Residence of IIT KGP were shut down for a couple of months due to the labor trouble instigated by the New Left. Famous industries fled Bengal...never to return...and most who couldn't flee simply died. Suddenly there was large scale unemployment and people started burning buses and doing Gherao. East Pakistan became Bangladesh within a fortnight of army action. Emergency got imposed and all Opposition leaders jailed.
And we had Dr R in our Faculty Hostel, a staunch supporter of all things Bengali, but a quiet gentleman otherwise. One evening in the Dining Hall, a few non-locals started deriding the bus-burning culture of Calcutta. And Dr R got furious and retorted:
"If people dying of hunger burn a few empty buses in their anger, what of it?"
And there was fond talk of reunification of the West and East Bengal after the Pakistan Army was driven out of their Eastern Wing. Many people at IIT KGP including Dr R had their roots and remnants of relatives in Bangladesh. And they were dreaming, aloud. And some nitwit cracked on the dining table:
"Yes, we should agree to the reunification of Bengals if Bangladesh is willing to merge W. Bengal into it"
...This almost led to fisticuffs in the Dining Hall.
In spite of all this turmoil, or perhaps because of it, I found astrology and palmistry flourishing in Bengal, including our Campus. Every other Bengali was having, on their fingers, a ring or two of copper or silver with precious stones embedded in them. And would give scientific explanations like diffusion of solids.
And Dr R, a very good friend of mine, used to read palms in the Dining Hall. And there was a constant demand for his free services. He told me that he never had to stand in the crowded Howrah-Kharagpur local trains. All he had to do was open his shoulder bag and take out and browse his Palmistry book in one hand while scrutinizing his other palm...he was at once given a seat and commuters would crowd him with open palms.
And he told me that he would say he was an expert in reading the character of his clientele from their lifeline, headline, heartline and possibly fateline:
"...You have a very strong will-power but you have a couple of weaknesses too....maybe an addiction to paan or tobacco or wine or...with a wink...women. You are frugal in your spending but have a streak of charity in you...you can't watch outstretched palms without qualms. You are widely read but your reading is not focused...you enjoy reading outside your profession....Bla bla bla..."
And it never failed, he used to say...
Except once...
While he was a graduate student at Tufts, he made a name for himself in his Graduate School as an expert in palmistry and character-reading. And, one day, this young American lady came and sat down beside him offering her palm.
Everything was going swell and she was adoring him till something he said upset her so much that she almost slapped him before getting up and flying away in a rage.
I asked him:
"What was it you said that offended her so?"
"Make three guesses!"
"No...I give up...please!"
"I called her 'innocent'...this is a very sweet trait said of Bengali girls but I didn't know that American girls consider innocence as another word for fatheadedness and cheatability"
Even Dr A of our Phy Dept and the famous Dr A of Mech Engg started buying and reading books and pontificating on the virtues of astrology for about a decade before they gave it up.
Our Dr A told me that his fame spread in the tiny campus when he had his first client who came to him with this problem: his cow had vanished the day before and he wanted help finding it. Dr A took down his astrology books from his shelf and demanded to know his client's date, time, and place of birth...also that of his cow. And after a great deal of intricate calculations with pen and paper taking down the planetary positions at the blessed event of vanishing; and announced (for free):
"Take a walk in the NE direction for a mile and turn left and after 5 minutes, turn right, and you will find your cow...if you don't find it, the fault is mine and not of the science of astrology"
Dr A told me that the cow was indeed found as predicted. And his fame grew and grew and he got so busy that his research work started suffering and he got an ultimatum from his Guide:
"Throw away all your astrology books, or leave my lab!"
"Sir, I promise to dump all my astrology for the nonce...but please, sir, take good care of your only daughter's health...her horoscope shows that she will fall seriously ill next week"
Dr A told me that he kept his promise...but his Guide turned his student in astrology:
"Give me all those books which I asked you to throw away..."
And then there was this Dr A (again) of ChE who later became a great name in rocket science. In the 1970s his fame as an astrologer spread like wild fire among the other astrologers of the campus. And I was told why:
"He included in his calculations not only the positions of the Vedic Navagrahas (sun, moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus, saturn, rahu and ketu) but also the current positions of uranus and neptune!"
And then there was this Professor of Physics who became a Minister at Center and imposed Vedic Astrology on the UGC. But of course, his convictions were more political than rational.
No ordinary mortal is that strong as not to say:
"I told you so!"
when his prediction turns up true.
And medicos are, by virtue of their dire need for diagnosis and prognosis, are always at the risk of predicting and seeing if their predictions go haywire on a daily basis.
I am told of a doctor diagnosing a young widow (30) of terminal cancer in the 1940s. And this lady wanted to die in Kashi so that she would straight land at the feet of Shiv-Parvati. And so, all arrangements were made by her kith and kin for her safe stay in an ashram on the banks of the Holy Ganges.
But she lived to 85 there, and then the ashram administrators sent word that they were no longer able to look after her at Kashi, and, would her folks please take her back home (much against her wishes). And she was safely brought back to her home in AP...and she died there within 3 months...
One Saturday morning in the last week of April 1994, I was playing with my son in our home at IIT KGP when the phone rang. And my Didi (a medico working as Professor at the famous Madras Medical College) was on the line and said:
"I went to Gudur yesterday on receiving news that Father (80) was seriously ill. And found him very ill indeed. I think he is in his last few days and wouldn't give him more than a fortnight to live. I am ringing up all our half a dozen sisters, and you in particular, to come home at once"
I ran to the Academic Section and collected (out of goodwill) the bundle of answer-scripts of my Exam held the day before, and finished the task of grading pronto, and reached Gudur by the next available train. Everyone was there since it was summer vacation for all except my Didi and her IAS hubby who had duties to attend at Madras.
Father's health was failing by the day for a week and I was reporting thrice daily to my Didi on his condition.
But after a week, he started showing signs of recovery, and I could sense that Didi was getting slightly embarrassed for calling one and all from far-off places. And that Saturday evening I reported to her:
"He is doing so good today that he may be good for another year"
And next morning between 4 and 5 he left us without any warning...we were all sleeping near him but found him dead in his peaceful sleep.
After the 13th day of the rituals when Didi and myself found ourselves alone when she blurted out with professional relief:
"I am happy that my prediction did come true"
And I said:
"No, Did, you are not happy... you are sorry that your prediction came true...and I am sorry mine didn't...both of us are sorry..."
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The centuries-old Dharmtala Street became Lenin Sarani overnight. The Harrington Street got the new name: Ho Chi Minh Sarani, out of spite for the American Embassy that was its landmark. We heard the slogan: 'Mao's Chairman is our Chairman' everywhere...but the Mao Brigade was hounded by the Lenin Troopers and had to escape to Srikakulam in AP. All Halls of Residence of IIT KGP were shut down for a couple of months due to the labor trouble instigated by the New Left. Famous industries fled Bengal...never to return...and most who couldn't flee simply died. Suddenly there was large scale unemployment and people started burning buses and doing Gherao. East Pakistan became Bangladesh within a fortnight of army action. Emergency got imposed and all Opposition leaders jailed.
And we had Dr R in our Faculty Hostel, a staunch supporter of all things Bengali, but a quiet gentleman otherwise. One evening in the Dining Hall, a few non-locals started deriding the bus-burning culture of Calcutta. And Dr R got furious and retorted:
"If people dying of hunger burn a few empty buses in their anger, what of it?"
And there was fond talk of reunification of the West and East Bengal after the Pakistan Army was driven out of their Eastern Wing. Many people at IIT KGP including Dr R had their roots and remnants of relatives in Bangladesh. And they were dreaming, aloud. And some nitwit cracked on the dining table:
"Yes, we should agree to the reunification of Bengals if Bangladesh is willing to merge W. Bengal into it"
...This almost led to fisticuffs in the Dining Hall.
In spite of all this turmoil, or perhaps because of it, I found astrology and palmistry flourishing in Bengal, including our Campus. Every other Bengali was having, on their fingers, a ring or two of copper or silver with precious stones embedded in them. And would give scientific explanations like diffusion of solids.
And Dr R, a very good friend of mine, used to read palms in the Dining Hall. And there was a constant demand for his free services. He told me that he never had to stand in the crowded Howrah-Kharagpur local trains. All he had to do was open his shoulder bag and take out and browse his Palmistry book in one hand while scrutinizing his other palm...he was at once given a seat and commuters would crowd him with open palms.
And he told me that he would say he was an expert in reading the character of his clientele from their lifeline, headline, heartline and possibly fateline:
"...You have a very strong will-power but you have a couple of weaknesses too....maybe an addiction to paan or tobacco or wine or...with a wink...women. You are frugal in your spending but have a streak of charity in you...you can't watch outstretched palms without qualms. You are widely read but your reading is not focused...you enjoy reading outside your profession....Bla bla bla..."
And it never failed, he used to say...
Except once...
While he was a graduate student at Tufts, he made a name for himself in his Graduate School as an expert in palmistry and character-reading. And, one day, this young American lady came and sat down beside him offering her palm.
Everything was going swell and she was adoring him till something he said upset her so much that she almost slapped him before getting up and flying away in a rage.
I asked him:
"What was it you said that offended her so?"
"Make three guesses!"
"No...I give up...please!"
"I called her 'innocent'...this is a very sweet trait said of Bengali girls but I didn't know that American girls consider innocence as another word for fatheadedness and cheatability"
Even Dr A of our Phy Dept and the famous Dr A of Mech Engg started buying and reading books and pontificating on the virtues of astrology for about a decade before they gave it up.
Our Dr A told me that his fame spread in the tiny campus when he had his first client who came to him with this problem: his cow had vanished the day before and he wanted help finding it. Dr A took down his astrology books from his shelf and demanded to know his client's date, time, and place of birth...also that of his cow. And after a great deal of intricate calculations with pen and paper taking down the planetary positions at the blessed event of vanishing; and announced (for free):
"Take a walk in the NE direction for a mile and turn left and after 5 minutes, turn right, and you will find your cow...if you don't find it, the fault is mine and not of the science of astrology"
Dr A told me that the cow was indeed found as predicted. And his fame grew and grew and he got so busy that his research work started suffering and he got an ultimatum from his Guide:
"Throw away all your astrology books, or leave my lab!"
"Sir, I promise to dump all my astrology for the nonce...but please, sir, take good care of your only daughter's health...her horoscope shows that she will fall seriously ill next week"
Dr A told me that he kept his promise...but his Guide turned his student in astrology:
"Give me all those books which I asked you to throw away..."
And then there was this Dr A (again) of ChE who later became a great name in rocket science. In the 1970s his fame as an astrologer spread like wild fire among the other astrologers of the campus. And I was told why:
"He included in his calculations not only the positions of the Vedic Navagrahas (sun, moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus, saturn, rahu and ketu) but also the current positions of uranus and neptune!"
And then there was this Professor of Physics who became a Minister at Center and imposed Vedic Astrology on the UGC. But of course, his convictions were more political than rational.
No ordinary mortal is that strong as not to say:
"I told you so!"
when his prediction turns up true.
And medicos are, by virtue of their dire need for diagnosis and prognosis, are always at the risk of predicting and seeing if their predictions go haywire on a daily basis.
I am told of a doctor diagnosing a young widow (30) of terminal cancer in the 1940s. And this lady wanted to die in Kashi so that she would straight land at the feet of Shiv-Parvati. And so, all arrangements were made by her kith and kin for her safe stay in an ashram on the banks of the Holy Ganges.
But she lived to 85 there, and then the ashram administrators sent word that they were no longer able to look after her at Kashi, and, would her folks please take her back home (much against her wishes). And she was safely brought back to her home in AP...and she died there within 3 months...
One Saturday morning in the last week of April 1994, I was playing with my son in our home at IIT KGP when the phone rang. And my Didi (a medico working as Professor at the famous Madras Medical College) was on the line and said:
"I went to Gudur yesterday on receiving news that Father (80) was seriously ill. And found him very ill indeed. I think he is in his last few days and wouldn't give him more than a fortnight to live. I am ringing up all our half a dozen sisters, and you in particular, to come home at once"
I ran to the Academic Section and collected (out of goodwill) the bundle of answer-scripts of my Exam held the day before, and finished the task of grading pronto, and reached Gudur by the next available train. Everyone was there since it was summer vacation for all except my Didi and her IAS hubby who had duties to attend at Madras.
Father's health was failing by the day for a week and I was reporting thrice daily to my Didi on his condition.
But after a week, he started showing signs of recovery, and I could sense that Didi was getting slightly embarrassed for calling one and all from far-off places. And that Saturday evening I reported to her:
"He is doing so good today that he may be good for another year"
And next morning between 4 and 5 he left us without any warning...we were all sleeping near him but found him dead in his peaceful sleep.
After the 13th day of the rituals when Didi and myself found ourselves alone when she blurted out with professional relief:
"I am happy that my prediction did come true"
And I said:
"No, Did, you are not happy... you are sorry that your prediction came true...and I am sorry mine didn't...both of us are sorry..."
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