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...In the dim cavern of Paddington Station the boat train snorted impatiently, varying the process with an occasional sharp shriek. The hands of the station clock pointed to ten minutes to six. The platform was a confused mass of travellers, porters, baggage, trucks, boys with buns and fruit, boys with magazines, friends, relatives, and Bayliss the butler, standing like a faithful watchdog beside a large suit case...The engine gave a final shriek of farewell. The train began to slide along the platform, pursued to the last by optimistic boys offering buns for sale....
....PGW in "Piccadilly Jim" (1917)
It could as well be the KGP station in 1975. The scenes remained the same.
Whenever I was bored when I was a bachelor there, I used to take out my pushbike and ride to the KGP Station just to watch the trains and the hectic scenery. And, after a while, sit down by the back table of the then gorgeous Railway Restaurant on Platform # 2. The waiter boys in livery knew me like a friend...I was a fabulous tipper. And without asking me, they would fetch, in a few minutes, a double-omelet, bread and butter, a pot of steaming coffee, a packet of Wills Flakes and a matchbox.
Once I wrote a chapter of a thesis there...
Trains fascinate me. And railroad metaphors too...like the 'train of thoughts'.
Sayan Kar resurrected my Guide SDM a good quarter century after SDM left IIT KGP. I am happy to note that the S. Datta Majumdar Memorial Lecture at IIT KGP is going strong.
Sayan also inspired me to write up my 17-page magnum opus: 'My Homage to SDM' that appeared in the Phy Dept's Webzine: "Ansatz".
On the first page of my story, I invented, I am sure of it, this little extension of the Railroad Metaphor of the 'Train of Thoughts':
"Special Thanks: Sayan Kar has been the Engine as well as Guard of this train of thoughts."
And I am happy for it.
Here is our Autocrat invoking the rail metaphor for conversation:
"People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism..."
Sherlock Holmes has a little-known elder brother who appears in just 4 of his adventures. And this is what he says about him:
It was the maid with a telegram. Holmes tore it open and burst out laughing.
“Well, well! What next?” said he. “Brother Mycroft is coming round.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Why not? It is as if you met a tram-car coming down a country lane. Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them. His Pall Mall lodgings, the Diogenes Club, Whitehall—that is his cycle. Once, and only once, he has been here. What upheaval can possibly have derailed him?”
Most every Saturday between 1985 and 2005, I used to pick up my friend NP from his Qrs at 11 AM, first on my Bajaj Chetak and later in my Maruti 800. And we traveled to Gole Bazaar for a bit of shopping and a lot of exchange of the week's news, views and gossip. And return by 1 PM.
If by chance on any Saturday I went alone to Gole Bazaar, every shopkeeper would ask me:
"Where is your friend, sir?"
News of this unflinching habit of us spread far and wide.
Once, while NP was the Managing Director of STEP, a sister organization of IIT, a distinguished visitor was scheduled to visit IIT KGP, and his itinerary at IIT was drawn up by the concerned Dean who took it to the Director.
Upon inspecting it, the Director is said to have remarked:
"Visit to STEP on Saturday at 12 noon! Either postpone it or prepone it...for Professor N. P. Rao would be in Gole Bazaar along with his friend, Professor G. P. Sastry, between 11 AM and 1 PM every Saturday without fail"
...Posted by Ishani
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