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...That every articulately-speaking human being has in him the stuff of one novel in three volumes duo-decimo has long been with me a cherished belief...Now an author's first novel is naturally drawn, to a great extent, from his personal experiences...But the moment the author gets out of his personality, he must have the creative power, as well as the narrative art and the sentiment, in order to tell a living story; and this is rare...
...Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (copy gifted by Ed Taylor)
"Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see - because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody'- why my diary should not be interesting."
...The Diary of a Nobody (copy gifted by Pratik-sir)
After my retirement I met quite a number of 'articulately-speaking' retired people, who have impressed me with their talks and their colorful life. I asked each of them why they don't write up their autobiography as a series of blogs.
Their replies have varied.
My eldest B-i-L, the IAS one who wrote the Foreword for my 'Limericks and Light Verses', has always been an incessant talker. And his talks have always been interesting, since he is very well-read and has a bundle of reminiscences of his in his professional as well as personal life. First he replied he has no time. Next, that he is not net-savvy (a lame excuse lately proffered by Indra, of all people, why he doesn't read gps-blogspot). Then something else. Finally he told his wife that he can't write as well as gps...a flattering excuse...as if I have set a benchmark.
The same story with my other B-i-L, the famous Doctor who wrote the Foreword for the second Ishani booklet. Then there is my cousin, retired from BHU as Professor of Metallurgy, who read all the Ishani booklets and has always been the first to call me up and comment on one piece or the other.
The really honest reply came from an ardent book-lover, Senior Prof S H Rao (GG), retired from IIT KGP, whose Collection can compete with that of Pratik-sir, inherited as well as acquired. When I found his postal address in Hyderabad, I mailed him copies of all the Ishani booklets, just to see if he reads them all. That would be the litmus test of their readability...he doesn't suffer fools gladly and is not afraid to say so to their faces. Within two days of the packet reaching him he called me up and spoke for a couple of hours, commenting on each and every KGP story. Later, we happened to meet at the Wedding Ceremony of a common-friend's son and as soon as his wife saw me she came up and thanked me for 'taking her back to KGP' after 2 decades. And while they were leaving the Function Hall, word came to me that SHR was waiting to see me at their car. And when I ran to meet him, he said:
"I too want to write up my KGP reminiscences but I cannot write"
...an excuse an Anonymous reader of this blog made recently:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2009/10/in-praise-of-laziness.html
That way I have been very lucky to spend quality time in front of the keyboard. It has been a unique experience. My urge to write coincided with the popularity of Blogger. I had trained composing in Word towards the end of my tenure at IIT KGP with the intention of writing up a Lecture Notes for the Jumbo Class. I have remained unemployed with lots of time on my hands. And every writer needs some form of feedback to continue writing...even blogging. And I had it from a handful of diehard KGPhians.
So, it goes on...
Just as I wrote the above sentence I checked my inbox, which I do every ten minutes while blogging...to take time-out for the good old bean...
And here it is from Saswat:
I hope your health is normal again .. hope to get my daily gp-blog-fix soon.
...I remember having read somewhere that Feynman suspected that he had a brain clot or tumor while delivering a lecture since, like with Alice, it was coming out "not quite right"...
Since then I have been trying to get the reference like a good scientist; and here it is from James Gleick's book: GENIUS (copy gifted by Moitreyee)...see what a parasite I have become...:
...Finally, after beginning a class room lecture, he suddenly realized he was speaking disjointed nonsense. He stopped, apologized, and left the room...
That 'disjointed nonsense' reminds me of my senior colleague Prof S V Deshpande at IIT KGP, who was known for his absolute fearlessness in speaking out his mind.
There was this Faculty Meeting chaired by the revered HNB and attended by SDM, GBM, SDR and many senior-professors. The agenda was:
"How to improve the standards of our teaching?"
SVD heard all the platitudes with a fag in his hands and a contemptuous look on his face and shouted:
"Everything will be ok if our senior professors stop going unprepared for their lectures and start rambling."
As you can imagine, shit really hit all the eight ceiling fans in the Seminar Room, and every frontbencher was red-faced, except SDM (against whom the barb was aimed) who was unfazed because he was solving that SU(n) thing and so was 'elsewhere'.
Before the big shots could recover and seek an apology, SVD left the room stubbing his fag beneath his heels. And everyone left behind agreed unanimously that they don't agree with SVD...
Time to stop now...there has been this power outage for the past one hour and although we have an Inverter, my son warns me to plug out the laptop from its socket since it apparently consumes hell of a lot of Wattage.
And anytime the internet may conk off too...
Good Night!
...Posted by Ishani
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...Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (copy gifted by Ed Taylor)
"Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see - because I do not happen to be a 'Somebody'- why my diary should not be interesting."
...The Diary of a Nobody (copy gifted by Pratik-sir)
After my retirement I met quite a number of 'articulately-speaking' retired people, who have impressed me with their talks and their colorful life. I asked each of them why they don't write up their autobiography as a series of blogs.
Their replies have varied.
My eldest B-i-L, the IAS one who wrote the Foreword for my 'Limericks and Light Verses', has always been an incessant talker. And his talks have always been interesting, since he is very well-read and has a bundle of reminiscences of his in his professional as well as personal life. First he replied he has no time. Next, that he is not net-savvy (a lame excuse lately proffered by Indra, of all people, why he doesn't read gps-blogspot). Then something else. Finally he told his wife that he can't write as well as gps...a flattering excuse...as if I have set a benchmark.
The same story with my other B-i-L, the famous Doctor who wrote the Foreword for the second Ishani booklet. Then there is my cousin, retired from BHU as Professor of Metallurgy, who read all the Ishani booklets and has always been the first to call me up and comment on one piece or the other.
The really honest reply came from an ardent book-lover, Senior Prof S H Rao (GG), retired from IIT KGP, whose Collection can compete with that of Pratik-sir, inherited as well as acquired. When I found his postal address in Hyderabad, I mailed him copies of all the Ishani booklets, just to see if he reads them all. That would be the litmus test of their readability...he doesn't suffer fools gladly and is not afraid to say so to their faces. Within two days of the packet reaching him he called me up and spoke for a couple of hours, commenting on each and every KGP story. Later, we happened to meet at the Wedding Ceremony of a common-friend's son and as soon as his wife saw me she came up and thanked me for 'taking her back to KGP' after 2 decades. And while they were leaving the Function Hall, word came to me that SHR was waiting to see me at their car. And when I ran to meet him, he said:
"I too want to write up my KGP reminiscences but I cannot write"
...an excuse an Anonymous reader of this blog made recently:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2009/10/in-praise-of-laziness.html
That way I have been very lucky to spend quality time in front of the keyboard. It has been a unique experience. My urge to write coincided with the popularity of Blogger. I had trained composing in Word towards the end of my tenure at IIT KGP with the intention of writing up a Lecture Notes for the Jumbo Class. I have remained unemployed with lots of time on my hands. And every writer needs some form of feedback to continue writing...even blogging. And I had it from a handful of diehard KGPhians.
So, it goes on...
Just as I wrote the above sentence I checked my inbox, which I do every ten minutes while blogging...to take time-out for the good old bean...
And here it is from Saswat:
Dear Sir,
First .. I hope you are feeling much better now that your BP has come down. I must say I was concerned after reading your 'Current Account' blogs. And to be honest I was concerned in a layered manner! In some sense, reading your blogs are therapeutic to me. Your blogs about your village, your growing up, your father, remind me of my father and grandfather and my ancestors' village. My dad doesn't blog or such .. but I am sure if he did, his blogs would be similar to yours (at least material-wise, if not stylistically).
So.. I was worried that you will get sick and stop blogging. And I am glad you are back to normal and the blogs will keep coming as usual. :)....
Yours,
Saswat
In my yesterday's post I wrote:
Since then I have been trying to get the reference like a good scientist; and here it is from James Gleick's book: GENIUS (copy gifted by Moitreyee)...see what a parasite I have become...:
...Finally, after beginning a class room lecture, he suddenly realized he was speaking disjointed nonsense. He stopped, apologized, and left the room...
That 'disjointed nonsense' reminds me of my senior colleague Prof S V Deshpande at IIT KGP, who was known for his absolute fearlessness in speaking out his mind.
There was this Faculty Meeting chaired by the revered HNB and attended by SDM, GBM, SDR and many senior-professors. The agenda was:
"How to improve the standards of our teaching?"
SVD heard all the platitudes with a fag in his hands and a contemptuous look on his face and shouted:
"Everything will be ok if our senior professors stop going unprepared for their lectures and start rambling."
As you can imagine, shit really hit all the eight ceiling fans in the Seminar Room, and every frontbencher was red-faced, except SDM (against whom the barb was aimed) who was unfazed because he was solving that SU(n) thing and so was 'elsewhere'.
Before the big shots could recover and seek an apology, SVD left the room stubbing his fag beneath his heels. And everyone left behind agreed unanimously that they don't agree with SVD...
Time to stop now...there has been this power outage for the past one hour and although we have an Inverter, my son warns me to plug out the laptop from its socket since it apparently consumes hell of a lot of Wattage.
And anytime the internet may conk off too...
Good Night!
...Posted by Ishani
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