***********************************************************************************************************************************
Between 1970 and 1975 we at IIT KGP somehow had a retired army man as our Director. Much rancor got generated in the teaching community (for good or bad) by his newfangled policies like 'rotation of headships', 'semester system', and things like that which were new to us and hence resisted...inertia of Newton's first law. And for the first time and in the first of the then six IITs we formed a Teachers Association that shouted against his policies.
The rancor was so much that we called a GBM of our IITTA and invited our Diro to take his lonely seat on the dais which he did with lots of military phlegm, listening stonily but not speaking. One after another, the old 'rotated' Heads and their chamchas went up the dais and spoke against him and his policies. And our own Prof HNB (rotated HoD) walked up and spewed venom and said:
"You, Sir, are not acting like a professor...you are acting like a Brigadier!"
When the said Brigadier was to retire, Indira Gandhi's Emergency got rolled out and the Ministry felt that the new director of the oldest IIT should rather be a young man and so appointed a Delhi IIT Prof of EE, CSJ, as our newcomer. He was almost a generation younger than the senior-most professors at IIT and so he behaved like a good student, reverential and sympathetic and modest, and got to be liked by everyone from students to professors. We didn't feel at all that an Emergency was in force...it came later on, after he left, when the rest of the country was done with it ;)
CSJ wanted to get back to his IIT Delhi soonest and so he didn't complete his 5-year term and left KGP when everyone asked: "Why so soon?" rather than "Oh, When!!!"
And so the IIT community including students and teachers assembled in the Open Air Theater (erected by the Brigadier) to bid CSJ a fond farewell. One after another, HoD's who have been reinstated (de-rotated) during his short regime went up the stage and spoke kindly about CSJ.
And when the turn of our HNB came, he walked up the stage and began saying:
"I stand here to pay my homage to our Director..."
And then there was an uproar from the students assembled in the back benches shouting:
"Hey! Hey!! Hey!!!"
HNB waited till the howls subsided, and repeated:
"I stand here to pay my homage to our Director..."
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2011/08/himerick.html
Dear Dr GP: When she was in her St. Agnes Convent my daughter was writing chaste English. But after shifting to KV, she is mixing a lot of Hindi words.
Dr GP: This is known as the “Shobhaa De Linguistic Modeling”. Congratulations, your daughter is poised on the threshold of a lucrative career of web-journalism.
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/03/ask-dr-gp.html
*************************************************************************************************************
Well, Shobhaa De has been my longtime favorite. We were born in the same 1940s decade (don't remind her) and she after all married our own boy ultimately.
Birds of the same passage and vintage.
I just love her writing. Don't believe me?
OK...below is a 'zipped limerick' I wrote 2.5 years ago:
*************************************************************************************************************
Shobhaa De
She hath a way
With words
Like swords
She rips her prey!
If you want to know more about this dynamic dame, look up:
http://yourstory.com/2010/06/shobha-de-celebrated-columnist-and-novelist-in-a-candid-conversation-with-canta-dadlaney-for-yourstory/
Meanwhile, the Shobhaa (Lustre) of our own household just now walked into my room and commanded me to take her picture in her new outfit and upload it in my today's blog:
...Posted by Ishani
**************************************************************************************************************************************
http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/vaahini/PublishingImages/center-stage/centrestage_shobhaa_de.jpg
Relief for Shobhaa
...The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the privilege motion by the Maharashtra Assembly against author Shobhaa De for her remarks on twitter about Marathi movie screenings....
Between 1970 and 1975 we at IIT KGP somehow had a retired army man as our Director. Much rancor got generated in the teaching community (for good or bad) by his newfangled policies like 'rotation of headships', 'semester system', and things like that which were new to us and hence resisted...inertia of Newton's first law. And for the first time and in the first of the then six IITs we formed a Teachers Association that shouted against his policies.
The rancor was so much that we called a GBM of our IITTA and invited our Diro to take his lonely seat on the dais which he did with lots of military phlegm, listening stonily but not speaking. One after another, the old 'rotated' Heads and their chamchas went up the dais and spoke against him and his policies. And our own Prof HNB (rotated HoD) walked up and spewed venom and said:
"You, Sir, are not acting like a professor...you are acting like a Brigadier!"
When the said Brigadier was to retire, Indira Gandhi's Emergency got rolled out and the Ministry felt that the new director of the oldest IIT should rather be a young man and so appointed a Delhi IIT Prof of EE, CSJ, as our newcomer. He was almost a generation younger than the senior-most professors at IIT and so he behaved like a good student, reverential and sympathetic and modest, and got to be liked by everyone from students to professors. We didn't feel at all that an Emergency was in force...it came later on, after he left, when the rest of the country was done with it ;)
CSJ wanted to get back to his IIT Delhi soonest and so he didn't complete his 5-year term and left KGP when everyone asked: "Why so soon?" rather than "Oh, When!!!"
And so the IIT community including students and teachers assembled in the Open Air Theater (erected by the Brigadier) to bid CSJ a fond farewell. One after another, HoD's who have been reinstated (de-rotated) during his short regime went up the stage and spoke kindly about CSJ.
And when the turn of our HNB came, he walked up the stage and began saying:
"I stand here to pay my homage to our Director..."
And then there was an uproar from the students assembled in the back benches shouting:
"Hey! Hey!! Hey!!!"
HNB waited till the howls subsided, and repeated:
"I stand here to pay my homage to our Director..."
This time however there was complete silence from the hecklers. And HNB carried on.
I could guess the reason for the initial uproar. Students, and perhaps many polite others, thought that homage is something you pay to departed souls. But when HNB repeated it, they knew they were wrong. Perhaps they thought that what HNB ought to pay a living and kicking youngster was a 'tribute'.
So I went home and looked up my bulky Webster to get the difference.
And I did it just now again on the net.
What I found was that 'tribute' and 'homage' are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Not much difference. But they are surprisingly not synonyms of each other.
All I could find was that tribute is more substantial while homage is a little more ethereal. And homage is something you pay in public oftener. Otherwise they are the same thing. And homage is certainly not confined to dead men (or women) or their spirits.
Well, I too did pay my own homage to my Ph D guide, SDM, a good decade after he died and three decades after we parted. It begins with the sentence:
"This is not Homage; this is my homage, if you make allowances for my congenital irreverence."
But I don't recall paying either a tribute or homage to anyone else in my 2000-odd blog posts.
Except perhaps to Shobhaa De'.
Here it is:
Dear Dr GP: When she was in her St. Agnes Convent my daughter was writing chaste English. But after shifting to KV, she is mixing a lot of Hindi words.
Dr GP: This is known as the “Shobhaa De Linguistic Modeling”. Congratulations, your daughter is poised on the threshold of a lucrative career of web-journalism.
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/03/ask-dr-gp.html
*************************************************************************************************************
Well, Shobhaa De has been my longtime favorite. We were born in the same 1940s decade (don't remind her) and she after all married our own boy ultimately.
Birds of the same passage and vintage.
I just love her writing. Don't believe me?
OK...below is a 'zipped limerick' I wrote 2.5 years ago:
*************************************************************************************************************
Monday, February 23, 2009
Shobhaa strips Muthalik
Shobhaa De
She hath a way
With words
Like swords
She rips her prey!
If you want to know more about this dynamic dame, look up:
http://yourstory.com/2010/06/shobha-de-celebrated-columnist-and-novelist-in-a-candid-conversation-with-canta-dadlaney-for-yourstory/
Meanwhile, the Shobhaa (Lustre) of our own household just now walked into my room and commanded me to take her picture in her new outfit and upload it in my today's blog:
...Posted by Ishani
No comments:
Post a Comment