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The other day I was saying that chanting the slogan, Vande Mataram, acted as a red rag to our British Bull who ordered lathi charge, firing squad, and imprisonment.
It is not always necessary that a taunt has to be verbal at high decibels. In our school years, students who were beat up by their teachers used to stick their tongues out and hold their temples with their outstretched hands to show their annoyance at the back of the said teacher to the vast amusement of their sympathetic classmates (see pic above).
A good 30 years later, I was at IIT KGP as a junior professor of physics and heard the story that a senior professor X of a certain high-flying department was at loggerheads with another senior professor Y of the same department. And matters got heated up and ultimately Prof X lodged a written complaint to the Director that Prof Y was in the annoying habit of sticking his tongue out and holding his open hands at his silent temples whenever Y sees X alone in the corridor (see pic above).
Needless to say, the Director appointed a high-power committee to investigate into the serious written complaint of X against Y. The sacred committee must have met a dozen happy times trying to figure out the naked truth. I don't recall how it all ended but there was no visible action taken against Y. Maybe because X failed to produce convincing witnesses. Or maybe the committee suspected X was suffering from a persecution complex in which case he would have been awarded free treatment at the BCR Hospital which, having no qualified psychiatrists, referred the matter to the BNR Hospital who forwarded the academic case to Midnapore who forwarded the case to PG Medial College Calcutta who laughed it out maybe.
You may think I am making it all up. But I assure you that most senior professors are a wee abnormal since they duly shed their teaching loads and live in their silent towers. Here is Einstein himself acting the goat:
...Posted by Ishani
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The other day I was saying that chanting the slogan, Vande Mataram, acted as a red rag to our British Bull who ordered lathi charge, firing squad, and imprisonment.
It is not always necessary that a taunt has to be verbal at high decibels. In our school years, students who were beat up by their teachers used to stick their tongues out and hold their temples with their outstretched hands to show their annoyance at the back of the said teacher to the vast amusement of their sympathetic classmates (see pic above).
A good 30 years later, I was at IIT KGP as a junior professor of physics and heard the story that a senior professor X of a certain high-flying department was at loggerheads with another senior professor Y of the same department. And matters got heated up and ultimately Prof X lodged a written complaint to the Director that Prof Y was in the annoying habit of sticking his tongue out and holding his open hands at his silent temples whenever Y sees X alone in the corridor (see pic above).
Needless to say, the Director appointed a high-power committee to investigate into the serious written complaint of X against Y. The sacred committee must have met a dozen happy times trying to figure out the naked truth. I don't recall how it all ended but there was no visible action taken against Y. Maybe because X failed to produce convincing witnesses. Or maybe the committee suspected X was suffering from a persecution complex in which case he would have been awarded free treatment at the BCR Hospital which, having no qualified psychiatrists, referred the matter to the BNR Hospital who forwarded the academic case to Midnapore who forwarded the case to PG Medial College Calcutta who laughed it out maybe.
You may think I am making it all up. But I assure you that most senior professors are a wee abnormal since they duly shed their teaching loads and live in their silent towers. Here is Einstein himself acting the goat:
...Photographer Arthur Sasse should be given the credit for capturing this quirky mood of the scientist way back in 1951 at his birthday celebration in Princeton. We are told that Sasse was trying to convince Einstein to pose for a pic but the scientist stuck out his tongue instead. Again, later Einstein ordered 9 copies of this pic and even signed one for news anchor Howard K. Smith with a message: “This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein ’53.”
The pic is symbolic because it gives us a sneak peak into the McCarthysim that had enveloped the USA that even required scientists to report on their colleagues...
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