A FORGOTTEN MONARCH

The King of Kings  

 During the early 70's we as school children used to wonder where on earth was this Reykjavik. But we knew one thing for certain, that a young man called Bobby Fischer from the US was there, tearing off the iron curtain into pieces and bursting all red myths prevalent in the then world of chess where the Russian domination was unbelievably complete. At the world championship I think Fischer lost the first game, forfeited the second one and there after  played chess the way none else had ever played , conquered Boriss Spasky and went back quietly with the crown on his head. During those cold war days the west could not have asked for more and their media glorified this as the victory of capitalism over communism. But later incidents show that the King of chess never ever cared for such attributes. At Reykjavik he just played chess the way he only could. He did not even defeat Spasky.  Spasky was just crushed when the juggernaut rolled on! The King of the sixty four squares never competed in another world cup. Probably the genius never wanted anyone else to vouch for his position as the greatest of all grand masters of all times. While making the statement " I am the best and Spasky is the second" he was not engaging in any psychological warfare which was so rampant in the field of chess those days with the Russians being the Masters of the Art. He was only stating the obvious. It is a crying shame that the world chess establishment did not exploit the Fischer genius for posterity. Or did they find it convenient to avoid him and let him go his way? If he had continued to play chess, the present day grand masters would have been playing the game in an altogether different fashion with "Fischer games" as their encyclopedia. If Fischer had not freed the game from the clutches of Russia there would not have been so many non-Russian grand masters and world champions now. The game of chess and all those who love the game are eternally indebted to this legend called Bobby Fischer. Indeed a King who could never be check mated !!

                                                                                                                                                                     

Green's Function turned Red !!!

My dear Harikrishnan,

Did you frown?? I never called you Harikrishnan. But then , today on May 4th, 2012, suddenly everything is different. On this day my PG classes started early in the morning. "So what, you been doing that for decades now. I remember our classes at 8 a.m". I hear you saying this. Wait man, Today is May 4th 2012.  I started discussing partial differential equations in the morning and at about 11.30 I wrote on the board- "Green's Functions" and suddenly I saw Red. Yes , I realized that when I walk out of the class at 1 p.m that will be for the last time from that class which I loved so dearly. You too had loved that class in the midst of "lovely, dark and deep woods".  I remember your father once coming to that class to meet me. And his purpose... to thank me for your success in GATE 2002 !!! I felt humbled before that great man. I don't remember most of the things he spoke that day. But two things still linger in my mind. These two things I have narrated to 10 batches of my PG students after you left. On that day while teaching in our Santhiniketan type of class I felt somebody standing at the door. It was your father. But I could not move for a while.  He was there with folded hands in the "Namaskaram" posture. Before and after that day many people including students and their parents have said namaskaram to me. (In fact this is something any teacher gets in abundance). But this posture was the perfect one. Perfect One?? Yes , when you pick up something from nature, there is only one perfect representation for it.  Not everybody realizes that. Not everybody even knows that. But to the extraordinary, it comes so naturally. I was reminded of a few statements by Dr Padma Subramanyam, the Bharatha Natyam exponent. Sometime during the nineties I had attended a workshop cum demonstration by her. Then she said the following, " Whenever I have a doubt regarding a posture, I go to the temples where these are sculptured. These form our library". So Hari, the representation of a feeling or an emotion in nature is unique !! Your father knew it. Then he told me the following. After Harikrishnan's BSc results were out I started from Kollam buying application forms from colleges offering MSc Physics course. (You guys make the lives of parents miserable. Renjan also believes  that  one's intellectual faculties are in inverse proportion to one's performance in conventional examinations - and at CMI he worked hard to keep his scores as low as possible !! He goes to the extent of saying that the students shall learn only and never be examined !! Fortunately for me he is yet to say that there shall be no teachers). Your father continued. " Sir, reaching CMS college I felt like being in a very romantic ambience. Seeing these old structures and in particular these poetic pillars I decided that Harikrishnan will study here only and nowhere else !!!" Oh God, here is a man telling me what I always had in my mind and what I dared not to speak lest I be branded a lunatic for yet another reason !!! Did I hear a Sreeragam flowing out of the woods.....Endoro Mahanubhavulu......  Yes Man you have to go a long way to reach your father.

A father like him does just one thing. Inspires. The onus to get inspired lies with the son. And you are a "faithful" son indeed !!!

I had started off writing about my last day in CMS but it drifted to unplanned terrains. Yet I am happy that a random drift took such a beautiful course.

And Hari, in my case I am trying to be a "faithful father" !!! Yes, I am hugely inspired by Renjan. These days I learn a lot of Physics from him. I wish I were at least ten years younger so that I could have passed on to my students whatever I learn from him. I have a long long way to go and yet never reach him !!! This makes my joy unbounded when I retire. God has put him on the track I had always dreamt for him.

With love,

Your Rajan Saar.

I forgot to write this:

How it was curtains on May 4th. It was yet another 8 to 1 class on 4th May. Yes, yet another when it started at 8 a.m but not when it ended. At 1 p.m I stopped and was planning my steps out. I thought I will talk to the students for a while, cool down and retire with grace. As I was about to talk something Harsha (she was my student for her BSc too) uttered this without any "provocation" - Sir, this is your last class??

Oh God, now I should leave lest my feigned valour fail me, I told myself and left the class in a haste.

Left the class??

Yes, I left the class room taking with me  in my mind the facsimile of 31 batches of MSc students. Of course not in chronological order. 

Yes, there was some sort of an order. Some pictures were very bright. Some have started fading.

Three very bright pictures were those of Sakthi (Toyo University, Japan), Mon (Mohan) (James Cook University, Australia), and Oomman (Pensylvania State University, USA).                                                Tell you one more? Yes of course Meera (PDF at JNCASR, Bangalore).

                                                                                                                                                       Pradeep, Priyamvada, Thulasidharan, Sreedevi, Nampoothiri, Reji, Sherine...... oh no, I stop...lest I should end up writing all the names.....each was so dear to me.....dearer than what they would have ever thought to be......I always knew that my love for you all was very unrealistic.....but then for each person what is real is what one thinks to be real.....

Christina, should I tell these people that you are there in my heart as brilliantly as ever???

NO DILEMMA FOR THIS DOCTOR

Year 1984. I was in Agra on leave from CMS college for my M.Phil at the Agra University. My M.Sc class mate Mukesh Gupta was already married and had a son, the cute little Aditya. His extremely beautiful wife Madhu was a wonderful lady. Later she completed her PhD in painting. During my year long stay in Agra, I was a frequent visitor to Mukesh's house. Earlier during my M.Sc days I was almost always there. I remember his little sister Usha learning English - S...I...T, SIT, "mane baithna", R...U...N , RUN, "mane daudna" etc. Mukesh's mother used to prepare excellent tea for me. Now at M Phil the responsibility shifted to Madhu. She was a wonderful sister to me in Agra. She never asked me or requested me. She would just say "Rajan Bhayya, today you will have dinner here". I was always left with no option but to oblige.

One day I fell ill and Mukesh took me to Dr Kuntae's dispensary near New Agra chaurai.Chaurai is the slang for Chauraha meaning junction.

 This was the junction were Krishnan had his Madrasi hotel. Wonderful Masala Dosa and matchless Vada. I still have the taste on my tongue. Sardarjis used to flock there for Krishnan's special Vada. For them one vada was an unending source of sambar !  And Krishnan was only too happy to serve them with as much sambar as they wanted.

Again, this was the junction from where I used to buy those copies of " The Illustrated Weekly Of India". I was addicted to this wonderful stuff from the Times of India stable.

And the Bhagwan theater was just opposite to Krishnan's hotel. I remember watching Amitab Bachan's DON here. The cinema hall was on fire with the lambooji dancing to the tune of "Khaike Paan Banaraswallah".Today the chaurai is not there. The six lane Delhi-Kolkotta highway swallowed it.

Back to Dr Kuntae. The one room dispensary was about 20 X 20 feet. There were some 50 to 60 patients packed inside the room, all sitting on the floor. The doctor was at the far end of the room (not on the floor). Mukesh asked me to just walk up to him."Walk up to whom", I exclaimed ! Mukesh pushed me into the crowd and I started "drifting" towards the doctor. Finally when I was some 5 or 6 patients away from the doctor, he asked me in English, "what is your problem?" So he has recognized my "Madrasi" look. I said quietly to myself, " my only problem now is to reach you doctor". He waved to me to tell him my problem without wasting time. I could not open my mouth as I found that his stethoscope was moving busily over a patient's chest even as his left hand was sensing another man's pulse. Simultaneously he was telling the ill-literate village lady to increase the medicine dose if her child's dysentery has not subsided. Now hold your breath. Behind him sat an old man on the floor, with a thermometer in his mouth !!!

Parallel Processing ?

Multitasking ??

I am still in a dilemma.

Note:

While hundreds of ordinary people got relief from that 20x20 room, on the opposite side of the road Dr(Mrs) Vasanthi Kuntae ran a hospital for women. A reasonably big one.