By Prof. Kousik Guhathakurta
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| Prof. Kousik Guhathakurta |
I was flipping
through the pages of a reasonably fat book when a student entered my office for
some usual reason (which could be anything between a request for
reconsideration of evaluation and a genuine academic clarification). I do not
quite remember what he exactly wanted and how I reacted. That is neither
interesting nor too important. What is definitely interesting and what I
definitely remember is what followed the initial exchanges. His eyes fell on the fat volume in my hand
and his looks changed to one that showed a mixture of surprise, anxiety and may
be even disgust! He could not help himself asking “What is that book, sir?” I
can assure you of his vision –he could see exactly what the book was. Nor was
he particularly perturbed with the size- B-school boys are exposed (I only said
exposed) to fat books also. What seemed to disturb him was the title of the
book- “The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language”. If you still have
not gauged his exasperation let me also tell you that I happen to be on the
faculty of Finance.
