Thursday, November 6, 2008

Do you see what i see..? i see SXC

We had a professor at St Xaviers Calcutta (SXC) called Prof Saha who taught business mathematics.
Saha didnt teach our section but the other commerce sections.
This was the time when the US had its "smoke him out" policy fully out against Osama bin laden.

Xaviers as with most of the old Jesuit institutions had beautiful gothic architecture.
This beauty translated into amphitheatre style seating, long corridors & huge classrooms.
This architectural beauty also made sure that if you didnt whisper your voice would reach atleast three - four adjacent classrooms
when there is pin drop silence.
Pindrop silence at Xaviers was a reality not only when Fr Felix Raj the Vice Principal was on his rounds but also otherwise.

Now coming back to Prof Saha....he was small, diminutive & generally a harmless creature from the Indian hinterland.
Harmless even when tortured by stupid, irrelevant doubts by sleepy but bright commerce guys.
He was more African in looks than even a true blue African native.
The US agenda against Osama caught up with Saha sadly enuf.....
Whenever Prof Saha came up the staircase passing through the classes filled with those sleepy bright commerce students
there would be this bee like humming which filled the corridor " Oooo Sahaaa Bin Ladeeen"

Prof Saha showed infinite amount of patience which just strengthened the bee like humming to the almost lion like roar.
This soon became the talk of the town almost ( atleast near Park Street i guess).

Then one day almost a month after this had started a class tried the same stunt ...this time when he was in the middle of
the explanation of a complex maths problem with his back to the class & face towards the black board.
As soon as the " Oooo Sahaaa Bin Ladeeen" anthem gained momentum..Prof Saha jumped & turned (simultaneously)
suddenly now facing the class in pin drop silence..threw the chalk in his hand at the boy who was in the middle of the class...
simultaneously yelling "thor baap osama binladen"

I am sure had this incident taken place now ... the humming would have been " Oooo baamaa " & Prof Saha wouldnt have reacted the way he did.

2 comments:

J said...

I liked the other professor of yours - the one who narrated the island story when a student didn't have his calc with him. Lol, you should write a blog on that. Its classy

Neerja Jain said...

Hehehe... :)