Our T-board gang is almost non-existent now. Guru was the last man standing and he left today. We had a big gang comprising of 12-13 people, with our fixed 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. T at the T board. I may not recall all the names but lets try, It was Shankara, Phanikumar, Sudhir, Phaniraj, Sarvavanan, Krishanu, Guru, Kottada, me, Basa, Ln(rao), Manas, I am sure I forgot few. Extreme weather or tremendous workload could not alter the schedule for a single day. Even during student’s symposium days we used to find 5 min for the T. I remember Shankara used to sleep for 2 min if the time at the clock wasn’t showing 2 p.m. sounds crazy right, that’s how grad students act. The discussion at the T-board used to be pretty much informal, and at times there used to be a technical discussion. Boy, I am sure that must be one rare opportunity to see the beautiful minds at their best. Honestly speaking there were much technical stuff which I picked up from these sessions, but interesting was gossips, they were really hilarious! I won’t divulge who used to crack what kind of joke but they were really some enjoyable moments. Change is the name of life and there is always something better happens all the time. I am sure this will give away opportunity for different people among us to come together and form a new fresh group. Renowned singer Manna Dey has a famous Bengali song on "coffee house"; I am trying to translate the last few lines:
“… Those seven chairs and the table are still there, even the cups are also not empty; new buds have come in the same garden only the old gardeners have disappeared…”
Best of luck mates we will share a cup of T again :-)
All smiles!!!
From left: Ln(rao) in Mcgill Univ Canada, Sahoo in Japan, Basa in Leuven, Belgium, Kotts in Karlshrue Germany, Saswata and Me right here, Guru will be in Northwestern USA, Sudhir is in Boulder USA.
“… Those seven chairs and the table are still there, even the cups are also not empty; new buds have come in the same garden only the old gardeners have disappeared…”
Best of luck mates we will share a cup of T again :-)
All smiles!!!
The tree in the background has also disappeared from the T-Board
4 comments:
Santonu, Yes it's indeed very much nostalgic. I guess the photo was taken by great Krishanu with his brand new SLR. If I remember right, this 2& 10 PM ritual was started by Shankara, Phani, Phaniraj and Sudhir in 1999, before I joined back in IISc in 2000. Meeting point used to be Chokshi's Lab before we proceed to T-Board.
The T-board is very addictive as many of my friends visited me mentioned so. To conlcude our T-board meetings, as a Telugu poet said 'Aa rojulu malli ravu' (Those days will never come again).
Santonu, thanks a lot.
-ravi sankar (kotts)
Kotts u r memory is awsome, yes it was taken by Krishanu, with his new camera which none had seen after few weeks :-). Once you are back we will again begin the sessions.
Seeing cheerful faces always freshens my mind-the snap that you put did just that. While the lines in manna's song are true, there is one thing i would like to add. The gang continued for >10 years because new comers kept joining. I think Singha was the last one to join. Wonder why new comers did not keep joining us. I hope the story does not repeat with the TMS night club too.
Santonu, senti kayku re? change is the only thing constant (as thaatha used to say). Can you imagine that T board actually used to be between our Department and CSA where there is some kind of a lawn now? Shankara will not forget the old location for obvious reasons. That was the time when certain students from biochem used to visit the place, you see ;-)
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