In the last few months ,I hardly blogged any article,partly on account of my arrival into the city called Delhi,where you hardly have any time,and partly due to lack of any refreshing realization in the mechanical set up metro life style.but today,it was different.i had an opportunity to meet Professor Debdas Bhattacharjee,a visiting professor with about half a dozen prestigious management institutions in Delhi.It's not that I had planned to meet him,but it was a chance meeting,when I had gone to see my old colleague and a dear personal friend Atul Kumar at Dwarka today.He was supposed to take over posession of the house and it's keys from his tenant,Prof. Debdas.I was feeling a bit uneasy to barge into this situation,where Atul was sitting in the drawing room of the professor,who had shifted into a house opposite to Atul's after vacating the previous house.I was waiting outside when a warm voice greeted me from Atul's back requesting me to come inside.I am a person in public life and keep on meeting scores of people daily but people like prof. Debdas come as pleasant and welcome surprise.I own flat myself in Delhi and had opportunity to meet many tenants in the course of activities related to renting.But I never have come across anyone as affectionate and affable human being as him.Much beyond the reasonable courtesies,he is a warm hearted gentleman with sharp with and analytical mind.Externally like any other academician,he too appears aloof and self-contained personality,but deep within he is an enthusiastic and compassionate person with such sweet realizations about life.During the small chit-chat in the course of necessary paper work being done on the occasion ,he was so genial and generous that despite my cold and cough,I could not sy no to his "freeze cooled" sandesh and other "chhanna misti".I was born and brought up in Kolkata,so I have Bangla language and culture has very deep impression on my mind.In fact,I have more familiarity with Bangla than Maithili-my original mother tongue.So whenever I get an opportunity to converse ,I feel very happy and relish it to the core.
one of the very poignant observations,which demanded my attention ,was his power to observe things around him. Actually,if you dig deeper inside your self,you will realize that in this fast paced life w hardly have time to observe things.So much so that even the most basic aspects of our own life remain unnoticed tour conscious mind till they are pointed out by others.reflecting upon his past life in general,and his first US tour in particular,he recalled how the citizens over there made it a point to greet other enthusiastically,even if they were unfamiliar with each other.Even if it was a broad smile,that was fine,but they never forgot to give a cheerful acknowledgement of the other person's presence.
His second observation was about the contradictory nature of rising GDP claims and increasing number of beggars on the street.He said that the two things were in opposition yet the men in responsible chairs seem least bothered about this incongruence and are happy singing to the tunes of self-satisfying charts and graphs.This reminded me of the childhood in the streets of Kolkata,where despite the troubles of daily life,an average citizen was so much alive to the world around him and would make it a point to carry an informed opinion about the happenings beyond their immediate periphery.If you look around,you will find that either out of insensitivity or sheer self-centered lifestyle,such things not given any value by our contemporaries.
And the third thing that he mentioned that despite the down slide in the value system in the world around us on account of institutional onslaught on the values and individuals trying to uphold them,we have to keep trying within our sphere of activity.That,he averred,was the only hope for future.Finally he added with a broad smile,we have to remain optimistic and give our best.
Well,It was very enlivening experience to meet him and hope that we keep on communicating in future too.Indeed, professor,it's the people like you,whom the society looks up to in these trying times .And your great thoughts reminded me of the legenderay film song-jot se jot jalate chalo...prem ki ganga bahate chalo...
