Some memories...

Dev SS (acj, 98)

A couple of incidents came to mind. We were at Honnemaradu (a green paradise amidst the backwaters of the Sharavati river in Shimoga) on our first field trip. We were to camp on an island the first day. As it got dark, the organisers realised we had forgotten the food… so Sanyal and I volunteered to help Chakra (Sudarshan – one of the organisers) get back to the mainland by coracle and fetch rice, vegetables and utensils from the kitchen.

Since we were camping atop the hill on the island, it took a while to clamber down. Along the way, Sanyal narrated a reporting assignment he’d taken up during the war (for the liberation of Bangladesh). He was stringing for AFP or AP. He'd disguised himself as a Bangladeshi villager and was accompanied by a boy-guide.

However, in one village, somebody suspected him and started following the two. In Sanyal’s words… “He kept shadowing us. I was a bit nervous. The boy told me we should make a run for it… then the villager came up to us and started asking questions. I think he suspected my accent, he knew I wasn’t from those parts.

"We were away from the village and approaching a thicket. I sized him up, wondering if I could strangle him and throw the body in the thicket. But the village was not far away and they would have heard if he shouted.
Suddenly, clouds gathered overhead and it started to pour. The villager ran back to his friends, while my guide shouted at me to get away as quickly as possible!”

All of this was said in a grave voice. The image of Sanyal sizing up his unwelcome companion and thinking of strangling him is somehow… hilarious.

**

I wasn’t one of those who was intimidated by his searing tongue. Somehow, I guessed it was all a performance… his anger sometimes seemed too disproportionate to the 'crime'.

I asked him about it at the final convocation. I asked him if his anger at students wasn’t a put-on… and he admitted it was. “You see, I had never worked as a teacher before I arrived in Bangalore, so I wasn’t sure how to approach it,” he said. “I thought I had to present this image of being a hard task-master. That’s why I was so strict with the first batch (1997-98). Gradually, I realised there was no point in intimidating them as much, and I softened.”

That was true. He was much harder on us than with the last batch. And from what I’ve heard, he was really tough on his first batch (fourth batch of acj).

I don’t know how many of us judged him by his image rather than his true self.