Just back from my daughter's den in Kolkata after a week's holiday - following three months of classes non-stop every day. Simply eating (very well indeed!), chatting, reading and sleeping to my heart's content. Didn't enjoy a stay like this quite as much ever since this one, back in July 2013! Swarnava was there, and gave me grand company: I am getting back an extended sense of true belonging after a very long time. God bless... I was hugely helped by the thought that my most beloved young folks have grown up enough, in every sense, for me to stop (OK, at least lessen) worrying about them.
I read so many books back to back (my daughter's library is growing like mushrooms in the rainy season, and what lovely and eclectic taste she has...). There was one about the (in)famous Pakur murder case of the early 1930s, written like a thriller by an American journalist; another a wonderfully erudite and gripping travel guide around London, a compendium of first-person memoirs about rural English life as it was in the 1920s to 50s, a lightly fictionalized reconstruction of the life of our last Vicereine, Lady Edwina Mountbatten, In Xanadu by William Dalrymple, which is, as literature, more absorbing than Marco Polo's Travels, which he repeated 700 years after the original trip, a speed-reread of Charlie Chaplin's autobiography after more than 30 years, Helgoland, by Carlo Rovelli, a lovely little exposition of quantum theory for the lay reader, and a few others which I can't recall off the top of my head. Pupu has made a large part of my fondest dreams come true.
Such fun conversation too, with all sorts of things to laugh and snort over, such as why, in this age of AI supposedly advancing at breakneck speed, our banks still do not factor some sort of fairly simple algorithm into their PR-systems which might help them stop wasting time calling up customers like me endlessly, offering credit cards and instant loans and suchlike which we have told them hundreds of times we are not interested in.
Whereas the last post has come up to the very top of the most-read list, I am sorry to note that very few new entries have been submitted on that Google form yet. So much for people who claim to have many, diverse, strong and fond memories!
I am toying with the idea of telling stories my way via podcasts like I have always told in class. How many of my readers think that would be a good idea, and would listen enthusiastically? If you do, will you please take two minutes to tell me so?
5 comments:
Dear Sir,
It is a splendid idea to start a new podcast channel and narrate stories like how you do in classes. I am sure many people will engage and listen to your podcasts enthusiastically. People who don’t follow this blog much will also show interest in it. Your ex-students as well as the current ones will also benefit from it. Your ex-students will feel nostalgic as they can again hear stories from you. And the current ones will get new stories to listen to. Today, it has been very easy to make your own podcast channel and upload podcasts. Therefore, you should begin this podcast channel without any hesitation. I am very excited about this idea, and I will pray to God that you might get more responses and start your own podcast channel.
Thanking you,
Your current pupil,
Pratyush.
Dear Sir,
My earliest digital interaction with your thoughts after "graduating" from your class in 2016 was through your YouTube videos. I have re-watched them multiple times and ,in fact, have been visiting your channel in hope of new videos that you might put up.
Now that you are thinking of telling stories through podcasts , I , for one, would absolutely love listening to them. Also , I probably would be speaking for the majority of your audience if I said that the audio-stories would gather equal, if not more, engagement from your readers as your posts on this site.
I would be eagerly waiting for your first podcast announcement.
Thank you and take care.
Yours sincerely,
Ropan Mondal (class of 2016)
Sir - Happy Teachers' Day.
It’s been over two decades since you taught me, yet the lessons I learned from you have stayed with me all these years.
It was great to read about your recent holidays.
Just one request - can you please re-share the link to the Google form?
Would be an absolute pleasure to listen to your stories again via podcasts & relive the school life.
Regards,
Soumik K Dutta
Thank you, Soumik. But I don't understand what you mean by 're-share the link'. The link is there on the earlier post titled 'I-Day, and a request'.
Dear Sir,
Congratulations on your blog crossing a million page views! As a regular reader of your blog, I feel incredibly happy about this milestone.
I am also glad to learn that you got a well-deserved holiday from your classes. Few people realize how demanding the role of a teacher is, especially for someone like you, who not only takes on the responsibilities of an academic guide but also that of a mentor, shaping and educating the younger generation in the truest sense. Much like Prof. Morrie Schwartz, I am sure your students would agree with me. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have considered writing a book like Tuesdays with Morrie in your honour.
Sir, I am eagerly awaiting the release of your first podcast. I have not had the privilege, like your current and former students, of engaging with you on a more personal level but having read most of your blog posts and the insightful comments that accompany them, I am excited to experience the same in an audio-visual format. I also look forward to seeing some of your former students and well-wishers joining you for these podcasts.
I hope the first season will be published soon!
Regards,
Aditya Mishra
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