I returned to my department on September 1 after a year-long sabbatical . The half a kilometre walk from my home to the Delhi University fa...
I returned to my department on September 1 after a year-long sabbatical . The half a kilometre walk from my home to the Delhi University faculty gave a very strange feeling. It was an emptiness which enveloped me. No rapid namastes, no half nods, no hurried smiles, no fleeting looks. There was only the sound of my sandals, a lonely trek on overgrown grass and a pavement strewn with leaves – but no human smells.
It was the intermingling of smells and colours that always made the daily walk to the faculty interesting. As I approached the department office, my eyes suddenly turned to the left: a huge vacant class room. No students on the window sills, no one half-bent with ears strained to catch the sound emanating from the packed classroom of Hany Babu teaching his students. It is a memory of that fullness that suddenly enters the flesh of your heart like a thorn. With that aching feeling, I went and signed my joining letter.
A year has gone. What do I have to report to my university about this leave that I had taken from classroom teaching? “Does your phone have a memory card, sir?” the young police officer had...
