transformed him in my mind into such a caricature of a villain ? thought Pran looking into his cup. Does he loathe me ? No, that is his strength: he doesn't. He just wants his own way. In effective politics hatred is just not useful. For him all this is like a game of chess - on a slightly vibrating board. He is fifty-eight - he has two more years until he retires. How will I be able to put up with him for so long ? A sudden murderous impulse seized Pran, whom murderous impulses never seized, and he realized his hands were trembling slightly. And all this over Joyce, he said to himself. At least I haven't had a bronchial attack. He looked down at the pad on which he, as the junior member of the committee, was taking the minutes of the meeting. It read simply :
Present: Professor O.P. Mishra (head) ; Dr R.B. Gupta; Dr T.R. Narayanan; Dr P. Kapoor.
i. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
73We have got nowhere, and we will get nowhere, he thought.
A few well-known lines from Tagore came into his head in Tagore's own English translation :
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into
the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
At least his own mortal father had given him principles, thought Pran, even if he had given him almost no time or company when he was younger. His mind wandered back home, to the small whitewashed house, to Savita, her sister, her mother - the family that he had taken into his heart and that had taken him into theirs; and then to the Ganges flowing close by the house. (When he thought in English, it was the Ganges, rather than the Ganga, to him.) He followed it first downstream to Patna and Calcutta, then upstream past Banaras till it divided at Allahabad; there he chose the Yamuna and followed it to Delhi. Are things as closed-minded in the capital? he asked himself. As mad, as mean, as silly, as rigid ? How will I be able to live in Brahmpur all my life? And Mishra will doubtless give me an excellent report just to see the back of me.
1.17
BUT now Dr Gupta was laughing at a remark of Dr Narayanan's, and Professor Mishra was saying, 'Consensus - consensus is the goal, the civilized goal - how can we vote when we might be divided two votes against two? There were five Pandavas, they could have voted if they chose, but even they did everything by consensus. They
74even took a wife by consensus, ha, ha, ha ! And Dr Varma is indisposed as usual, so we are only four.'
Pran looked at the twinkling eyes, the great nose, the sweetly pursed lips with reluctant admiration. University statutes required that the syllabus committee, like departmental committees of any kind, should consist of an odd number of members. But Professor Mishra, as head of the department, appointed the members of each committee within his purview in such a way as always to include someone who for reasons of health or research was likely to be indisposed or absent. With an even number of members present, committees were more reluctant than ever to bring things to the climax of a vote. And the head, with his control over the agenda and the pacing of a meeting, could in the circumstances gather even more effective power into his hands.
'I think we have, as it were, expended enough time on item two,' said Professor Mishra. 'Shall we go on to chiasmus and anacoluthia ?' He was referring to a proposal, put forward by himself, that they eliminate too detailed a study of traditional figures of speech for the paper in Literary Theory and Criticism. 'And then we have the question of symmetrical auxiliaries proposed by the junior member of the committee. Though this will, of course, depend upon other departments agreeing to our proposals. And finally, since the shades of night are
Present: Professor O.P. Mishra (head) ; Dr R.B. Gupta; Dr T.R. Narayanan; Dr P. Kapoor.
i. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
73We have got nowhere, and we will get nowhere, he thought.
A few well-known lines from Tagore came into his head in Tagore's own English translation :
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into
the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
At least his own mortal father had given him principles, thought Pran, even if he had given him almost no time or company when he was younger. His mind wandered back home, to the small whitewashed house, to Savita, her sister, her mother - the family that he had taken into his heart and that had taken him into theirs; and then to the Ganges flowing close by the house. (When he thought in English, it was the Ganges, rather than the Ganga, to him.) He followed it first downstream to Patna and Calcutta, then upstream past Banaras till it divided at Allahabad; there he chose the Yamuna and followed it to Delhi. Are things as closed-minded in the capital? he asked himself. As mad, as mean, as silly, as rigid ? How will I be able to live in Brahmpur all my life? And Mishra will doubtless give me an excellent report just to see the back of me.
1.17
BUT now Dr Gupta was laughing at a remark of Dr Narayanan's, and Professor Mishra was saying, 'Consensus - consensus is the goal, the civilized goal - how can we vote when we might be divided two votes against two? There were five Pandavas, they could have voted if they chose, but even they did everything by consensus. They
74even took a wife by consensus, ha, ha, ha ! And Dr Varma is indisposed as usual, so we are only four.'
Pran looked at the twinkling eyes, the great nose, the sweetly pursed lips with reluctant admiration. University statutes required that the syllabus committee, like departmental committees of any kind, should consist of an odd number of members. But Professor Mishra, as head of the department, appointed the members of each committee within his purview in such a way as always to include someone who for reasons of health or research was likely to be indisposed or absent. With an even number of members present, committees were more reluctant than ever to bring things to the climax of a vote. And the head, with his control over the agenda and the pacing of a meeting, could in the circumstances gather even more effective power into his hands.
'I think we have, as it were, expended enough time on item two,' said Professor Mishra. 'Shall we go on to chiasmus and anacoluthia ?' He was referring to a proposal, put forward by himself, that they eliminate too detailed a study of traditional figures of speech for the paper in Literary Theory and Criticism. 'And then we have the question of symmetrical auxiliaries proposed by the junior member of the committee. Though this will, of course, depend upon other departments agreeing to our proposals. And finally, since the shades of night are
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