The Final Post?

Hello readers,
How many ever of you there are.
Thank you for reading everything that you have but I will be blogging elsewhere from now on. A period has come to an end and a new life is about to begin. There may not be any Clouds in the next Blog. I may not even be me.
If you ever find me, I'll see you there.
If not, Goodbye.

Be Peaceful

The Wait

She waited at the coffee shop. The shadows lengthened and the new March leaves caught the evening light. Music played unnecessarily loudly in the background. Mean music with no great depth. But those were the kind of people she saw around her. A thin and short young man leaned behind his girlfriend as their friends took pictures with their mobile cameras. On another table, a large man with fluffy hair idled with the whipped cream on his frappe as he talked to his companion behind the wall. The wooden chairs partially reflected the light. The red cube lights near the counter were on. The walls were lined partially with wooden panels of a grayish brown colour. Pictures of different coffee related items were on the glass walls, on flip stands on the tables and behind the counter. The floor was tiled in smooth beige squares. There were a few empty tables but the atmosphere inside was loud. The outside, despite the passing traffic on the small road seemed quieter.

She wished the shop would have newspapers, if not books to read while waiting. After her late lunch though, she was glad to wait longer for something to drink. Had she been there for too long? She thought the working staff were giving her impatient looks. She felt like she must order something soon to avoid being thrown out.

Unlike the previous time, she didn’t feel very impatient and edgy, only restless and jittery. She had had a moderately good day and was hoping to go for a concert later. But she hadn’t found anyone willing or able to come.

Maybe she should’ve brought her own book, she thought. The shadows were even longer now and the evening light was dimming. She didn’t usually like waiting but this happened so rarely, that she really didn’t mind much. None of the nearby shops had books. Next time, she would plan for a place with an adjoining book shop.

And suddenly, her wait was over.

The Last Few Days

So we approach the end of our days in this college. I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes I’m happy thinking of how there will never again be a day full of just sitting in classes or listening to people who don’t make sense to me. Other times I feel a connection I’ve made with the people I’ve got to know, and with the campus that I think I will actually miss. There are some people I just don’t want to say bye to and others who I’ve just started getting to know and it feels like there was so much more I could’ve discovered that I now won’t have time to. I’m grateful to the teachers who have kept me sane and alive through all the frustrating times and have been dedicated to their noble profession even in such a rigid system.

But I wouldn’t stay here if I had a choice. I’m quite looking forward to the future, whatever that may be.

U Tear It Up

U tear it up
I pick up the pieces and reuse
U listen to cruel experiments without flinching
I feel sick and want to cry
U discuss slippers and handbags and criticise my hair
Can’t u see I don’t care?

U don’t care for culture or god
I yearn for both
U accept
I can’t understand sadism or a will to irritate or hurt

There is no romance for the philosopher
For anyone courageous, intelligent and self-aware
There is no dependence
I like my space.
I don’t stick to people
Maybe that’s why I don’t have many close friends

But there is angst of not being understood
Or perhaps it is a longing for like minds
We who love, care, feel, think, and learn

A Struggle for Balance

At the brink of a new life, yet so many memories of the bygone remind me of where I come from.
People I’ve known for so long now seem more precious with the little amount of time remaining.
I write in my head because there is no time to pick up the pen. The writer in me caged and unhappy. Creativity suppressed, Intelligence shown the door yet I cling to the potentially bright aspects.
“Plan as though you’ll live forever,” they say, “live as though it were your last day”. I struggle to find a balance. I want to run to the future. Or stay in the present without doing what is expected of me. To live peacefully, reading, listening to jazz, dancing alone and going for walks. But I sit at my desk and manipulate words, memorise names for a test or fill up mundane forms.
Reminders of how young and innocent I once was lie on the floor as I enter the house.
To recognize the phobias I’ve had for so long, influencing everything I do. And feel bored that so little has changed.
Excess information clogs my brain. It is an art and a habit to make everything simple complicated and want to simplify all mental inputs that are not. Maybe it’s not important because I overfeel, overspeak, overthink.
What is important? The past? Future? Present? All of them?
It’s a struggle for balance.

Dread

I looked forward
Now I can’t
This sudden Dread
Too fast, too shallow to dive
Going to crash
I had pressed the accelerator
What injuries to cause and suffer
Doom
Why am I reacting like this?
Messed up.
Fear
Of what?
What of the charmer? Scared child!
What of the powerful woman?
Cave- just a hollow
Being trapped, losing control

Epilogue

Where are you?
I’m here, waiting.
Full moon waned to half

Dew, you, like stars
Independent of the sun
Shining because you
Can’t help it.

Long enough after you
Are gone
You show me you’ll
Never be gone
You don’t see the
Ropes that bind you
I do.

I will not ask for you
And you will not ask for me.
But without asking
Will we know?

The sky is blue on
This white paper
It glows. And
You think you are mere human;
Mortal and free

One day I too will have ropes
But I’ll see them.

Time should not unwind
Undoing the sacred cant be right
Flow and burn as you do
And I, as you, will too.

Cold

It just so happens that in tropical countries, the concept of a heater in the house does not exist. It gets quite cold here too. I think we should acknowledge the cold and use heaters in places where we may eat and sleep after sunset.
I also think that before winter arrives, we must donate at least a few pieces of warm clothing to those who live on the streets. Imagine how much colder they would feel in the open.
Hugging will also help. :)

The Woman

She is the wind you cannot capture, the fire you cannot hold,
She has the strength of the earth but she flows
She is a woman.

The radiance of the sun and the beauty
Of a tree’s silhouette

When she smiles, the world blooms
The stars sparkle brighter, and water gurgles in delight.
And when angered, deadly thunder storms are evoked

Can such a woman ever love and not destroy?
All consuming fire
Can such a woman ever cry?
Each tear, like quiet midnight drizzle

I Love Being Alive

I love being alive.


I love feeling the warm sun on my hands and face
Or watching the drizzle droplets float.


I love feeling my pulse and knowing everyone else has one too.
I love looking in the mirror and knowing
That I have a physical form.


I love that I can see, hear music and even traffic,
That I can taste fruit juice and smell perfume and
Touch soft cotton.


I love that I can feel love and pain with so much intensity.
I love feeling loved.

Intellectual Property Rights

What and Why?

When something is invented, be it a procedure, a technology, software or even works of art and expression like music, paintings, movies and literature, it is understood that a lot of work has gone into its creation. People work whole lifetimes on certain discoveries. Intellectual property rights are a set of laws which protect such work from easy duplication. A time frame is given within which that technology or work is exclusively the maker’s to use for commercial purposes. The reasoning being that apart from time and effort, the individual is most likely to have invested money in it heavily. Commercially speaking it is only fair that they reap what they sow.

But the term ‘intellectual property’ denotes the specific legal rights, and not the intellectual work itself.

Under this vast legal set up are subcategories of laws based on what the creation or discovery is. These also include copyrights, trademarks, patents etc.
An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object from infringement. A trade secret is an item of non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business. Public disclosure of trade secrets may sometimes be illegal.

The purpose of having such rights provides commercial incentive so that they would rather share their information than keep it to themselves. It is useful thus, in sharing of knowledge. If IPR had existed during the time of the invention of the first microscopes, microbiology would’ve developed at a faster rate with Leeuwenhoek sharing his method of lens grinding. The legal protections granted by IP laws are credited with significant contributions toward economic growth.
Intellectual property rights are considered by economists to be a form of temporary monopoly enforced by the state (or enforced using the legal mechanisms for redress supported by the state).

Intellectual property rights are usually limited to non-rival goods, that is, goods which can be used or enjoyed by many people simultaneously—the use by one person does not exclude use by another. The establishment of intellectual property rights, therefore, represents a trade-off, to balance the interest of society in the creation of non-rival goods by encouraging their production, with the problems of monopoly power. Since the trade-off and the relevant benefits and costs to society will depend on many factors that may be specific to each product and society, the optimum period of time during which the temporary monopoly rights exist is unclear.

Modern usage of the term intellectual property began with the 1967 establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), but it did not enter popular usage until passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980.


Problems with IPR

Some critics of intellectual property, such as those in the free culture movement, characterize it as intellectual protectionism or intellectual monopoly and argue that the public interest is harmed by protectionist legislation such as copyright extension, software patents and business method patents. Although the term is in wide use, some critics reject the term intellectual property altogether. Richard Stallman argues that it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion." He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues." These critics advocate referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warn against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term.

Apart from this issue, IPR of biological technology used in production of various pharmaceutically and industrially important products have been controversial.
The main problem has occurred when a product such as, for example, a tablet for easing the symptoms of AIDS patients has been patented and so has been priced a lot higher than any average individual can afford on a regular basis. In this case, the patent holder would expect the government to subsidise it for its people instead of expecting that such a medicine would come any cheaper. This sounds like the best option where both the inventor and the consumer get what they want. But it is still very debatable, considering that it is a matter of life and death, whether the price must be set so high in the first place. Some people would call it the exploitation of people’s need to live.
"What is more important patent rights or patients' rights?"
-Zimbabwean Health Minister, Dr. T. Stamps
(ICASA Conference, Sept. 9, 1999)

Another issue that arises is the attempt and some successes of patenting indigenous knowledge.
Traditional health systems are based in world views or cosmologies that take into account mental, social, spiritual, physical and ecological dimensions of health and well being.
Central importance on the concept of balance - within the individual and between the individual, society and Nature. Imbalance arises with the breaking of the inter connectedness of life - and results in discomfort and disease.
Traditional health systems have organized frameworks for classifying plants, animals, landscapes and climatic conditions in relation to their effects on health and disease.
These taxonomies have much in common with one another and represent a culturally relevant empirical framework for assessing medicinal plant biodiversity. Such taxonomies may diverge significantly with Western classificatory frameworks and assumptions. This is of importance when determining prior art as it pertains to intellectual property law.
Food and medicine are of ten viewed interchangeably. Food is medicine. Diet is the basis of health.
Revitalization movements are drawing on traditional medical know ledge to develop integrated modern and traditional health care projects. These movements and other groups have drawn attention to the shrinking availability of medicinal plants to supply the burgeoning need for herbal medicines in non-Western societies and in the industrial countries. Conservation and horticulture programmes are emerging as vital components of the revitalization of local health traditions.

So it becomes obvious that since there are two very different paradigms of looking at knowledge, there will be a conflict about the legal frameworks of IPR. Indigenous people who have known protected and passed on valuable knowledge don’t think in terms of money to be gained. And if there needs must be money involved, certainly the person who knows how to write a scientific paper on this knowledge doesn’t deserve it even a fraction of a percentage as much as the community which preserved such knowledge. The company or holder of such a patent then becomes legally capable of prosecuting that community for using patented knowledge without paying for it when such a patent is allowed. Is this fair by any means? To invent a law which isn’t sensitive to the various approaches people have been having for so long? To create a blanket system under which everyone must operate similarly?


So now that we know both what IPR is, why it is created and what its main issues are, we can zero in on what is done about them, plant protection.
In the following section we’ll look at legal protection and indigenous knowledge. One must note though, that the exploitation of plants for commercial purposes is currently unsustainable. Along with over harvesting is a lot of habitat destruction which disturbs the balance of the ecosystem. But to get into the question of conservation now would be too much of a deviation.


Addressing Legal Plant and Indigenous Knowledge Protection

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The CBD is the only major international convention that assigns ownership of
biodiversity to indigenous communities and individuals and asserts their right to
protect this knowledge.
Article 8 (j): State Parties required to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote the wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of such knowledge, innovations and practices.”
Article 18.4: Contracting Parties should “encourage and develop models of cooperation for the development and use of technologies, including traditional & indigenous technologies."

The CBD competes for influence with the far more powerful TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights).
TRIPS is now the key international agreement promoting the harmonisation of national IPR regimes. Covers four types of intellectual property rights:
1. Patents
2. Geographical indications
3. Undisclosed information (trade secrets)
4. Trademarks



• TRIPS makes no reference to the protection of traditional knowledge. Does not acknowledge or distinguish between indigenous, community-based knowledge and that of industry
• TRIPS does not require adoption of UPOV standards, but rather provision "for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof." (Art. 27(3)(b))

INDIA
• From 1994, Indian Government did not succeed in repeated attempts to revise 1970 Patent Act to come into line with TRIPS.
• Efforts to do so resulted in riots on streets. Half a million farmers demonstrating.
• Late 1999 succeeded in amending it in accord with TRIPS and removing protection for important medicines from patent control.
• Activist groups called for a deadline for coming into line with TRIPS to allow time for full debate and resolution of all of the issues involved.

TURMERIC
The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research of India filed a re-examination request with the US Patent and Trademark Office, seeking revocation of a 1994 patent issued to the University of Mississippi.
 Patent, 5,401,504, claimed the use of turmeric for promoting wound healing.
 India argued that turmeric is a well known traditional medicine used in India, and written about by Indian researchers as early as the 1950s.
 India secured a revocation of the patent.
 India is now recording on a set of CD Roms all of the national medicinal plant knowledge. This will be distributed to patent offices world-wide to provide a data base of prior art on Indian traditional medicinal knowledge.
 India is also pursuing a comprehensive legal strategy to seek revocation on non-Indian patents on Indian life forms.

OTHER HERBAL EXAMPLES
1. Phyllanthus amarus - Ayurvedic treatment for jaundice. U.S. patent for use
with Hepatitis B.
2. Piper nigrum. Ayurvedic treatment for vitiligo ( a skin pigmentation disorder).
UK patent for application of a molecule from piper nigrup for use in treatment
of vitiligo.
3. Shaman Pharmaceuticals: AIDS diarrhea herbal drug. Contrct for benefit
sharing with source of origin of the information








Social & economic costs of changes in IP legislation

By requiring patents to be applied to pharmaceuticals, it is being argued that TRIPS will have the effect of pricing common drugs out of the reach of most people in poor countries. If herbal medicines are patented - either domestically or internationally - the medicines used as the first and last resort for healthcare by the poor will also become unaffordable. Some examples illustrate the point.
• 200 % increase in cost of medicines after the 1979 introduction of pharmaceutical product patents in Italy.
• Welfare loss to Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan) would amount to a minimum of US$3.5 billion and a maximum of US$10.8 billion.
Income gains by foreign patent owners would be between US$2.1 billion and US$14.4 billion. (World Bank)
• `National health disaster' anticipated by the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association from implementation of TRIPs in India.
• 30% of Indian population can afford modern medicines.
• Comparisons of prices of drugs between India and countries where patent protection exists: up to 41 times costlier in countries with patent protection.
• Drug prices in Malaysia, where patent protection exists, 20% to 760% higher than in India. Profit-maximising behaviour based on `what the market can bear'.

Some IPR Models for the protection of traditional knowledge.

1. Changing IPR law: Certificates of origin. (Sociedad Peruana de Derecho
Ambiental)

Patent applications based on use of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge should require:
(i) A sworn statement as to the genetic resources and associated knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities utilised, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of the subject matter of the IPR application;
(ii) Evidence of prior informed consent of the country of origin and/or indigenous or local community, as appropriate;
(iii) International standardisation of these conditions through an international certification system.
Countries providing resources and/or traditional knowledge to issue certificates indicating that all obligations to the country and indigenous people/local community had been fulfilled e.g. prior informed consent, equitable benefit sharing, etc. Patent applications would include these certificates. Without them, they would automatically be rejected.

2. Transforming traditional knowledge into trade secrets. (IAD-supported project,
Ecuador).

 Knowledge from communities wishing to participate in the project to be catalogued and deposited in a restricted access database. Each community will have its own file in the database.
 Checks will be made to see whether each entry is not already in the public domain and whether other communities have the same knowledge.
 To avoid the danger of a price war from competition among communities, there would be a cartel developed among those communities sharing a trade secret.
 The trade secret can then be negotiated in a Material Transfer Agreement with the benefits shared between the government and the cartel members.


3. Local innovations databases.

Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), India, has developed databases of traditional knowledge and innovations in close collaboration with local community members.
 Advocates a global registration system of local innovations. Individual and collective innovators would receive acknowledgement and financial rewards for commercial applications of their knowledge, innovations and practices.
 Links would be built between small investors, entrepreneurs and innovators for mutual financial benefits.
 Individuals or communities could seek IPR protection in such forms as inventors certificates and petty patents. (The intellectual property law of Kenya was amended in 1989 to provide for a petty patent for traditional medicinal knowledge.)
 All national patent offices should be able to access local innovation databases when carrying out prior art searches and examinations.

Future

1. Debate over patenting will hinge much on what constitutes prior informed consent. How to determine who represents a community, what represents full consent.
2. State vs. Community ownership of indigenous knowledge. Should states get royalties from knowledge that originates from communities within those states? Or should royalties go direct to the traditional knowledge holders?
3. Disputes over patents on herbal products - impact on local herbal use and developing country exports of herbals. (World Bank: $3 trillion herbal market (by mid 21st century)
4. More examples of the S. African AIDS drugs type - & with herbals. "Patent rights v. Patients' rights".
5. Restrictions on collaborative research (e.g. India's Biodiversity research approval committee now requires Central Govt approval for all collaborative research pertaining to indigenous knowledge)
6. Southern (Eastern? e.g. ASEAN) alliance to combat prejudicial aspects of TRIPs.

Though the problems of IPR look daunting, and solutions seem difficult, the efforts that are made in that direction are commendable. In the future, some of the above will rise in the way of those who are trying to incorporate changes into the IPR laws. The debate and controversies may never be over but so long as there is effort, there is hope for improvement and balance in these laws.

Hopeful Child

The child in me is alive and expectant
What a pleasant and torturous feeling is anticipation
She told me she’d take me to a candy shop
Full of sweet and colourful things
She’d show me the gate to an unexplored land
And even hand me the key.
A new world of possibilities
A new chance to love
Anticipation. I don’t know
If this is the Miracle I’ve been dreaming of
But the child in me doesn’t stop hoping.

The Buses

The Bus 1

I stand in the bus
The crowd sways behind me
My dupatta catches the flow
But oh! Now the flow chokes me.


The Bus 2

I stand in the bus.
Just behind the steps.
Two hands of different people
On either side of my neck
Grab hold of the metal bar in front
Immobility.


The Bus 3

Smelly people
With rough synthetic clothes
Rub against my skin
While reaching for support
My hand brushes past a woman’s head
And is coated with her oil.


The Bus 4

I stand near the steps
As people get in
The women hit my face as they enter
No apologies.


The Bus 5

At the back, a man,
His hand at a woman’s posterior
I glare.
He gets off at the next stop.


The Bus 6

Balancing on a bus is like
Practicing karate stances
And surfing at the same time
We become flexible, strong armed
Acrobats.

For Now

This yellow evening,
Winds tell of rains to come.
A healthy, happy wind
That I haven’t felt for so long.
Dry mango leaves
Scrape along the concrete
Of my terrace.
Thunder from different directions
Kites dance in the wind
Koels chirp
A Monsoon song.

The coconut leaves ask me
‘How long have you been living in the
Future?
Wondering about where and
What you’ll be.’
A soft reprimand.

Thunder grows closer.
Winds are sweeter and stronger
The storm maybe coming
But for now,
The weather is beautiful.

Cockroaches

You may not have heard this story before but I’m sure if you look hard enough inside you, it will seem familiar. I knew it before it happened but I didn’t know I did, till it did.


What was it? A T.V? A silver metal box? A magical container?
I was having a shower in the fridge and when I came out and moved the fridge back, I noticed a small crack in the ground. Curious, I lifted the marble as though it were made of paper and out came a cockroach.
Now, I don’t like cockroaches very much. And this one was fatter and larger than the normal ones I’ve seen in this reality. So I quickly dressed and went out. My neighbour was smiling at me. He had given me the box just yesterday and I had accepted it because I had no clue what it was. It was interesting.

Life is busy. I went to work and came home in the afternoon. Or maybe it had been afternoon all day. I opened the kitchen to see around thirty cockroaches in four lines with the fat leader in front. They were marching carrying the corn to under the fridge.

My roommate has an old friend who lives a couple of streets away. She is a large woman with short, thick, black hair and a dimple on her left cheek when she smiles. She keeps a beautiful garden with pots hanging from the underside of her balcony. It isn’t very big but it’s teeming with grasses, shrubs, ornamental flowering plants, ponds and rock arrangements.

When I went home after my walk, my roommate was back and told me he had seen the cockroaches too.
‘Should we use pesticides? Or would that offend them?’ he asked.
‘It might but anyway don’t use it. I don’t want tumours and genetic disabilities for my children.’
‘Fair enough. Let’s ask them to move away.’
While he squatted and talked into the hole, I went to my room and checked the box. How can I open it? What’s inside? It was glowing a phosphorescent greenish white when I picked it up. And very cold.

Outside I caught my neighbour grinning at me again. ‘I came to ask you about the box. Why did you want to give it away?’ He didn’t reply but his grin had widened. ‘The cockroaches?’ I asked. He nodded. Then with a serious face he said, ‘It brings luck, the box. And the army of cockroaches will obey you if you feed them. They will protect you from everything.’ He lowered his voice and I leaned forward to hear him. ‘But I don’t like cockroaches.’

I went in to find out how the dialogues were going. ‘They will move to whichever place has enough food. They have an underground system of movement so we don’t need transportation.’
‘I found out what they do.’ I told him.
‘Well I agree with him. I don’t want luck or protection from cockroaches. Who can we give it to?’

When evening finally came, I took the box to his friend’s house. She was curious and looked happy to have it. It was glowing yellow with warmth.

A few weeks later, when on a walk, she thanked us for the box. She had placed it on a large arrangement of rocks and stones in the middle of her garden. The creepers were starting to grow over it.

No Two Sunsets Are Ever the Same

Everything passes
Good and bad,
Small and big,
Everything.

The easiest thing to do is let them pass.
Holding on is an effort.
Holding on
Drains.

Learn lessons
But prepare to relearn.
This time it may be different

No two sunsets are ever the same.

The Joke

If I was constantly aware of my place in this universe- as an individual of one of the millions of species of one of the billions of planets- it would constantly strike me a little ridiculous what a big deal I make of myself.

Selfish Sorrow

I don’t know if many people realise it. I did only four years ago. When I cry for someone’s death, it’s hardly ever really for the person who passed away. It’s usually for myself. I will never see him again. I will miss him. I wish I could see him smile at me just one more time.

About Life and Death

We assume Immortality. Only a death of someone close to us reminds us of our Impermanence.
We make promises and think of ways to make our lives more meaningful, now that we’ve experienced this reminder. It’s sometimes referred to as the Funeral Syndrome. But Time flows on and we are too soon lulled back into the false impression of permanence and nothing in our life really changes.

Normally, I would think; I expect to live quite long- maybe till I’m eighty. I expect to fall in love, raise children, and watch them raise theirs. I expect to do great things in psychology, music, the environment. I expect to learn everything I want to. And make some changes in the educational system- perhaps start a school or teach.
I expect so much.
But for all I know, there could be an accident this evening in which I die. And I’ll be off…in non-existence, quite peaceful to let it all go.

But even though I don’t worry too much about my own death, I know that how I live matters. If I don’t live to my full; if I don’t love freely, if I don’t help those who need it, if I don’t do all that I want to, it could be too late for any of us, at any moment.
And then there will be tears and regret.

Eulogy

Who was Sripadrao Uncle?

He was a Teacher.

But if this is true, then the word ‘Teacher’ must absorb infinitely

From his character, mind and actions.

‘Great’ falls too short. Not even close to enough a word to

Describe him.

In my humble words he was

A profound thinker, a good person with a

Heart so pure, untouched by negativity. Invincible.

A knowledgeable person of great intellect.

Even at great ages so energetic, optimistic, dedicated,

Wise, generous and so curious.

That was him.

In every life, there are some sparks of inspiration.

He was my first and brightest.

For everyone who knew him and those fortunate

Enough to have been taught by him

In Any way,

He was an Inspiration. A teacher.

Can any being measure to his qualities?

Maybe

If he was born again.

Remembering him with great affection and respect.

His student.

Sripi, as some of us refer to him, started teaching us Biology in our 8th. He was around 79 or so then. He would walk into class and make us excited about learning about the cell of plants. I'll never forget the analogies he made in class. My basics are good because of the drive he gave. But he was good at literature and history too. And very knowledgeable about music.

In my 11th, he had a haemorrhage. It was severe enough to force him not to teach anymore. But he would long to. I visited him at his home from then on. Once in a few months. He would see me and smile. What bright eyes even at 86 years of age! And each time, I would come home more driven to learn more. He was kind and soft spoken.

If i had just one wish now, I would like to see him smile at me Just one more time.