THE MIRROR DEMANDS MY FACE OF YEARS GONE BY!

SKT Nasar

I was suddenly reminded of the first stanza of a soulful song of ‘Daddy’, a Hindi movie. The canto is: “Ayeena Mujh Se Meri Pahli Si Surat Mange”. The title is a crude transliteration of the opening line of the song because nothing else would better describe my plight when reminded of my yester years. In case you disagree, stand before a mirror to see if the mirror solicits you to present your earlier face.  

Soumya, grandson of Professor Sachchidanand Dardhans alias (Late) Sachchu Babu of TNB College, thereby my grandson too, visited us with sister and parents the other day. This shiny eyed cute boy is a student of Narayna School at New Town, Kolkata.  This school, inter alia, trains students for admission to an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) when the time comes. Soumya is eagerly waiting to be an IITian when his time comes; and his time would come after 5 or so years from now. I am so glad that a boy this tiny has worthy ambitions. I pray from the depths of my heart for his success.

So far, so good! During our gossiping session, it was pointed out to Soumya that I happened to be a former IITian of Kharagpur. The lovely schoolboy was first awestruck. His large shiny eyes surveyed me from head to toe at least three times. Finally, Soumya blinked in total disagreement. His judgment shocked me. He did not speak yet his silence screamed that I, with my haggard face, could not have been an IITian. I labored hard to convince Soumya that I was, in fact, an IITian. He seemed to reject the argument. I was as persistent as Soumya. I showed him my Ph. D. thesis to make him agree. I realised later that it was plain stupid of me to show a doctoral dissertation to a school going kid to convince that I am an ex-IITian. Real idiotic of me! It is easy to convince a court of law than to make an intelligent child to believe in my IITian past.

A child’s eye is a mirror that innocently reflects back to you the factual image of the real you. The mirror showed me the fact that I might have been an IITian in the years gone by; I am not an IITian now. The mirror commands me to show the IITian face; no excuses. I am aware that I have been working and studying hard, unmistakably harder than during my years at IIT (Kharagpur). Yet, the spark is missing. The child-mirror demands of me to regain that spark and retain it till I breathed last. This is a reminder to all IITians, and to all those who might have had past achievements to regain, retain and hone their weakening skills.

Let us not forget for a moment that the child-mirror is incessantly reflecting our image. Thank you child-mirror, for seeking my face of years gone by!