This is a conversation that the undersigned overheard while returning to Don Bosco from the English Department of Nagaland University. The conversation took place on a local bus, between two travellers.
One of them plucked up courage and asked the sharer of the seat without expecting a favourable answer: “Where do you study?”
The fellow traveller without lifting up his head from the local newspaper answered aimlessly: “Presently, I am doing my PG Studies in the -(the name of the department has been withheld) department.
The first speaker with a smile on his face and lips reaching far ends of his cheeks responded immediately: “Oh! really, I am glad to acquaint you here. I too am in the same department. I am William. (The name has been changed from identifying) It’s a pity that I have not met you before. You see the department is such, that we hardly have a chance to encounter each other.”
The second speaker knowing that a conversation has struck put away his newspaper into the file and looked up rather surprisingly. The face horizontally turned to the neighbour and responded enthusiastically: “I see, I’ve seen your face somewhere! I find it difficult to recollect. It must be in the department itself. I am Smith. (The name has been altered to safeguard the identity of the person) I am a first-year student. You are a second year, I suppose.”
William contended with the development of conversation and returned rather lightly: “Yes my dear. (Rather softly) Do you know those over there? (pointing) They seem to be P G – Students.”
Smith not knowing why William had softened himself so much answered in his usual manner: “They are students from the English Department. I must say that the English Department is a very peculiar kind. Hi, what do they study? Fiction? Romance?”
William as if his energy had been boosted up with the hearing of the English department was ready to speak at once: “They must be. See how boisterous and clamorous they are. They seem to be rather living what they read and study.”
At this point the undersigned noticed William’s lips and eyebrows moving more to the right and lodged there a couple of seconds. Smith who was observing the vociferous gang had not noticed William’s disgust on the face said: “I am quite eager to know why they spent their energy on such useless and unpromising study as English. I do not see any special field awaiting them after they have their degree. Nowadays teaching is not the end of the road but rather an interval or a springboard for a higher and promising job. That’s all.”
William nodding his head all the while uttered: “These people are enjoying their life. Once I heard them discussing ‘Heathcliff’, ‘Cardinal’, and ‘Unia’ (he might have meant “Jhunia”) They were assigning these roles to some of their friends. Their head must be full of these. I pity them.”
Smith pushing his hair backward joined in: “You know! There are only two boys in the class. All the rest belong to the same gender as those.” (As he said this he pointed out to my friends in front.)
William making more place for his friend said: “These people must be very clever. English is not an ordinary man’s walking stick. (Suddenly a broad smile generated on his face and words together with a short and quick laughter came unexpectedly) These ones are more…
Suddenly I heard my classmates calling out my name from in front and said that they had seen to my bus fare.
At this moment Smith informed his friend that one of the guys of the English Department was just behind them. I could see suddenly a silence of the cemetery taking possession of them. Hearing the bus conductor shouting “Teenpathi” I had to relinquish my seat to the nearest and the fastest man standing by. What is so special about the English Department? I kept wondering as I walked to Don Bosco School.
(It was first published in the Postgraduates’ Students Union News Letter in 1988)
– Fr Benny James SDB