I teach in a University and like most human institutions it is full of petty politics, crass pursuit of personal ambitions and at times even downright thuggery. Yet none of this can account for the death at the age of 56 of one of the most senior professors of the University. His death just goes to show that when a man loses his position he sometimes ends up loosing his life as well. Let me start at the very beginning. I met SVN when I joined the University in 1988. He was a professor in t...

I often think about the past. I guess it is a professional hazzard. Faces of friends whom I have not seen since I left graduate school, snatches of conversations, fragments of life, and at times, the grim remindre that even in this day of internet and e-mail some friends have just slipped from our lives. Nearly twenty years ago, just as I was finishing my education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, I used to work as a store clerk at one of the several shops and departmental stores in the la...

Yesterday I felt my 9 year old daughter in a residential school far away from where we live. Ever since she came into my life, my world revolved around her, Since her mother works full time, and we live in a University campus I arranged my classes in such a way that it would not clash with the timings for her food and other requirements. Playing with her, reading to her, singing to her and when she started school sitting with her as she did her school work became part of my routine and I love...