Guest post: Third and final instalment (A walk in the academic garden)

Our guest writer has accepted X's offer.  They have agreed to defer his position so that he can take up his dream postdoc before joining.  He can now officially dream of returning to India.  Here's his third and final post (though I sure hope he will write more at a later time):

In a happy frame of mind, chatting as usual on a google voice call, I was scrolling up and down the department webpage when I realized that my lax teaching schedule that semester meant I had four days off in an upcoming week. Added to the weekend, that's six days off work. I mentioned this to her and she replied, in the sweetest possible voice: Why don't you come over then? In matters of the heart, you don't turn down a request like that. I got someone to cover one lecture and soon enough, I was on a flight back to India to spend a few days with my special someone. We will call her J.

Apart from a loving fiance, J has a job at an academic institute in India (which reminds me a lot of my undergraduate institute).  For the next few days, we explored her academic garden together. There were at least three reasons for this. First, we wanted to spend as much time together as possible. Secondly, I was anxious to see Indian academia up close now that I was about to join it myself. And finally, I wanted to be showered with more niceties, such as the security guard who stood up to attention when he saw us.

J's place was a delight. It reminded me of my childhood days, when I wouldn't mind playing in the hot summer sun for hours and then rushing in to drink Rooh-afza straight out of the refrigerator.  The food was absolutely great and J made sure it was cooked to my taste. Above all, I got to watch live the Hindi serials I had been craving for a long time. Being a junkie for food, romance and TV, this was one vacation I would never forget. And finally, there was the small talk with the people who work around her house. In India, small talk quickly leads people to tell each other everything about their families and daily lives. The easy familiarity with which Indians treat each other is very refreshing. I would say its one of the charms of our country.

As I immersed myself in the Indian academic culture after several years, memories of my undergrad days came flooding back. Except, this time I didn't have to be a powerless student any more. In fact, J appeared to be surrounded by students eager to please her and they felt obliged to extend the same courtesies to me. I must  say the attention has some definite charm and while I resist being called "Sir", I believe I can totally get used to that.

The best part was that we could take off, now and then, to the tea shop where the soul of the campus resides. It was always easy to find people who were willing to go there with us. And once there, we would meet a steady stream of her colleagues. She would introduce me with a smile and I would give each person the same smile and say: "She always tells me such nice things about you". For me, it was like meeting the cast of my favorite daily soap. There was something about the place that made people drop their guard and speak freely. Gossip was easy to come by and was never lacking in entertainment value. As I poured ketchup liberally over my omelette toast, I asked J how she would feel about me opening another such shop outside her institute. Not only would this solve our two body problem, but I think it could even be a more fun job. Again, I was only half-kidding. However, J said a vehement no. She insisted that if I did so, I would be throwing the two-body out with the two-body problem.  I don't think she was kidding about that.