| |
your falsities.
I was a student in the university.... I had not chosen the university for itself but because of a professor who was so alive, so full of love, and so unafraid of the world. I had chosen the professor. And because he was in that university and he had invited me to join the university where he was teaching... and he said he would make every kind of facility possible for me.
He loved me immensely, because every year I used to go to that university for an inter-university debating competition; for four years continually I had been the winner. The very first year, he was one of the judges. He took me aside and told me, "I cannot say this to anybody else but I cannot keep it to myself either. I can only say it to you: I have given you a ninety-nine percent mark in the debate, and I am sorry, because I wanted to give you a hundred percent. But I could not gather the courage. Because people may think that I am prejudiced, I am favoring. I became afraid. But forgive me, because I have taken off one percent of the marks which were yours."
Each year he was one of the judges, and the fourth year, when I graduated, he invited me to join the university for my post-graduation. I said, "I am coming here just because of you."
He took me the very first day to the vice-chancellor, and on the way he told me, "Don't get into any argument -- because this man, the old vice-chancellor, is very stubborn, and one has to be very diplomatic with him."
I said, "You can be diplomatic with him; I
will be simply myself."
He said, "What do you mean?"
I said, "To be diplomatic means to be somebody else, diplomacy is another name of hypocrisy. You be diplomatic -- I will be simply myself. And if the worst comes to the worst, at the most he will not grant me the money for two years' education, and he may not grant me other facilities -- but just for those facilities, I cannot be dishonest to myself."
He said, "At least can you remain silent? Don't say anything; I will talk to him on your behalf."
I said, "I cannot promise, because if he says something stupid, I cannot resist the temptation to tell him that it is
|
|
|