A small true life episode which goes to show that a professor can not stop questioning and testing.
" Both of us were invite for a lunch to a relatives house a couple of years back who was a professor and HOD in a central University. Both his sons in law (SIL) were present along with their spouses and grand children. All the SIL are very intelligent and very successful in their respective field and also the grandchildren. I was the only one who neither shared their lofty achievements and nor belonged to their subject so one can imagine my plight in such an environment where all the talk was just Greek and Latin to me. Maybe I was invited because of my wife. On top of it the elderly gentleman maybe in order to include me in the discussion or whatever turned to me and asked a question. One knows very well when a professor asks a question then it can not be to get some knowledge but only to test the knowledge of the guinea pig that was unfortunately me. The question to me was:-
" RK, What is the difference between laziness and letharginess according to you."
I just looked into his eyes and said-
" Laziness is a virtue whereas letharginess is a disease"
He looked at me for about 30 second, smiled and then there were no further questions to my relief and I was left alone to enjoy my lunch. Thankfully. The only positive point was that after that he gave me the respect which I deserved and listened to me when I talked. A very big achievement.
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