THE MATURING OF A YOUNG GEOLOGIST

As boys, Dilip and I lived in a small Railway colony consisting of about 15 bunglows, a dispensary and a club-house. Dilip had a lot of books in his house. We read them together. We were both dreamers. We were named " Late Latifs " by Dilip's father as we were always late for any occasion.

Explorers were a rage with us. We fancied that we could find some hitherto undiscovered substance that would revolutionise the world. As a first step, we dug up the club-house ground and found to our great pleasure white lumps that could write like chalk. We called the place our chalk mine. we paid no heed to the club-boy who maintained that our findings were in fact, the leavings of the white-wasing gang that had white washed the club building a couple of years back. We discounted this fact as we felt that such disclaimers were faced by all big explorers at start before the world accepted their greatness. We had made a big start and that was the most important thing.

As often happens, our respective fathers were transferred out and we almost lost track of each other. While I drifted into Civil Engineering, Dilip became a geologist. For his Ph.D., he chose the Rajasthan desert as his field of operation. While he was doing field work, his guide, an old Professor of Geology decided to visit him. To receive him, Dilip broke camp early in the morning but found to his dismay that the bi-weekly bus that passed by his camp had left the Late Latif alone. Fortunately, a ship of the desert was passing by. He hailed it. After due negotiations with the camel driver in regard to the hire charges to and fro the nearest railway station, he mounted the camel.

The camel driver taught him how to sit on the camel with his legs tightly clasped to the camel's side and to sway synchronously with the camel's swaying. It was an exhilirating ride at first but soon he was aching all over. He realized the wisdom of the camel driver's advice as to the correct posture after trying various permutations and combinations in this regard. Soon they reached the railway station.

The train arrived. The old professor duly alighted. After an exchange of pleasantries, he enquired of Dilip as the arrangements for reaching the camp. Dilip told him somewhat proudly of his camel ride and gave out tha he wanted the professor to have the same priviledge.

The old man at once launched into a discourse on the geology of Mount Fujiyama. Dilip was a little disconcerted as Fujiyama had nothing to do with the thesis he was working on. Out of politeness, he kept quiet. When the discourse was over, the professor begged off saying that he had an upset stomache. he therefore re-boarded the train he had alighted from and left.

Dilip came out of the railway station to find the camel driver having his lunch. After telling him to follow him and catch up. Dilip started walking. while walking, he was wondering as to the significance of Mount Fujiyama in his work. He could not find any geological resemblance between Rajasthan deserts and the Mount Fujiyama however hard he tried. Slowly his mind wandered into other aspects of Mount Fujiyama such as the Japanese folk tales he had read about this legendary mountain.

He remembered a saying about Fuji. It seems there are two kinds of fools in this world. The first kind is one that has never climbed Mount Fujiyama even once. The second kind of fool is the one who have done so more than once ! Wise men climb the mount only once. Perhaps the old professor Dilip surmised, had ridden a desrt camel once already.

When the camel driver finally caught up with Dilip, he paid the latter his fare and politely refused the ride back to the camp. The camel driver laughed and said, " You are indeed a wise man ".

Certain follies, be it marriage, be it climbing Mount Fujiyama or be it a desert camel ride - they are committed only once. The young geologist had matured.

While walking in the desert, he suddenly found the desert talking to him. It told him of the caravans that had passed through it, the caravans that had perished, the ocean that had once existed there and so on. Slowly, he found that other minearals also talked to himm. He found that like humans, stones could be liars, they could be mixed up kids, they could be tantalizing beauties and they could be ugly murderers.

When he started studying gems, he found in them, a very fascinating world. The world of kings, emperors, rich men, their women, their slaves, their lives and times. The gems had their own grandiose visions, their own desires to dominate and motivate their fellow beings while themselves remaining comfortable.

Recently, I met Dilip after a lapse of thirty years. " Why did I not pursue our common childhood dream of becoming an explorer ? ", Dilip enquired. " Well, like climbing Fuji or riding a camel, may be, a wise man, in his cycle of births and re-births, becomes so only once ! ' was my repartee.