Unkindled Love

Chapter 8

It was the beginning of March and the University campus was normally deserted. Students were at home, preparing for their examinations, and professors were busy setting question papers. Only those scholars who were doing their Ph.D or some academic research came to the library in the University during this time.

For a person like Gautami, an examination was a cakewalk. So, even in March, she came to the University to help her professors with some project or the other. She enjoyed it and did not mind coming all the way to the campus for this.

Urmila was extremely busy preparing for the examination and day-dreaming about her marriage.

One day Gautami was in the library making notes for her professor who was going to Japan to attend an international seminar on 'Buddhism in India and Japan'.

Gautami had read so much about Buddhism, how though it had originated in India, it had spread to many countries in South-east Asia. China, Japan and SriLanka were all Buddhist countries. And Indonesia, once a Buddhist centre,boasted of one of the great Buddhist monuments, Borobudur.

She would have loved to travel to all these places, but financial constraints had made that impossible. However, now that her professor was going to Japan and after that to Indonesia, he would describe it all to her when he returned. Even that was enough for her!

While she was thinking these thoughts, the department peon came and stood in front of her. 'Madam, Professor is calling you,wants you to come immediately.'

'Why bhaiyya, what is it? He knows I am doing some important work!'

'Some white man whom I have never seen before, must be a friend of the professor, has come and they were talking about you . . . maybe that's why they have called you.'

Gautami was wondering who it could be when she entered her professor's room. There was another person there, an elderly gentleman with grey hair, well built, around six feet tall. He looked at her and gave her a friendly smile.

'Come in Gautami. Meet my friend Professor Mike Collins,' Professor Rao introduced his guest.

Gautami could not believe her ears. Any student of history would know his name. If there were a Nobel Prize for history, it would certainly have gone to Professor Collins a long time back.                   

Many a times Gautami and the other students had heard Professor Rao talkabout Professor Collins. He was an American and came from a very affluent family. His father was a wealthy businessman. But the son had been passionate about history and had gone to Oxford to study. He got his Ph.D from there. His wife Jane, whom he had met at college and later married, was also a historian. They had done some fascinating research work together. They had a daughter, Dorothy, and she too, like her parents, had chosen history as her subject and was working towards a doctorate.

Unfortunately, Jane had died of cancer recently and Professor Collins was alone. He had been on a tour of Sri Lanka, and on the way back had come to meet his old friend.

Professor Rao had been his student at Yale University and a special affection had developed between the two of them. Gautami could see the happiness on Professor Rao's face on seeing his teacher.

'Mike, Gautami is an excellent student and one of my favourites. Her interest in history is similar to Dorothy's. She has prepared extensive notes on Buddhism. You can see how she writes.' Gautami went red, hearing her teacher praise her in front of such a well known person.

'Hello, Gautami! It is nice to meet you. I would love to see your notes sometime. I am not an expert on Buddhism like your teacher,'  he spoke to her in American accent, which was a little difficult for Gautami to understand.