Why was I asked if I “hate Hindi”?

There is renewed brouhaha in the past few days on the topic of a unifying language for India, and whether Hindi is de facto, if not de jure, the national language. And as always, we have all sorts of voices adding to this cacophony. The usual suspects from either end of the spectrum (from “those who refuse to speak Hindi should be treated as foreigners” to “Hindi is a parvenu with a shallower history than almost any other Indian language”), and everything in between are out for their periodic airing under the Sun.

First Brush with THE Power Above

It's nearly 25 years to the day since my first "brush" with the great power above that doesn't lend itself to a logical deconstruction.

Scene: Interview for admission to the B.Sc. Chemistry course at the St Stephen's College, Delhi in June 1990.

After I had walked in and the initial pleasantries had been done with, Prof S.V. Eswaran (the then Head of the Department of Chemistry at the college) looked me in the eye and said:

"According to atomic orbital theory, Oxygen should be diamagmetic. However, experiments prove that Oxygen is paramagnetic. Please explain."