Bertrand Russell and India
It was a siege of sorts. We were tucked away in our hostel rooms due to a ruckus between the locals and the students and for a week or so, we were stuck in our hostel, with no classes. It all started with somebody assaulting somebody and many other bodies joining the fracas, like most thallu cases. The college ground to a halt, doors were boarded, and the Regional Engineering College at Calicut was shut down for a while. But naturally, we had to find ways of making merry in these newfound holidays. I possessed a cassette tape recorder, a great novelty in those days! I had convinced my friend the late IM Sankaranarayanan to part with two of his precious Mohammed Rafi LP records for a few hours, so that I could copy a selection to a cassette tape. The copying was done with during this holiday and the cassette was played back and forth, for hours. One song stood out - ‘Aaj ki Raat yeh kaisi raat’ – a melodious and romantic number.