Misc. 167: An Equus Asinus which almost became an Engineer!!

 

 

There was Rosie, all demure but unassuming.

I know the name conjures up all kinds of eyecandy images and I do wish I could describe Rosie as a nice-looking girl (like the one above), but Rosie was a donkey. Now with donkeys, it is difficult to tell whether they are nice-looking or otherwise, for they all look the same (see below).

 

 

Oh, I haven’t told you about Rosie’s habitat.

 

Rosie was generally found to be roaming around in the campus of the College of Engineering, Guindy (now Anna University) in the 1970s but I don’t know which branch of engineering the animal was registered for. I don’t think it mattered much.

I am sorry to disappoint some of you but I think it is time I disclosed that Rosie wasn’t female at all. Camping as Rosie was mostly around the men’s hostels, the guys probably thought it would be wonderful to have a female name to call out. Rosie did not mind. But these days, it would be the correct thing to refer to Rosie as he/ him/ it (have I got it right?).

 

I am not privy to Rosie’s semester report card, but I suspect he couldn’t wrap his head around Mathematics (God knows how he was faring with the other difficulties!). For one thing, he couldn’t differentiate between homosapiens and he was always assimilating and integrating food of various kinds. Of Fourier (an expansion of a periodic function f(x) in terms of an infinite sum of sines and cosines), Taylor (f ( x ) = f ( a ) f ′ ( a ) 1 ! ( x − a ) + f ” ( a ) 2 !) and other impossibilities, the less said the better; he could not even begin the Series. Small wonder then, that our friend was mostly found in close proximity to the Math lecturer’s house in the campus!

But I don’t think Rosie was in Guindy for the education alone!

Like some of the beasts described in the Bible, Rosie appeared to have eyes all around, but they were not visible. Should you approach him with an intent to cause mischief, he had no qualms at all about exercising his hind legs in an almighty kick, while keeping a perfectly straight face that gave nothing away (not like the one below). You’d better think again!

There was no time like Deepavali to have fun with Rosie. With a cluster of crackers tied to his tail, he would prance around in a state of high excitement with his insufferable hee-haws!! While it brought a great deal of mirth to the humans in the hostels, I personally thought the animal preferred Gandhi Jayanthi or some such peaceful festival!