My guru-G: story of Rishi Ray

Time is not just an excellent healer but a great teacher they say,

A half of me agrees, another half queries, "didn't they have a teacher called Dr May?"

Time is indeed one of the greatest teachers beyond any possible poetic rhyme,

But I am here to tell the story of a teacher who taught me the importance of time.

I guess his favourite alphabet of English and geosciences was  'g'

The day he asked me what is 'g' maybe he discovered a nervous 'me'.

The 'g' a geoscientist in a premiere institute asked me,

Was a simple acceleration due to gravity!

I wish I could tell him timely, how I rediscovered 'g' depending on space time and context,

I wish I could tell him how I miss him, his guidance and simple reply back SMS text.

Set on a path to predict earthquakes through atmospheric ions,

He was the fiercest of Durga Mata's learned lions.

He established the existence of Saraswati through paleo- channel mapping,

He also aimed to resolve firing of the Pacific ring!

He looked over the projects of subsidence in northern India plains,

He gave due importance to landslide-inducing Uttarakhand rains.

His futuristic vision led us to work on risk in a small state of our nation,

His value of time taught us the value of past, present and future and absence of time dilation.

Inception, time dilation and multiverse have featured in Hollywood,

I wish my teachers are someday featured in at least Bollywood,

A firm believer in almighty he taught us to research to save life,

He was a Sanjeevani plant lost in Covid, whose story will one day be rife.

He turned himself into beautiful geological rocks of Earth,

Graphite to help little one's like us to write and diamond to a knowledgeable Johri's mirth.

He was indeed a rishi: a sage of white sunlight ray,

That his prismatic student brains could not understand till day!

I am reminded of him often when sunset is orange or when sky turns pink,

He was the ocean of knowledge, reflecting something on the optics of global warming on the canvas of sky through solar ink.

It''s vivid in my memories as if it was just yesterday when I peeped into your cabin "Sir if you are busy, should I come later in the day?"

The answer was always the same, "no come right now and then send the next".

I was amazed at how he balanced his time in given space and context!