When Saeed returned to Cambridge University after his long convalescence following his kidney-removal operation, there was more change in store as he was soon informed that his PhD supervisor, Dr A P French, was leaving for the US. Saeed was instead taken under the wing of Denys Wilkinson, whom he describes as “a scintillating and charismatic, tall, slim, handsome Yorkshireman”. Wilkinson, then 30, was only five years older than Saeed and insisted on being called by his first name, which was another culture shock for Saeed. But Denys was “a very good supervisor”, who held regular Tuesday-night discussion sessions with coffee and biscuits that Saeed would later copy when active at the University of Birmingham later in his own career. This section of the memoirs includes Saeed’s famous remark to Denys at his house as to whether some music playing on the radio was by “the Bolshoi Ballet”. Denys’s reaction was to ask another student, George Chadwick, “to hit him on the head”.
All posts tagged Cambridge University
My time at Cambridge part 2
Posted by matindurrani on March 22, 2014
https://saeed-durrani-memoirs.net/2014/03/22/my-time-at-cambridge-part-2/
My operation and new life
In this section of Saeed’s memoirs, he recounts the serious operation he had in January 1955, which involved the removal of one of his kidneys that had probably been infected with TB. He then recalls the long period of convalescence that followed. The period he spent in hospital was significant too as it gave Saeed new insights into the English way of life and it made him realise who his “real” friends were. Saeed’s illness also proved to be a wake-up call and he “came back to Cambridge, in June 1955, a changed man”.
Posted by matindurrani on March 22, 2014
https://saeed-durrani-memoirs.net/2014/03/22/my-operation-and-new-life/
My time at Cambridge: part 1
After shining as a physics student in Lahore, Saeed’s time at Cambridge University was markedly different – suddenly he was one of many top students, not the only one. In this part of his memoirs, he describes life at Cambridge, including his “quite stupid approach” to research, which included being too “idiotic” to admit he didn’t know how particular experimental equipment worked, turning up in the lab at 3pm after spending hours at night on advanced mathematics in his room with the gas fire blazing, and feeling “embarrassed and ashamed” after getting pump oil into a cyclotron, which a technician then had to spend a full day and a half repairing.
Posted by matindurrani on December 14, 2013
https://saeed-durrani-memoirs.net/2013/12/14/my-time-at-cambridge-part-1/
Early Days at Cambridge
This next selection from Saeed Durrani’s memoirs describes how he settled in at the University of Cambridge as a new PhD student in 1953. The transition from Pakistan to 1950s England was something of a culture shock, not least because it meant having to learn how to eat peas off the back of a fork, taking cold showers and getting his own clothes washed for the first time. He did manage, though, to “save a few pennies” by never giving his socks for washing…though this had some rather unfortunate (and malodorous ) consequences.
Click the link below to read more.
Posted by matindurrani on September 15, 2013
https://saeed-durrani-memoirs.net/2013/09/15/early-days-in-cambridge/
Arrival in England
This part of Saeed Durrani’s memoirs describes his first experiences as a 23-year-old arriving in England from Pakistan in the autumn of 1953. He had left his homeland to begin a PhD in nuclear physics at the University of Cambridge, taking up residence at Gonville and Caius College.
Click the link below to read more.
Posted by matindurrani on September 15, 2013
https://saeed-durrani-memoirs.net/2013/09/15/arrival-in-england/
Saeed Durrani (1929-2018) 