The Oxford Experience

For last couple of days me and my classmates have been hearing a lot about the "Oxford Experience" . Well for some, it would be the city around us , the numerous pubs and/or the night life but I have a more classic "Oxford Experience" to tell tonight . Three of us were sitting at the Indian joint across the school (the food is pretty decent) and discussing the various languages spoken across India , the attributes of people across India and everything which makes India such a vibrant and "unlikely democracy". I believe the gentleman sitting on the table behind us had been overhearing our "unripe" psycho-babble and unformed theories for quite some time, when he decided to introduce himself . So we had the pleasure of getting acquainted  with Mr. Prashanth an Indian mechanical engineer who got fed up with his mundane life and went ahead and did a PhD in linguistics !! and that too from Japan on a Japanese government scholarship . I was like "whoa" . And that's not all, the softspoken gentleman hailing from Pune actually teaches in Japan and that too in Japanese. We had a interesting discussion with him on a number of  languages and their history (In retrospect I think we should have shut our trap and let him speak a bit more). I learnt a number of new things in the hour long discussion that ensued and though Navoniell and Hari don't look the part but take my word for it , they can engage you in a decent academic discussion :) . The gentleman is in Oxford just for couple of days and it was lucky for us to have met him .
As we said our goodbyes, the question I asked the guys was - "How many business schools will give you the opportunity to engage in a discussion with a Linguist over a cup of coffee (a decent cup it was, I must admit)" . Not many is the answer , I guess . So it seems the "Oxford Experience" is infact a reality and I am looking forward to more of it in the coming year.