Reseña del libro "A Tale of Two Universities: A Long Journey"
The book is about stories of the author trying to earn his Ph.D. degree while a number of professors who were determined not to allow him. The struggles of the author and obstacles by the professors, spanning a period of twenty-one years from 1985 to 2006 in two universities, one in the USA and the other in Canada, describe his overcoming the mortification and associated pains, and the ultimate success in earning his degree. But, the success came at a price that took much away from the author's life. A human rights advocate likened the author's struggle against the university professors to that of David against Goliath. However, do the modern David ever win over the modern Goliath? A relative answer may be worded by the thoughtful reader. In his long journey, besides many unforgettable incidents together with the rendezvous with his Ph.D. Supervisor in a desolate parking lot in Texas and two hour of grueling interrogation by Supervising Professors in a closed-door office in Canada, the author met many interesting people like Batuk Talati the liquor merchant of Lubbock, Texas who provided the author a shelter in a trailer home adjacent to his liquor store in the tornado-prone rural Texas where the author also met Roberto, Dave and Betsy. Roberto who became a friend of the author in that bleak and dry North Texas took him to the Texas Tech campus and, on their way back to the trailer, showed a hidden canyon of astounding natural beauty in that barren landscape as described in the book.The author's longing for love and meeting comforting friends in the difficult times he passed through are presented eloquently. The hope of love was a driving force for him to live on.Manju, a young Bangladeshi student of Texas Tech, who drove the author for the first time to the trailer home about twenty miles away from Lubbock and offered him five dollars from his pocket to buy something, returned later with Hamed, a Libyan student of Texas Tech, to take the author back to the City of Lubbock and live with Hamed for free. At Hamed's rented home, the author was positioned in a shocking situation that could lead him to inconceivable consequences. He endured to return to Dhaka, Bangladesh where, after absorbing the initial social and economic shocks for returning empty handed from America, he secured and served for seven years as Principal Research Officer in the Armed Forces Food and Drug Laboratory. The author's experience of living in the quiet and sheltered Dhaka Cantonment and his views and feelings for the country he was born in are depicted. Leaving his secure job and position in the Bangladesh Government, the author immigrated to Canada to pursue his Ph.D. degree, and a potential career of his desire, at Queen's University, only to face the same oppositions as before from the professors who were morally and legally required to support him. Quite contrary to the expectations, the degrading treatments the author received by the professors may turn the stomach of any sensible reader.
