Back to Cambridge
I went back to Cambridge last week thelp with the interview process for a scholarship to Harvard (the Herchel Smith) that my college, Emmanuel offers.
I was an Herchel Smith scholar a few years ago. I had a wave of nostalgia back at Emma. People talk about nostalgia as a powerful feeling but I’ve not often hit me as such. University is a crazy, influential, melting pot of a time that it’s only to be expected to conjure up such feelings.
It was good to see my old lecturer and supervisor, who taught me “Learning and Memory” as part of Experimental Psychology. He is a brilliant teacher and a delightfully charismatic person – he was a major reason for me doing so well in my final year.
The Emma ducks still waddled across the grass. It started to snow. The swirling flakes danced straight out of a movie.
In the applications and interviews, one aspect that struck me was the ferocious intellect and scholarship present. (Both in the candidates and the interviewers.) For all the arguments that you can lay at Cambridge’s feet – elitism, cronyism and other negatives – it does foster intellectual, strong, determined, unique individuals.
Maybe this is one of the reasons a number of directors and actors emerge each year from Cambridge and go on to be successful at a world or national stage even though Cambridge offers no real official instruction in drama.
Yes, there may well be cronyism as well and despite my science training and background, I do wear a Cambridge badge amongst others so my thoughts must be subject to bias. Still, I contend there is something about its atmosphere that helps breed amazing people.
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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[...] When I went back to Emmanuel, I went to say hello to a little tree. We planted in memory of my friend Nadia Rajan, who died when I was at college. It was good but sad to remember. [...]