Amita Chatterjee at her New Alipore home, hours after being appointed the first VC of Presidency University. (Pradip Sanyal)

LOOK WHO’S OPENING THE BATTING FOR PRESIDENCY

If Amita Chatterjee were a cricketer, she would open the innings.

“I see myself as a Sourav (Ganguly) or a Sachin (Tendulkar). I am here to play the role of an opening batsman. My job is to lay a solid foundation for those to follow,” Chatterjee, 60, told Metro in her first comments to a newspaper since being appointed Presidency University’s first vice-chancellor on Tuesday.

Chatterjee, a Presidency alumnus who has taught philosophy at Jadavpur University for 31 years, said she was “unprepared” for the phone call and fax message announcing her appointment but “overwhelmed” nevertheless by the faith reposed in her by the search committee.

So did Presidency University’s opening bat have no inkling that she would be asked to pad up? “I had no idea this was going to happen. When I got the phone call from the education department, I was surprised. Then I got the fax at 3pm. It left me overwhelmed and a little apprehensive,” admitted Chatterjee, who will take guard by noon on Wednesday.

But isn’t she nervous about not getting any net practice? “I am a born optimist. I will try to score a century without cribbing about the pitch or the conditions I have got,” smiled the philosophy professor, playing down the bouncer with the skill of a Sachin.

Chatterjee said she accepted the offer to head Presidency University not so much for the prestige that comes with the job as for the challenge.

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. That is probably what I am doing,” she added, standing next to a bookshelf in her New Alipore home stashed with Noam Chomskys, Stewart Shapiros and David M. Rosenthals.

What, in her opinion, made the search committee choose her? “I have never been an administrator in the real sense of the term. I don’t know why I was picked. There were many who, I believe, were worthier than me,” she said.

Chatterjee, who did her graduation from Presidency in 1970 and her masters in philosophy four years later, would visit her alma mater regularly even after she joined Jadavpur University.

“I used to run to Presidency after finishing my classes at JU. That practice lasted years,” she recalled.

Her fondest memory from her days as a student at Presidency is of a cubicle in the library where girl students would huddle to listen to Professor Tarak Nath Sen teaching students of English in the adjacent classroom. “We were in awe of him. All of us aspired to be a teacher like him someday,” she said.

As the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University, she now aspires to “restore it to its former glory”.

“Presidency will always remain unique. But when my term ends after a year, I would like to know that I have been able to do something to make sure my alma mater commands the respect it should.”

Chatterjee admitted that she had no immediate plan of action but intended starting her innings by reading the Presidency University Bill.

And how would she cope with possible political interference in her work? “I have the maturity to deal with such situations. Such conflicts can be resolved through negotiation. I am sure everyone concerned wants the best for Presidency,” she played with a straight bat.