COMMUNICATIONS

There is a TV program called “Chiko-chan ni shikarareru” (You’ll get told off by Chiko chan!). It is very popular. Even my colleagues talk about it.

The program adopts a quiz format, and Chiko-chan, the MC, has her signature phrase. To guests who fail to answer correctly she says: “Don’t sleep through life!”

But I for one regard the idle hours as special. It is when I am doing nothing that new research ideas occur. It is at such times I receive inspiration.

Our academic masters no longer seem to recognize the need for this sort of leisure. Increase output! No time for rest! Work! This is how they fire us up.

I have actually appeared on “Chiko-chan ni shikarareru” as the guest academic. I told Chiko-chan how important it is to idle time away. This was just me venting my daily frustrations with our academic masters on TV.

For better or for worse, my comment was excised from the scene in which I appeared.