Dominik,

The quote ("The present project….one's own one.") was from Elisa Freschi's kind invitation in the first message on this thread,  "to the second  "coffee break conference" on Classical and Contemporary South Asian to be held in Rome, Sapienza University, next week (8th to 10th September)." The rest, ("Sounds like…hereby notified") was my little bagatelle of a comment.

Allen

From: Dominik Wujastyk [mailto:wujastyk@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 3:51 PM
To: Thrasher, Allen
Cc: INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] A coffee break conference

... um, cough, sorry, Allen, I missed that.  What did you say?

Dominik :-)

On 2 September 2011 16:43, Thrasher, Allen <athr@loc.gov> wrote:

" The present project is the result of a larger reflection on the common sensical statement that the most interesting parts of a conference are the coffee breaks. One yawns or falls asleep while most papers are read –apart from a couple of them and one’s own one."

Sounds like an excellent idea.  Ananda Coomaraswamy when attending lectures would compose himself very comfortably and shut his eyes, to go to sleep if the talk weren't interesting.  He felt it was the speaker's duty to keep the audience interested and awake.

But I must say it sounds a little inconsiderate, unless one were part of a big audience and not noticeable.  I have sleep problems and sometimes if I know the speaker go up to explain and apologize in advance.  (Present company is hereby notified.)

Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.

Senior Reference Librarian and Team Coordinator

South Asia Team

Asian Division

Library of Congress

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Washington, DC 20540-4810

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tel. 202-707-3732

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The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.