I had a tenant named Dave staying with me. He was a biologist from Fresno, California. Dave was invited to speak at a world environment conference at BHU, scheduled for on March 28, 2008. I accompanied him, along with my friend Amanda from the USA, who was conducting research on the history of Coke in India. I was assisting Amanda as a translator. We all went to BHU together. Dave was eager to introduce his company to an Indian audience, as he has a deep love for India and often dreams of returning to live here and learn Hindi. He was particularly excited to speak about wetlands.

We arrived at BHU at 2:45 PM and had special guest seating. It was my first time sitting in the guest area, thanks to Dave. We waited for Dave’s turn to speak, but unfortunately, it never came. We stayed until 7:30 PM, but Dave was never called to the stage. We were disappointed by this oversight from such a prestigious university. We reached out to BHU officials, who apologized and promised to reschedule his speech for the next day at 10:00 AM. The following day, we arrived on time again but waited until 2:30 PM, only to find that Dave’s name was still not called.

Given that Dave had another scheduled speech at the Mehndiganj Water Conference at 3:00 PM, we decided to leave BHU and head to Mehndiganj. Although we arrived 30 minutes late, Dave was able to deliver his speech there.Dave continued to try and secure an opportunity to speak at BHU, contacting the officials once more, but they were unable to provide a satisfactory response. Since the conference was only three days long, Dave never got the chance to speak at BHU.