ABSTRACT
It was nearly two and half decades ago that the writer as a student from the tropics had the privilege of coming within the intellectual aura of Chorley, who proved to be a teacher with enduring impacts on his students. His teachings on drainage basins as fundamental geomorphic units at that time created not only an intense academic stimulus for the writer, but also fresh insights on their potential use for political and regional demarcations. His rationalism and deep respect for objectivity permeated not only one’s academic pursuits but also many matters in one’s personal life. It was a time when Chorley was riding high on the waves of the ‘quantitative revolution’ in geography, and when there were deliberate moves towards the development of a modern geographical theory with the popularisation of systems, models and paradigms. However, one thought which seemed to linger occasionally in Chorley’s mind was how empirical realities, particularly in the tropics, might fit into those beautiful models and other theoretical constructions which were so close to his heart. The writer reminisces, with some nostalgia, how Chorley referred often to the ‘vigour and dynamism’ of tropical landscape processes and restrained himself from going beyond that, in some of those infrequent encounters with him as an academic supervisor.
