The Story of SKILL Foundation 6
Continued…….
This is the Story of SKILL Foundation. It started only in 2007 after my retirement . Then why am I describing my early life? It is so because my purpose is to take you through the process by which my character and personality developed to enable me to take up the arduous task at SKILL Foundation.
BIT Sindri (Bihar Institute of Technology) in those days was a leading Engineering College in the country. It competed with the five IITs at Kharagpur, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi and Bombay, BHU, Roorkee, Indian Institute of Mines, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore etc. In 1964, the present day more sought after BIT Mesra (Birla Institute of Technology) had just started and did not even have its own workshop. The Mechanical Engineering students had to come to our institute for their workshop.
Immediately after independence, Bihar was the best administered state in the country. Keeping in mind the potential of Bihar, the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had given a special gift to Bihar just adjacent to the Fertilizer Corporation of India which was the first Public Sector Company of the Country. BIT Sindri had a sprawling Campus, probably one of the largest in the country. It was a residential institute with 17 hostels housing about 2000 students. The Director Dr D L Deshpande was a leading expert in higher education and specially selected by the PM. When I got my desired Mechanical Engineering branch at BIT Sindri, I had no regret that I left IIT. Today the gap is so much that you cannot imagine someone leaving an IIT for any other Engineering College in India! So I entered BIT Sindri with my nose in the air.
The nearest Railway station of BIT Sindri was Dhanbad on the Grand Chord Line connecting Calcutta with Delhi. During those days there was only one from Patna to Dhanbad. The bogies bound for Dhanbad were detached at Gomoh Junction and had to wait more than three hours from about 9 PM to midnight for another train to which our bogies were attached and taken to Dhanbad. During our five years stay in BIT Sindri, we had to travel many times on this route. At the opening and closing of our academic sessions a large number of students from all corners of Bihar used to travel in groups by this route. As a result we behaved as if we owned the train. Soon we evolved ways and means for passing the long wait at Gomoh. We used to roam around the town and found it to be a forlorn small town then. There was a movie hall near the station which was in a dilapidated state. It mostly screened old movies. I have seen many old movies at Gomoh en route to BIT Sindri.
During my first journey to BIT Sindri from Dhanbad, I was confidant because of my earlier stint at IIT Mumbai. So I was more outgoing and started interacting with one and all who were going to join BIT Sindri. I was excited to meet Mahendra Pratap Singh (Ladan), my classmate at St Xavier's who was also going to join in the same Mechanical Engineering branch. He had changed school after class six. At school we did not get much chance to interact closely, but from that day we have evolved a deep and abiding friendship. Today he is a great friend of SKILL Foundation and actively helps the Foundation.
Mahendra hailed from a traditional erstwhile zamindar (landlord) family. He had to get married quite unwillingly while in 2nd year itself at the tender age of seventeen. Being a very intimate friend we used to share our thoughts freely and I truly felt for him. He belonged to a village near the Nepal border in the Terai area of the Himalayas and his sasural (in-laws place) is just across in Nepal. Being excited with the adventure involved in attending his marriage, and that too in a foreign country, I proposed to a group of five close common friends to accompany his barat (marriage procession). They readily agreed and we had a real adventure which all who attended Mahendra’s marriage have never forgotten.
At BIT Sindri, I met more than 300 new students from different parts of Bihar. A handful were from Assam, Odisha, Kashmir and Nepal on account of seats reserved for these underdeveloped areas as compared to Bihar. All were excellent students and most of them were toppers of their schools and districts. I found that most of them came directly from the villages and were straightforward and very simple. Among them I was a student from a leading English medium school, Patna St. Xavier’s. On top of it I had left IIT Mumbai after studying for two months! I found them extremely friendly. My immediate response was to actively cultivate friendship with all of them, and for this purpose I started communicating fluently in the local languages of Bihar such as Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi etc. I purposely put my English speaking skills and mission school connection in the background. There were a dozen or so other students from English medium schools in our batch. They used to stay in a closed group away from the rest. But the posture that I had acquired made me a complete misfit in their group. Most of my class mates did not know my mission school background and many of them even do not know till now. Just a few days ago, one of my batch mates has remarked that he never knew that I was from an English medium school.
I can certainly say that during my school days, my school Principal Father Murphy had correctly portrayed me as a shy and reserved student to my father. In St Michael and St Xavier’s, I remained stifled. On the other hand, when I came to BIT Sindri, I felt that I had reached a free and familiar environment . My extrovert personality — the other part of the split personality came to the fore! The shy and introvert student of the school — where he was lost I do not know. From the very first day at BIT Sindri I became friendly with all the 300 plus new students as if I had known them from my childhood. Now I can say that it was because of the culture at my home and the strong connection with our village. I struck a lifelong bond with my batch mates for ever. The biggest take away from my five years at BIT was that I developed a friendly and non-snobbish personality. It helped me so much in my working both as an engineer in Bokaro Steel Limited and in the Indian Revenue Service. It is this well ingrained trait in me that has helped me in striking intimate friendship with the under privileged kids at SKILL Foundation.
The then Prime Minister Sri Jawaharlal Nehru had said that India’s industries and factories are modern temples of the country and the Engineers are the ‘pujaris’ and priests. Influenced by his views, all of us considered ourselves as future chief engineers. Our heads were high for being privileged to study Engineering in a leading institute. However by the time we passed, in a matter of five years, our morale was completely down. We came to know that thousands of engineers are unemployed all over the country. The then Prime Minister Shri Morarji Desai told the unemployed engineers seeking job — “Government cannot give employment to all engineers. If you do not get jobs then sell peanuts”!
In such a scenario of disillusionment what was the need to study? I decided to do everything other than studying in BIT Sindri. I became a game and a good companion for every prohibited activity such as bunking class, playing cards, watching movies, loafing or partying and what not.
Subjecting new students to ragging by seniors in professional institutes though prohibited was popular. There was an element of fear among the freshers and they mostly moved about in groups. However the ragging in BIT was in no way like the later day excessive cruelty, torture and degradation. My own experience as a fresher was fortunately not so unpleasant. I was confronted by a group of Fourth Year students sitting in the college canteen. Fortunately the group of seniors were led by a gentleman Mritunjay Singh who had been my senior at Patna St Xavier’s. The moment he discovered that I was from his school so he became mild. All my fear of ragging vanished. There followed a grueling session of question and answer in English, which I could answer quite easily, because of my mission school background. Then ‘samosas’ and ‘jalabees’ were ordered for everyone. When I got up to pay thinking that it must be the practice, Mritunjay Singh fired me left and right for daring to offer to pay in front of a senior! He took me to his room and since then he became my friend philosopher and guide for two years till he passed out of college. After that I was never afraid of being subjected to ragging.
After four months of such fun, when I used to return home for two months of holiday, my mood would change completely. I would be immediately struck by difficult financial conditions of my family. How difficult it was for Maa and Babuji to provide higher education to Didi in medicine and to me in engineering simultaneously! Besides, Ashok and Binoy were also studying in school. I would firmly resolve during my holidays to study hard and do well in life to make them happy and proud of me.
I read voraciously during the two month holidays, twice a year for all the five years at BIT. But the engineering course books did not interest me at all. The habit of reading books other than course books, I had developed early in school. I read everything not related to my course — novels, history, geography, philosophy, biography, and what not. I could hardly afford to buy any books and neither could I dare ask my hard pressed parents for money for books. I joined the British Council Library, United States Information Service Library, the famous Sinha Library and Khudabaksh Library of Patna. I also used to get the books from a friend, Munna (Sunil Singh). His father was a very senior officer of Bihar and had a large collection of books. Two lengthy books that I can recall borrowing from my friend were Arnold Toynbee’s History of Civilizations and The War Memorials of Churchill. Both these masterpieces helped me so much later in life! My friend never read English books and he would wonder what I would do with those thick books.
After every two-month of vacation, the moment I landed in BIT Sindri, all the resolutions made at home would vanish. My friends would be waiting for me right at the college gate in ‘Gaushala’. In their company I would be back to square one again.The same unrestrained abandoned personality would take hold of me. For the next four months at BIT Sindri, the awareness of the struggle of my parents at home would take a back seat. I would become the most willing collaborator in any proposal for roaming around, watching movies, playing cards or any other activity that a responsible engineering student should not do.
We had become quite ingenious in devising ways for any merriment. On the very first day back in college, we saw a movie of Yul Brynner in the local cinema hall at Saharpura, a small market place of the residential area of the Fertilizer Corporation of India, Sindri. In the movie the hero sported a tonsured head. Coming out of the movie a friend suggested that we should all get our heads shaved and so we did. Then comes another bright idea, let each of us get two friends to shave their head with the condition that each has to again follow the chain with their two friends and so on. It was promptly endorsed and lo and behold, in a matter of a few days nearly the whole college appeared clean shaved. So much so that even the professors noted the sea of bald heads. But no one could do anything about it! These types of frivolous and reckless actions soon provided the notoriety to our group that we were probably seeking.
I got distinction in the very first year. I was surprised by the results myself as also all my batch mates, since I had not done any studies for the whole year. Some people said I was a genius! I knew that I was not. I did well in my first year final exam due to my intense study for the school finals as also the preparation for all the competitive exams which I had cleared. Whatever the reason, the direct result of getting distinction was that some of my close gentle friends started avoiding me. Perhaps they thought that because of their moving around with me, their performance suffered.
Most of the students in the college were from middle class and from rural background and clearly understood their responsibility in BIT Sindri. All of them remained my close and lifelong friends and loved me a lot. But it was not possible for them to participate in my activities, so they spent less time with me. As a result, in the second year, I started moving around with companions who were mostly repeaters or laggards of various classes. Our activities started to grow and we developed friendship with people who were considered to be the hooligans of nearby localities like Gaushala and Saharpura as also far away Jharia and Dhanbad. There was no dearth of such characters in the coalfield.
In the second year it was our turn to take lead in ragging. Due to my good English speaking skills, I was in great demand by people interested in ragging. I used to be invited to conduct ragging. It was no doubt fun, but I was always alert that we should not cross the limit. Even so, we were involved in an ugly incident in which there was physical violence and injury to a fresher. I was present during the incident and had tried my best to prevent it and pacify the adversaries.
The inquiry committee for the incident told me in private that if I tell the names of my friends, I will be forgiven. I defended my colleagues and preferred to bear the punishment awarded. Both the fresher and my batch mate were expelled for one year from college and I for one year from the hostel. The Director told my father that if he guarantees that I will not do any further mischief then I can get the hostel. Babuji replied that he had handed me over to the college and it was the Director’s responsibility to ensure that I behaved!
The harsh punishment awarded in the second year did affect us. The fresher could never pass any exams during the four years that I stayed in the college. He developed intimacy with people in the locality and soon became a business person of Sindri. My batch mate Ramchander Singh on account of his tenacity did recover and pass the final exams though a few years late.
My interaction with Ramchandra has continued till date. He has settled in his village Jakhania,Gazipur, UP. He retired from Government of Bihar and his pension is paid in his Bank at Patna. So he comes to my house every year in the month of November/December to submit his life certificate. Mostly he stays over for days together and we get a good chance to interact. Although he could have transferred his bank account to his village and avoid coming to Patna, he has deliberately not done so because he does not want to miss the chance of meeting me every year.
When the final results for the second year came out I was in for a shock. I had passed in the second class. What a fall it was! Babuji did not react at all. Again, at home I firmed up my resolve to avoid my companions and study seriously. But such resolutions are easier made than actually practiced. I could not simply leave my companions. Yet, I did seriously undertake my studies and passed 3rd year in first class. However my final Mechanical Engineering results of Second Class was a direct reflection of my activities during my stay at BIT Sindri.
All my friends at BIT Sindri remain to date my lifelong companions. If I start writing about them, I will need a separate book for each of them. And then probably I will deviate from the story of SKILL Foundation.
To be continued……….