Faces of IT-BHU: MotilalJi
A man who began service almost during the time of independence, he still has the courage and determination to work, as in the younger generation. This time we found MotiLal ji ,aged 89 (His Candids still more natural than yours), one of the oldest people who can still be found sitting and guiding the staff at Limbdi Hostel. He retired almost 21 years ago in 1996 as he recalls while having started off long back (almost 71 years) ago in 1946 .The 13th of August was the exact date of joining as he claims!(That’s sharp) He was 18 then! He was a part time singer and was also famous as “The Philosopher” back then among his colleagues. He was not definitely like the typical people of his age, rather he was a kind of a “Machau Dada” who loved telling things .
During his starting days, he worked in Rajputana Hostel but after 1951 he started working in Limbdi Hostel. Now his days are consumed by roaming around exploring and searching for a change (not #wanderlust though). Though he may not be the face of hostel staff at present, still he regularly visits Limbdi Hostel, meets every worker and interestingly, collects grass for his cows in the farm he maintains in his village. Surprisingly, he likes to change stuff around him and keeps his sons indulged in helping him doing so.
He reveals a lot about how it was, being in BHU in the 20th century. A person with an eidetic memory, he has a lot of memories which he very delightfully loves to share. He told us that there was no LC back then (really?), it was just a paan wala shop by the name of “MOOSA PAAN WAALA” (till 1998) earlier known as Manju Shop.
He explained how earlier a dress code was followed and the level of decency was at a greater level than today. Just imagine, No scooters! No bikes! and White paint all over in the hostels , “It was Amazing” he exclaimed. He says the academics were much more difficult compared to what they are now! Because of the difficulty level of the paper and the .
Overtime he has realised that the interest of students has been diverting towards the money making things and there has been a deprived participation in research and development related fields! “Aajkal Padhne ka Maksad hi Badal gya hai” i.e. aim of education has completely changed its track now, as he thinks.
Most of us don’t know this but earlier the jobs to the staff were given to the workers with multi-calibre working talent including himself as he worked for 4 hours in the morning as a guard ,then he kept a formal check on the students during prep timings and then, worked in the mess during meal timings! He says that he was allotted with 50 children to keep a check on, at what time they were studying and overall what and why they had bad grades but now the overall system has become much more liberal. Though we all may see that in the positive sense but MotiLal Ji loved it back then.
He mentioned that the worse part has been losing his friends and mates and that most of them have left with only one of them, namely Deena Naath left. MotiLal Ji is 89 and has 4 children, all married. One of them teaches students while the other three work in a TV factory, a medical pharmacy lab and a medicine shop respectively. In a very dramatic tone, he narrated various incidents of his life.
#KissaDaddyAndSonKa
He then narrated an awesome incident when there was a time when a father and his son both were studying at the same time, shared the same room and were pursuing Mechanical Engineering here and Motilal Ji served them both, but when the results came out, the father cleared the exam but his son failed. After a year the son dropped off from college probably in shame of the embarrassment he faced and by that time it was a national news in the 1980s!
He came out to be the “Ram-Rahim” of his time being a well-known singer, poet, philosopher, storyteller, guard, a guide, farmer and what not! He won the first prize in Lok Geet competition in BHU and was awarded by Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.
We, the Media Club team congratulate and thank him for having selflessly served the institute for over 5 decades and still going strong, giving the younger generation his experience and also great motivation.
