Allahabad to Jodhpur: We were on the move again, log stock and barrel on January 2, 1958 from Allahabad, the green, flowering and leading city of eastern U.P, proudly standing on the confluence (sangam) of holiest of the holy rivers Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati, to Jodhpur, the desert city of western Rajasthan, which stood as a bulwark in shifting sands of sprawling Thar desert. Indian Railways had inherited a multi-gauge railway network from the British Government at the time of independence- Broad Gauge, Metre Gauge and two narrow gauges. We moved from Allahabad to Delhi by an overnight journey through broad gauge and travelled from Delhi to Jodhpur by Jodhpur Mail running on metre gauge. At that time, Jodhpur Mail was drawn by coal fired locomotives. There were regular watering stations on the route for refilling of water and charging of coal. During that period, Jodhpur Mail was the only through train, running daily, between Delhi and Jodhpur and naturally, it had a number of stops on the way. It used to take more than 18 hours for its journey from Delhi to Jodhpur through arid and barren desert land. We boarded the train in the evening of 3 January 1958 and landed at Jodhpur next day in the afternoon of 4 January 1958. The train kept on its halting march through sand dunes and fiercely blowing sands and we had a feeling that there may not be any end to the journey. It may sound intriguing, that, on some occasions, the blowing sands covered the whole track and the railway crew, who carried shovels and track clearing appliances with them, got down to clear the track, before they could proceed further.
During the good old days, the princely states of Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bikaner had their own railway networks, known as Jodhpur Railway, Jaipur State Railway and Bikaner State Railway. When Jodhpur Mail was steaming through Jodhpur railway station, we had a fleeting glimpse at the magnificent building of Jodhpur Railway Station, standing majestically with the insignia of Jodhpur Railway mounted on the top of the building like a jewel in the crown.
Jodhpur City in 1958: Jodhpur city was a small sleepy town in the year 1958, although it happened to be the second biggest city of Rajasthan. Those were the days, when most of the people of Jodhpur lived within the walled city. Sardarpura and Paota were the only planned developments outside the walled city. Sardarpura was built on a grid pattern with roads A,B,C,D,E running from north to south and roads 1,2,3,4….., running from west to east. Looking to the times, most of the roads were sufficiently wide. The houses were built on spacious plots, in hammer dressed sandstone and the whole development provided a pleasant, neat and clean look. It may be interesting to note that, at that time, the cost of an average residential house in Sardarpura including the cost of land, hovered between rupees twenty thousand and twenty five thousand.
Railway line at Jodhpur ran through the middle of the city, dividing it into two distinct parts. Walled city, Sardarpura and Paota were on the west side of the railway line, whereas, Civil Lines, airport and defence establishments occupied the area east of the railway line. Movements were mostly local, either on foot or through pushbikes. There were no autos, busses, taxis or public transport plying on the roads. People did not have scooters, motorcycles or automobiles. Manufacture of motor cars had just begun in India. Very few people of Jodhpur had motor cars and most of the cars which could be seen, once in a while on the roads, were old models of 8 HP to 10 HP British cars mostly Morris and Austin. The total number of cars running on the roads of Jodhpur at that time was of the order of ten to twelve. Horse drawn tongas used to ply from the railway station to Sardarpura. Apart from that, there were a number of shops which provided bi-cycles on hourly rental.
Our first residence at Jodhpur: Dr Hathi was a leading ophthalmologist of Jodhpur. His younger brother Siddhu Bhai happened to be at Allahabad in December 1957. Somehow, the news of our movement from Allahabad to Jodhpur was picked up by him, a few days before our departure from Allahabad and he was good enough to meet us and made an offer of his house to us on a modest rent of rupees sixty per month and handed over the keys of the house to us. On reaching Jodhpur, we went straight to that house lying on 3rd B road Sardarpura near Rani Mandir. The house had nine rooms, with two courts, outer and inner. We had a tremendous sense of relief and everybody got into the process of settling down. In the meantime, I picked up a bi-cycle on rental and pushed to MBM Egineeering College.
Directorate of Technical Education: MBM Engineering College occupied a prominent place in the civil lines of Jodhpur. Principal VG Garde had his office on the first floor of the administrative block of the college and a room on the terrace, facing his room was made available temporarily for the office of the Director of Technical Education and Chairman of the Board of Technical Education. He greeted me with all the fraternal feelings and cordiality and told me that I had my posting at Ajmer for the establishment of a new polytechnic there. He also mentioned that the release of the budget of the institution and creation of teaching and non-teaching posts was likely to take some time and may be available from the state government after the budget session of the assembly in March-April 1958 and therefore, he suggested that I could stay at Jodhpur for some time and get involved in the preparatory work for the establishment of the polytechnic. However, he permitted me to leave for Ajmer on the night of the same day to get a feel about the ground realities there.
Trip to Ajmer: I boarded the passenger train running from Jodhpur to Udaipur late in the evening and got down at Marwar Junction at the dead of night. Thereafter, after a wait of two hours in chilly night, I boarded Ahmedabad Delhi Mail, which took me to Ajmer in the early hours of the morning. In the absence of an office of Ajmer Polytechnic, Collector and District Magistrate of Ajmer had been authorized to receive all correspondence related to the polytechnic. It was just a coincidence, that, at the residence of the Collector, I happened to meet two of my old buddies, who were with me during our college days at Kota. One of them told me that, he was working as Deputy Superintendent of Police ( city) at Ajmer and the other one was working as City Magistrate of Ajmer. I had some free time with them after meeting the collector. They were extremely helpful in scouting for suitable accommodation for the functioning of the polytechnic and for our residential accommodation at Ajmer. In the evening we went all round the city, looking into all the available alternatives and ultimately zeroed in at Masuda House.
Masuda House was a palatial building with sufficient open land. I was told that Rao Sahib of Masuda had agreed to make Masuda House available to the state government for the establishment of the polytechnic. We contacted Rao Sahib of Masuda. He was very kind to take us round and provided a green signal for the utilization of the premises of Masuda House for the establishment of the polytechnic. Close to Masuda House, Dr DR Malhotra, who was sometimes the Chief Metallurgist of Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway had built a house, named as White House, with four units of residential accommodation on a spacious plot of land. Each unit had three bedrooms with essential facilities. His family was occupying two units and two units were available to be let out on rent. The whole thing looked like a dream. We had a very homely meeting with Mrs Malhotora, who was living alone in the white house. She was very happy at the prospect of getting a neighbour and agreed to let out the two vacant units of residential accommodation to us. Subsequently, I boarded the Delhi Ahmedabad Express train from Ajmer at night and after trans-shipment to Udaipur-Jodhpur passenger at Marwar Junction at mid-night, I found myself at Jodhpur in the early hours of the morning.
Bye bye Jodhpur: Principal Garde had mixed reactions. He did not mind my shifting to Ajmer immediately, but was slightly worried, because he felt that it would be difficult to carry on at Ajmer, for three to four months, without funds and supporting staff. All the same, we were again on the move, after an extremely brief stay of two days at Jodhpur.