Ganesh Vatika: The eldest cousin of our father and patriarch of our family was Rai Sahib Kanahiya Lal. He was involved in military contracts during the first world war and the modest surplus that he was able to generate during that period, turned out to be a big fortune. He utilized it for the purchase of lands, construction of buildings and development of orchards. Ganesh Vitaka was one of them on the city side, where sometimes, he occupied about 400 acres of land and built his residential bunglow and developed an orchard covering about 100 acres of land. The land and buildings are now occupied by Kanahiya Lal DAV group of educational institutions.
I spent a month at Ganesh Vatika in the summer of 1943, for appearing in the entrance examination of Civil Engineer Class of Thomason College of Civil Engineering Roorkee. The examination was conducted on an all India basis. However, all admissions were based on merit and there were no nominations of any kind. The number of seats available for admission in the Civil Engineering Class were thirty. Seven seats were reserved for Muslims and one for an Anglo-Indian or Christian. Twenty two seats were open to candidates of all other communities. For meeting the emerging requirements of the war, ten seats were added in the year 1943 and were marked exclusively for military services. Candidates domiciled in UP were required to pay normal fees. There was an extra charge equivalent to per capita expenditure of the college for candidates domiciled in British Provinces other than UP. And for candidates from princely states a capitation fee of Rs 10000 was payable.
After my selection for admission to Thomason College, my father accompanied me to Roorkee and entrusted me to the local care of his elder cousin Rai Sahib Kanahiya Lal. He also told him, that, as I was a candidate from the princely state of Bundi, a capitation fee of Rs 10000 was payable, which the state had been good enough to reimburse. Rai Sahib was almost furious. He could not reconcile to the fact that a child belonging to his family was expected to be supported by somebody else. Tehsildar of Roorkee was summoned, who got the domicile application form filled by me and then the tehsildar got it signed and stamped by the joint magistrate of Roorkee, It may look strange, but, almost within an hour, a candidate born and brought up in a princely state of Rajputana, turned into an eligible domiciled candidate of UP.
Thomason College in 1943: Thomason College in 1943 was more of an officers’ training school rather than an engineering college. The college was running only two courses at that time:
- Civil Engineering Class: The intake was thirty. Duration of the course was three years. Total strength of students was about one hundred.
- Overseer Class: The intake was forty. Duration of the course was two years. Total strength of students was about eighty.
On the completion of the course, students of the Civil Engineer Class were expected to assume responsibilities in the public works departments of the state, in the officers cadre as assistant engineers, whereas, the students of the overseer class were expected to join the cadre of subordinate services as overseers. So far so good. But, the concept of officer and subordinate was thoroughly drilled in the psyche of the students during their stay in the college. There was almost no intermixing or interaction between the students of the civil engineer classes and overseer classes in the academic, social, cultural and games and sports activities of the institution. Classrooms were different, teachers were different, hostels were different, playgrounds were different, messes were different and even clubs and avenues of entertainment and relaxation were different. For all practical purposes two institutions functioned side by side in the same campus.
There were only three occasions in a year, when the students of the civil engineer class and overseer class participated jointly in the college programmes. The first occasion was the opening day of the college in September, when the principal addressed the students, second occasion was the annual sports day in January and the third was the convocation day in June.
Campus: The college had a sprawling campus spread over an area of about 400 acres. The main building of the college had a massive structure built in colonial style. Raised on high ground, it provided a very magnificent and imposing look and it continues to stay there majestically, serving as a monument of the good old days. The college was fully residential with all students and all members of the teaching and supporting staff living on the campus. Principal and all senior members of the teaching faculty were senior officers on deputation from public works departments of the state. A luxurious bunglow, close to the main building of the college was earmarked for the residence of the principal. Principal of Thomason College was held in high esteem in the state and during visits of the governor of UP to Roorkee, the governor shared accommodation with the principal in his bunglow. All members of the teaching faculty had big bunglows covering two to five acres of land for comfortable living.
Hostels meant for the residence of the students were in the form of barracks and were known as barracks at that time, reviving the memories of close association of the institution with the military in its formative years. Every hostel or barrack had six rooms. Rooms were very spacious, covering about 14 ft to 16 ft of carpet area with attached dressing rooms and bathrooms. Every student was allotted one room in the hostel, thereby, the total strength of students in a hostel was six. In the front there used to be a big lawn and kitchens were provided for each hostel, about 100 ft away, in the rear. Since, every student was expected to maintain a personal servant, six servants quarters were provided for each hostel about 100 ft behind the common kitchen.
There was also a common mess with a sitting accommodation for 100 students, where all students of the engineer classes could take their meals simultaneously. There was also an engineering students club with liberal facilities for all types of indoor games, reading room, entertainment and relaxation. The campus also had liberal facilities for outdoor games with well maintained playgrounds for hockey, football and cricket. In addition, there were six hardcourt tennis courts, six singles squash courts and two doubles squash courts. Facilities for swimming and boating were available in Ganga Canal. The college also had a regular boat club attached to the right bank of Ganga Canal, where the college maintained a reasonably good fleet of all types of boats for the students.
College was also running a regular dairy for the supply of milk, butter and other dairy products to the students’ messes and kitchens and to the teaching and other supporting staff of the college. There was also a regular bakery on the campus, which provided bread, biscuits, cakes and other bakery products. Dairy and bakery of the college were very popular, because dairy and bakery facilities were extremely limited in the country at that time. Apart from these there was a regular army canteen, a bookstore, sweet shop and other ancillary facilities.
Sessions: Normally, the Civil Engineer course was of three years duration with three sessions of nine months each. The college used to open in September and closed in June for the monsoon break. However, the war was on and there did not appear to be a quick end to the war. Therefore, to meet the ever increasing reqirements of technical persons on the war front, it was decided to accelerate the Civil Engineer course. The duration of the course was reduced from three years to two years. All holidays and breaks were curtailed and two sessions of 12 months each were substituted for three sessions of nine months each. Ours was the first such batch which entered in 1943 and passed out in 1945. This was followed by second batch, which entered in 1944 and passed out in 1946. Since, the war had ended the batch which entered in 1945 had a normal term of three years and passed out in 1948.
Seniority and leadership: The seniority of the students in a class was determined by his academic rank in the last examination. Third year students were considered as senior to all students of second year and second students were considered senior to all students of first year. All rolls of the college, including attendance rolls were arranged in order of academic rank of the students and roll numbers were allotted to the students in that order. Seats were allotted and earmarked for the students in the lecture rooms, class rooms and laboratories in accordance with their academic seniority. As such, the concept of seniority got drilled into the psyche of the students day in and day out.
All activities of the students, at all places and at all times were managed by the students themselves and the seniormost student available was considered as the leader e.g., in a hostel, where there were six students, the seniormost among them was accepted as their leader. While dining in the common mess, if ten students shared a table, the seniormost student would occupy the seat on the head of the table. The same convention applied at all places including games, sports and academic activities.
In those days, the academic seniority of the students had a tremendous bearing on the future placement and career advancement of the students. In the good old days the first eight students were placed in the Indian Service of Engineers and that made them a class apart from all other students. Even after the abolition of Indian Service of Engineers in 1928, the selection and placement of students in the public works departments of the state was in accordance with their academic rank in the college and their seniority in the departments continued to follow their academic rank in the college. Under the context, all activities in the college were like a continuing race for excellence and gradually, the students got used it and started enjoying the gruelling schedules.