Thomason College: Thomason college of civil engineering Roorkee was a prestigious college with a halo, during the pre-war period. There were only eight engineering colleges in the country at that time. Thomason college was one of the oldest institutions of the country and perhaps that of Asia. Thomason College was established in the year 1847 at Roorkee. The other colleges were: College of Engineering at Guindy (Madras) set up in 1794, College of Engineering at Poona in 1854, Bengal Engineering College at Sibpur ( Bengal) in 1857, Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore set up by Tatas in1908 and Engineering College of Banaras Hindu University set up by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916. The other two colleges were at Karachi and Lahore which went to Pakistan after partition. In those days, the over-riding emphasis in the colleges at Roorkee, Madras, Sibpur and Poona was to provide field oriented training to the students, to meet the working needs of Public Works Departments of the states and therefore, these institutions were instrumental in providing the initial push to the development of infrastructure including irrigation and power, buildings and roads and public health engineering facilities in the country. Engineering College of Banaras Hindu University developed courses for meeting the needs of industries, thereby making a pioneering contribution for the growth and development of industries in the private sector.
Traditions: All institutions of standing flourish and feel proud of their traditions. Students and faculty of the opening batches of these institutions make the ball rolling. Gradually, the traditions begin to form part of the normal working schedules and way of life and behavior of the people. Traditions provide inspiration and vigour to the people and help them in the pursuit of excellence and all that is good in life. In course of time, they are stamped as traditions of the institutions and help the institutions to have an identity of their own. Rigour formed part of the daily routine of students entering the portals of Thomason College and gradually, they got used to it and in course of time they started enjoying it.
A typical day at Thomason College: Students got up early in the morning and were on the parade grounds for PT at 6.30 AM. The dress code was white shirts, blue shorts and canvas shoes. PT involved about a kilometer long cross-country run for a warm up, followed by light physical conditioning and aerobic exercises. The whole programme took about an hour and soon after the students were back to their barracks.
A hurried shower and dress up was followed by a rush to the common mess for breakfast. There was no dress code for breakfast, but the students went to the common mess in formal dress prescribed for theory classes in the college, which involved a formal suit, tie and leather shoes. The breakfast was an informal affair, with bread, butter and milk. Toasts were served hot from the oven and milk used to be served on the tables in jugs. Extra items were available on order.
After breakfast, there was usual rush to the classes in the college. The personal servants of the students carried the books, notebooks and other stationery to the college directly and handed them over to the students at the door of the lecture theatres or class rooms. The allocation of places in the lecture theatres, class rooms, laboratories, workshop and even field work was in order of academic merit of the students. There was no formal roll call for attendance. Normally, every student used to be present in the class, well in time. However, if somebody was late or absent, the senior student used to note his roll number and handed over the slip to the teacher concerned in his room. The dress code was rigidly followed in all lecture theatres, classrooms, laboratories and other places of work in the main building of the college. Normally, all theory classes, drawing classes, tutorials and laboratory work were accommodated in the morning sessions.
Morning session was followed by a lunch break of one hour. That provided sufficient time for the students to rush to their rooms, change their dress and rush to the common mess, dropping for a short time at the students club, which happened to be on way to the mess. There was no dress code for lunch in the common mess and the students were generally relaxed.
Afternoon session in the college was generally of two hours duration and involved fieldwork, workshop practice and electrical and mechanical engineering practicals. The dress code used to be white shirts, khaki shorts, full stockings and leather shoes. Students would return to the barracks after the afternoon session, relax for some time and then rush for the evening tea in the common mess. Thereafter, the evening was free for students for participation in students club activities and outdoor games and sports.
There were liberal facilities for outdoor games and sports. Six tennis courts, six singles and two doubles squash racquet courts, hockey, football and cricket grounds and a polo ground which was a relic of the past. Apart from this, there were facilities for swimming and boating in Ganga Canal. Participation in all practice games in hockey, football and cricket was pre-arranged and notified. All games in tennis and squash racquets fueled individual rivalry and were highly competitive. Swimming and boating in Ganga Canal had its own challenges. As such, the evenings, which were supposed to be free, were generally more busy and involved much greater persistence, effort and concentration, than the normal engagement in the academic activities of the institution. It was all voluntary, it was all optional, but it helped in conditioning the body, mind and senses of students for long hours of arduous work. As if all that was not sufficient, the students would instinctively make a bee line to the students club after the energy sapping evenings on the sports grounds.
Students club was very well equipped for all types of indoor games, reading room, library, music and places for chats, rest and relaxation. However, billiards was the centre of attraction for most of the students. There used to be advance bookings for billiard tables for half an hour sessions. Students started trooping into the students club in the evenings and enjoyed every moment of their stay there, till the bells started ringing for dinner in the common mess.
Dinner used to be the most formal affair of the day. The dress code was formal suit, tie and leather shoes. Students would assemble in the lounge, pick up their napkins and rings and enter the hall at the stroke of 9.00 PM led by the senior-most student present. The doors would close, as soon as the last man was in. Seats on the dinner tables were not marked and the students had the freedom to occupy any seat on the table of his choice. However, the senior most student on every table had the privilege of sitting on the head of the table.
The wonder of wonders was that even after a hectic day, the students had the desire, inclination and energy to take a stroll of about a kilometer after the dinner, before moving into their rooms in the hostel at about 10.30 PM. And that was the time for going through the day’s class notes and and to have a hurried look at the books, for preparation about the lectures and other academic work expected on the following day.
Survey Camp: Survey camp was an annual feature of fieldwork assigned to the students of second year in the ravines of river Solani in winters, about 10 km from Roorkee. The spread of the area was about one sq km. The duration of the camp used to be two weeks. The work involved setting up traverse stations, triangulation by theodolites, plotting and detail filling by plain tables and drawing up contours. Working hours used to be 8.00 AM in the morning till 5.00 PM in the evening, which could stretch up to sunset according to exigencies of the work. Since, every student was considered as a leader, students did not form working parties or groups. Every student worked individually and was provided with five khalasies for help. The khalasies were part-time workers of the college and were available every year during the camps. They were familiar with the area and details of work and were of considerable help to the students. As the days rolled on, speed, details and precision took over and the obsession of each student to do something better, transformed the whole exercise in a sort of battle or race for excellence. That made these camps memorable.
The students were very well looked after during the camps. A mini-city of canvas used to spring up in the area. Every student was provided with a furnished Swiss cottage tent. There were spacious tents for common mess and club activities. Students used to leave for work, early in the morning, after breakfast. They took their lunch in the field and had tea in the common mess of the camp, after return from work. This used to be followed by camp fires, fun and frolic. Sometimes, they were joined by students of first year and final year, who spent a night at the camp. Late dinner followed and the curtains were down for a restful night.
Personal servants accompanied the students and rendered usual services. They were provided separate accommodation in groups.
UTC camp with sappers and miners at Dhanuri: Sappers and Miners of Bengal Engineering Group had a great presence at Dhanuri during the war. Their camp was located about 10 km north of Roorkee at the level crossing of Ganga Canal at Dhanauri. Facilities were available in the camp for all types of war games and other physical exercises, bunkers, underground war colonies, buildings and bridges. The camp also had all types of transport and assault boats plying feverishly in Ganga Canal. We had our annual UTC camps with sappers and miners at Dhanauri and in spite of all the rigour, tears and toils, everybody enjoyed the back breaking schedules. Life is precious but for a professional, the goals and completion of tasks in the field in time, always attract over-riding priorities.
Annual sports day: Annual sports day, organized sometimes in the third week of January each year under fine weather, was something very special for all students. There used to be eight individual track events ( 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 110m high hurdles and 400m low hurdles) and eight individual field events ( Long Jump, High Jump, Hop-Step and Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put, Hammer Throw, Javelin Throw and Discus Throw ). Every student was expected to participate in at least ten individual items and his performance and standing in the items in which he participated, carried certain credits under general proficiency. That turned the two day meet into a cut throat competition and more like a rigorous physical conditioning exercise. It provided a lifetime opportunity for pushing out more than 100% strong bursts of energy in every round from start to finish.
Convocation Day: Our last working day at the college also used to be our convocation day. A board consisting of the Chief Engineers of Public Works Departments of the state and presided over by the Principal interviewed the students individually and informally before the convocation and placement orders were issued to all students under the signatures of the Principal. The seniority of the students in the assigned departments followed the academic merit of the students in the college. Every mark and every credit mattered and that is, what pushed the students all the way for the achievement of something better and still better in climbing up the ladder.