New campus of Civil Engineering School Lucknow on Kanpur Road: One fine evening, Rai Bahadur Laxmi Chand, principal of Civil Engineering School Lucknow summoned me to his office. He was in the process of giving finishing touches to the building plans of a hostel proposed to be constructed in a residential area of the city, close to the institution. He told me that the plot of land belonged to a member of the management and it has been decided by the management to purchase the land for the construction of the hostel. Thereafter, he invited me to look at the building plans prepared by him and to offer suggestions, if any. A lot of labour and thought had gone into the preparation of building plans and estimates of the proposed building and the principal was extremely excited at having the opportunity to utilize his knowhow and experience in the construction of the proposed hostel building. Incidentally, my response was almost spontaneous and I said, that, the plans were good, but, it may be ensured, that, it should be possible to sell the hostel building, whenever, it becomes necessary. Naturally, the principal was furious, because he took my remarks as an affront. I was immediately on my toes and reminded the principal, that, he had sometimes told us, that, the society had a plot of land measuring eight bighas on Kanpur Road and more land was available there, if need be. Naturally, as and when, the institution building is constructed on that plot of land and the institution moves there, the hostel building in the residential area of the city shall have to be sold. That proved to be the turning point in the development and growth of the institution. It goes to the credit of the Rai Bahadur Laxmi Chand that, inspite of all the labour, that, he had put in, in the preparation of plans and estimates of the hostel building and the commitments that he had made to the management, his focus underwent a total change.
Warden’s Quarter: The proposed site of new campus on Kanpur road was about eight kilometers away from the city and the area was still in the process of development. Supervision of construction at the site was a serious problem. The institution had a few demonstrators on the teaching staff, who had worked in the Public Works Department and had sufficient field experience in the construction of buildings. All the demonstrators were sounded and fortunately one of the senior demonstrators, who had substantial field experience picked up the gauntlet. He was designated as a warden and was assigned the task of construction of the warden’s quarter in the new campus. Building necessary infrastructure for construction in an area, which was in the initial stages of development and was almost cut off from the city, was a very nerve raking job. However, our demonstrator-cum-warden was quite enthusiastic about it and took everything in his stride. Moving up and down daily, the warden felt excited, as the warden’s quarter came up, bit by bit and was ready for occupation in six months. He moved into the warden’s quarter soon after its completion.
Hostel Building: Provision of hostel accommodation for outside students was a real problem for the institution and therefore, as soon as the warden’s quarter was completed and was occupied by the warden, the construction of the hostel building was taken up under the supervision of the warden. The construction took about a year and as soon as the hostel building was ready, the first batch of students moved into the hostel. Since the institution continued to function in the old building in the city, students were cycling up and down from the new campus to the old building in the city every day. However, the students seemed to be very happy and relaxed, as cycling eight to ten kilometers in the morning and evening in the company of fellow students living in the hostel was more of a fun rather than a tiring drudgery. The warden and the students also initiated the process of development of playgrounds in the new campus during that period.
Institution building: Soon after the completion of the hostel building, the construction of the institution building was taken up at the new campus on Kanpur Road. The whole construction took about a year. The process of movement of furniture, fittings and equipment was initiated as soon as the building started taking shape. Ultimately, the good old building was released and the institution moved log, stock and barrel to the newly constructed building. Students living in the hostel were naturally very happy and relaxed. Whereas, a bunch of hundred to two hundred students and members of the staff of the institution living in different parts of the city, commenced the process of rushing from the city to the institution on cycles in the morning and thereafter going back in the evening. That was a daily spectacle, which everybody enjoyed. The institution building had spacious accommodation for lecture theatres, class rooms, drawing halls, laboratories and workshops. The classes and all routine activities of the institution were in full flow, while the furniture, fittings and installation of equipment were in the process of getting final touches. The staff and students were conscious about the shortcomings and made all sorts of adjustments from day to day.
Games and Sports: In the good old days, most of the educational institutions had spacious grounds with liberal facilities for outdoor games and sports and the students and members of the staff participated enthusiastically in most of the activities. Civil Engineering School Lucknow was a private institution and had its beginnings in a rented building in the heart of the city, where the built up accommodation and open land for games, sports and other recreational activities was extremely limited and the staff and students had to depend on borrowed grounds for their activities. Movement to the new campus was like a puff of fresh air and gradually, most of the students and members of the staff started utilizing the available facilities for outdoor games and sports in the evening. Inter class matches and annual sports were hits and sucked in almost everybody.
Literary and Cultural Activities: Literary and cultural activities got a tremendous boost in the new campus. Students association was formed. Class representatives and other office bearers were elected and they started most of the literary and cultural activities with the active support and guidance of members of the staff. Cultural Programmes and open house during annual functions were big draws. All parents and guardians were invited for the annual celebrations and were taken round the institution, escorted by the students. All equipment and jobs of students were properly arranged and placed as exhibits in the laboratories and workshops and the students stood there to explain to the visitors the utility and working of the gadgets. This was followed by cultural show and light refreshment.
Admissions: In early fifties, there were only three institutions in U.P. that were running overseer’s certificate courses in civil engineering. Admissions to overseer’s certificate courses running at the University of Roorkee were done by the University of Roorkee. The other two institutions were Hewett Engineering School Lucknow and Civil Engineering School Lucknow. The admissions to overseer’s certificate courses to these institutions were controlled by the management of these institutions. Both these institutions were affiliated to the Adhoc Board Of Technical Education U.P. based at Roorkee. From considerations of uniformity, the board directed both the Lucknow institutions to conduct a common entrance examination for admissions in 1954. The two institutions formed a joint committee for the conduct of the examination. The centres for the conduct of the examination were at Lucknow and Meerut and all admissions for the 1954 batch were made on the basis of merit of the common entrance examination conducted jointly by the two institutions.
My involvement: It was a treat to watch the fast track stream of students, cycling 8 to 10 kilometres daily from the city to the institution in the morning. I used to join them for about eight kilometers from Blunt Square to the institution. The workout was good enough to keep everybody fit and fresh for the day. The staffroom was a neat little place and while the members of the staff chatted during their idle hours, I had the Gestetner duplicating machine to keep me busy, in churning out the write-ups for the students. All lectures were normally held in the morning hours and the tutorials, drawing and laboratory and workshop practicals had their slots in the afternoon. Most of the students stayed on in the evenings for participation in games, sports and literary and cultural activities. I was deeply interested and involved in the promotion and organization of these activities. Rai Bahadur Laxmi Chand had started daily chats with me about the organization of academic programmes and student activities of the institution and therefore as soon as he reached the institution in the morning, I got used to a call from him. These little chats were extremely useful for me during my subsequent responsibilities as head of institutions at Allahabad, Ajmer and Jodhpur.
A short stint at coaching: I was in the habit of writing notes of all lectures that I delivered in the class. Thereafter, I used to cut stencils and duplicate them for distribution to the students. That helped me in utilizing most of the time in the class, in highlighting the specific points related to the lecture. Since, the students had the write-ups in their hands, they did not seem to be worried about scribbling notes and that made them free for giving undivided attention for listening to the lectures and seeking clarification of doubts and difficulties. My write-ups were basically written for the students and mostly followed the syllabus prescribed for them. However, in field oriented subjects like Roads and Irrigation the write-ups were found to be very helpful for serving overseers of PWD Buildings and Roads Branch and Irrigation Branch in preparation for their departmental examinations for promotion to the posts of assistant engineers. More so, because suitable books were not available in the market at that time. Consequently, year after year, some of those serving overseers started contacting me off and on for guidance, help and support. I used to sit with them and clarified their problems and explained to them, whatever they wanted, supplemented by my write ups on relevant topics. All that was informal. There were no fixed hours and there were no fees. However, sometime in the summer of 1955 two departmental candidates told me that they wanted regular coaching for one and a half to two hours per day for about a month and they wanted me to fix specific hours for the purpose and they placed a packet containing remuneration money in my hands. They ignored all my pleas about my commitments in the institution. The word spread like wild fire and next day, I found many more departmental candidates knocking at our door. That placed me under tremendous pressure and in spite of my overflowing commitments in the institution, I had to give my nod for five slots of one and a half to two hours each for exclusive coaching to them. That was my first and last stint for private coaching, which kept me engaged in teaching for almost eight to ten hours hours every day for about a month in addition to my normal commitments in the institution.
The whole exercise was nerve raking and back breaking, but, somehow, I managed to enjoy it. All departmental candidates were young and were in their early thirties. They were highly motivated, because the departmental examination for promotion was a lifetime opportunity for them for moving up the ladder. They carried with them a lot of field experience and were familiar with all that was expected from them in the examination. They knew, what were their strong areas and were keen to concentrate on brushing up their weak spots. I could see that although they were preparing for a common examination, the needs and emphasis of each one of them was different. Since the available time was extremely limited, I asked each one of them to list out the exact topics that they wanted to cover. Every one of them had a different list and I somehow managed to keep everybody fruitfully engaged, while squeezing out sometime everyday with every one of them, for looking after their specific concerns. The secret was sitting individually with everybody and going with them from A to Z, so that, nothing could be left uncovered. There was fast track for all those topics, which they could handle and relaxed coverage for all dark areas. When they left, they were happy, confident and relaxed.