Our residence: Residency, the residential building of the British representative of the erstwhile Jodhpur state, is a well known landmark in the civil lines of Jodhpur. Residency road, which runs from east to west, is one of the main roads of Jodhpur. In 1962 the spread of Jodhpur town south of the residency road was nominal. Civil Lines of Jodhpur was the best developed place of the town with towering shade trees and greenery along the roads and it looked like an oasis in the desert. It was bound by the railway line on the west and residency road on the south. Apart from the residency, a large number of big bungalows were built in the area during the time of Jodhpur State, for the residence of senior officers. All bungalows were full of flowering green trees and spacious lawns and gardens. We were fortunate to get a recently built bungalow of Jodhpur Polytechnic in the southern part of civil lines, on residency road. We spent some memorable years in the bungalow from July 1962 to July 1975.
Our family: Our son Mohan had completed his Higher Secondary Examination from Ajmer and had no difficulty in joining first year of the three year degree course at Jaswant College of the newly formed University of Jodhpur. St Patrik’s Vidya Bhawan Jodhpur, which was a sister institution of Sophia Girls Higher Secondary School of Ajmer had no problem in admitting our daughter Rashmi to Class VII of their school at Jodhpur. Alok was admitted to Sardar School and Nishith and Ram got admissions in Mahesh School. Roopam and Reena had not attained the school going age.
Our father was extremely happy to get the open air environment of our bungalow and soon got involved in the development of the lawn and fruit trees. He was also fond of morning and evening walks and was able to find company of parents of other officers living in the area. A meticulously dressed group of five to ten elders, briskly walking on residency road became a talking point of all those, who had an opportunity to look at the exuberant group.
The lady of the house, mother of seven children, found time to join Ladies Club of Jodhpur. That brought her in close contact with the “who is who” of the ladies of Jodhpur. It turned out to be an extremely useful and relaxing diversion for her, as most of the wives of senior government officers, who were living in civil lines, happened to be members of the Ladies Club of Jodhpur.
With all my engagements in the the newly established polytechnic, I had an urge to join Railway Club, which had two hard courts of tennis and sparingly used courts of squash racquets and badminton, apart from other club facilities. Incidentally, the engineer members of railway club had also formed an Association of Engineers with a very restricted membership.
Campus of Jodhpur Polytechnic: The campus of Jodhpur Polytechnic was located south of the residency road, with main entrance of the polytechnic, facing our bungalow. It covered about 140 acres of land, with residency road on the north side and bound by land and buildings of the Residency on the east side and some housing developments on Pali Road on the west side. South side had large tracts of undeveloped government lands. A sprawling main building of the polytechnic, in imposing Jodhpur sandstone had sprung up majestically in the campus. Another monumental building was Mechanical Engineering Workshop covering a large area under one roof, with north-light trusses, for adequate light and ventilation. Apart from this, a complex of two hostels for accommodating 90 students each had also been completed, with a common dining hall, kitchen and other associated facilities. Then there was a large stretch of land anxiously waiting for development.
Students: All educational institutions of Jodhpur, including schools, colleges and university were dominated by Jats and Rajputs, who came mostly from rural backgrounds. They were generally very aggressive. Jodhpur Polytechnic was no exception. That was the raw material, which needed to be shaped and refined and blended with students coming from other social backgrounds and communities. Normally, the students interact with each other in the classes or on the playgrounds and in the hostels. Very limited time is available to the students to interact with each other during the classes. Some opportunities are available during literary, cultural and other social activities or during elections to student bodies. Whereas, games and sports provide ample opportunities for free mixing of all categories of students. Unfortunately, games and sports do not find sufficieant support in most the educational institutions, due to paucity of suitable playgrounds and supporting facilities and funds. Hostels provide ample opportunities for the students for free mixing with each other, as also for no holds barred fights with each other. That is how, the hostels play a crucial role in forming the traditions and tone of the institutions.
Teachers: The word ‘teacher’ immediately triggers the images of a superman. A friend, philosopher and guide and much more. There are very few people, who choose to be teachers and naturally, there is a tremendous shortage of teachers in almost all educational, technical and professional institutions. I had inherited a reasonably good bunch of teachers at Jodhpur Polytechnic in 1962. The challenge was to inspire them to join in the process of gradual development of the students into physically fit, mentally alert and dedicated professionals. For us, every student was a precious charge and therefore, the broad objective was that every student should leave the portals of the institution as competent and socially useful professional. The process was to begin from the classes, laboratories and workshops and was to be extended to all co-curricular activities outside the classes and outside the normal working hours of the institution.
Personal contact with the students: Personal contact is something which brings people close to each other. However, with about a thousand students on the rolls, maintenance of personal contact with all of them is a long shot. The strength of our classes was restricted to 60 students for lectures. It used to be thirty for tutorials, tests and drawing. It was limited to 15 students for practicals in laboratories, worksohps and fieldwork. I made it a point to take one subject common for all branches of first year and similarly one common subject for all branches of second year, to get to know all the students and to remain in touch with them. In third year, I used to take one or sometimes two subjects related to civil engineering. Seats in all our classrooms were numbered and the students occupied the seats in order of their roll numbers. That was a very convenient arrangement as no roll call was needed in the class. It saved time and all that was needed was to note the roll numbers of absentees, after looking at the vacant seats. And gradually, it helped in identifying all the students individually, by name and by their attainments.
Morning rounds: During the morning rounds in the polytechnic, I used to enter those classes, where the teachers happened to be late. Since, the faces of most of the students were familiar, there was no problem in broaching some discussion, about the scheduled topic, expected to be taken by the teacher on that day. Students interacted intelligently and enjoyed the change. However, as soon as the teacher showed up, I would leave the class without a word. The matter ended there and nothing passed between me and the teachers about it. During my rounds to the tutorial and drawing classes, laboratories and workshops, I used to take a short look at their journals with a view to identify them by name. Some stray questions about the historical development of the gadgets and their utility in real life made the students inquisitive and inspired them to look to something more than routine completion of the experiments or jobs in hand.
Office: With almost twenty four hours of teaching load every week or four hours per day for six days in a week, along with, early morning hour rounds in the institution, very little time was left for sitting in the office. However, I made it a point, to remain available to the students during the recess for looking after their individual problems. The students had a feeling that I knew everybody by name and I never wanted them to think otherwise. However, as soon as the student was gone, I would look to the deck of identity cards stacked in my drawer for confirmation of his name and identity. Normally, I was able to identify almost 600 students out of 1000 on roll and as far as possible, I tried to address them by name on most of the occasions.