Lucknow – Satyanarain Goel's Thoughts & Memories

Part III: The days of transition

Before independence, for almost hundred years, Thomason College of Civil Engineering Roorkee was a prestigious institution of the country. It was more of an officers training school for the production of field oriented officers needed for the construction and maintenance of Ganga Canal. However, as times rolled on, the institution was able to develop traditions for hardwork, rigour, leadership, fellowship and fraternal relationships. The alumni were always face to face with an amalgam of cut-throat rivalry and a free flow of fellowship and fraternal feelings for each other. When the news of my resignation from irrigation department of U. P. and my joining a private engineering school at Lucknow, running overseers certificate courses went round, it looked like hara-kiri to all those, who were proud to have crossed the portals of Thomason College. Everybody seemed to be concerned about me and started frantic efforts to lift me up, from the morass.

The life of an irrigation officer in UP was very different from the life of a teacher in a private engineering school at Lucknow. Driving and cycling on canal roads and trotting on horseback from place to place and field to field was an absorbing experience, which unbuckled almost all pre-conceived notions and brought me face to face with the realities of life, leaving indelible marks on my psyche. Teaching in a private civil engineering school at Lucknow brought me down from the high pedestal, but as times rolled on, I was able to find ways and means to communicate with the students at their level and in words and language, which they could understand and gradually, I started enjoying my association with the budding youngsters.

Following chapters discuss these in detail: