Blunt Square: Blunt square was a newly developed locality in the south of Charbagh railway station, bounded by Kanpur Road on the east and a deep ravine on the west. It was a neat little development with open surroundings. Most of the houses in Blunt Square belonged to people working in secretariat services of U.P. government. Keshav Das was a close relation of ours. He had built his house in Blunt Square in thirties, on a spacious plot of land. He had gradually risen from some of the lowest ranks in the secretariat to the office of budget officer of the state government, in the rank of deputy secretary to government. That was the time, when he was appointed as examiner local fund accounts with headquarters at Allahabad. That helped us into moving into his house in Blunt Square. The house was very well built, had a big courtyard and a lot of open space all round the built up area.
Scare, safety and security: Most of the houses in Blunt Square were built in brick masonry with pointing or plaster on the outer walls. Those were the days of small time thieves. The ravines of the nala on the western flank of the neighbourhood served as an ideal cover for the thieves. They normally moved along the nala in the wee hours of the morning and would mark one of the comparatively dark and quiet houses. Thereafter, they would wait for some time near the outside wall, for monitoring movements and sounds, if any. If everything went on well and appeared to be to their satisfaction, they would cut a small patch on the outer wall followed by removal of some of the bricks to make a hole in the wall, sufficient for them to get entry into the house. They would wait there for some time and if everything seemed to be quiet, they would enter the rooms and would pick up some of the things, which they considered to be easy pick, without unnecessary risk or alarm. However, they would take to their heels, as soon as they found some movements or rumblings of inmates in the house. The ravines of the nala, running along the west side of Blunt square were a perfect sanctuary for these thieves. A few incidents of theft on dark nights were sufficient to cause a scare in the neighbourhood, followed by huddled voices and all types of forebodings.
There were about 100 houses in the locality. One fine evening some of the saner members of the households gathered and decided that enough was enough and that something had to be done to face the menace of thefts and burglaries. It was felt that there should be regular patrolling by chokidars, round the clock, day and night. Those days, Nepalis, Garhwalis and other people from the hills enjoyed excellent reputation for integrity and dedication to their tasks and were considered as an obvious choice for the jobs of chokidars. Every household was expected to contribute rupees two per month, which happened to be sufficient in those days for footing the bill. In addition, it was decided that one male member from each household shall make himself available for three hours, twice a month for patrolling the streets, lanes and bylanes of the neighbourhood, alongwith the chokidars. This provision had far reaching impact on the psyche of the people. Initially, those members of the households, who went out for patrolling in the inner lanes, had some fear of the unknown, due to the prevailing scare. At the same time those who were living and sleeping inside their houses under closed doors were also passing through restless nights. One call from a known person from outside and a confident response from the person inside, transformed the whole scene, lifted the spirits of everybody and filled them with a sense of assurance, safety and security. Gradually, interaction between members caught up, people found more occasions to meet each other and in course of time no outsider or unknown person could move through the neighbourhood without being questioned by somebody or the other living in Blunt Square.
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 lectures. 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 in batches of two at a time. That was my first and last stint for private coaching, which kept me engaged in teaching for almost eight to ten 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 and 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 them to list out the exact topics that they wanted to cover. Every one of them had different concerns, but, I somehow managed to satisfy them and to keep them fruitfully engaged, while squeezing out, some time for discussions with them individually, on other general and relevent topics. The secret was sitting individually with everybody and going with him from A to Z, so that, nothing could be left uncovered. There was fast track for all those topics, which the individual could handle and relaxed coverage for all dark areas. When they left, they were happy, confident and satisfied, with tails fluttering up.