A Time Warped Perambulation Through IIT
Kharagpur
By T.S. Lamba
In this article I will describe a few events pertaining
to the dozen years (65-76) leading to the Silver Jubilee of IIT Kharagpur. These events
all happened, though the names of the persons involved have been expunged to avoid
embarrassment to various people. This was a period when we had a lot of colourful persons
among the staff and the students.
To begin with, I must mention the Indo-Pak war, when standing on the roof of IIT's main
building we saw large flames and heard loud noises in the direction of Kalaikunda. We were
told by the 'bosses' that the Air Force was carrying out target practice (in the middle of
a war, if you please!). All doubts were dispelled when we saw the ensuing dog fights.
Later in the day some hardy students cycled down to Kalaikunda -- and got caught in the
middle of another air raid! That was the day when IIT students jumped into dirty ditches
face down. They also brought back some mementos -- parts of Pakistani planes shot down,
their pilot's diary and a hand smeared in his blood. An aftermath of this incident led to
the only time that an IIT student marched into the Director's Office with a machine gun.
Just to return it, though.
Those days the Halls (and other buildings) had to be blackened out, but one student used
to climb to the roof of his Hall and shine a torch in the sky. "To help the
Pakistanis close the Institute", he said.
War leads to torture and torture reminds one of ragging, which was then an accepted
practice. Freshers were sent to the Andamans (below the cot) or asked to go Mussoorie
(climb up to the loft in the room). One notorious ragger from Patel Hall took a fresher to
his room, bolted the door, took off his belt and twirling it around, spent the next
half-hour describing what he had done to other freshers. After that half-hour he opened
the door and asked the fresher to leave. Believe you me, that fresher was hardly able to
crawl out of the room.
At yet another time a fresher found that his Hall had a very senior research fellow who
was not doing any ragging. Furthermore no fresher who was talking to this senior was
called away by other 'junior' seniors. This fresher then decided to latch on to the
research fellow, one Saturday afternoon, only to find him going out for a stroll.
Willy-nilly, the fresher went along for the walk - all the way to Salua and back. Some
relief from ragging, would you not say? Other student activities have involved snakes.
There was once a snake kept as a pet in a Hall room (against the rules, I suppose, but I
could not find the rule concerned). A student had his life saved by being pushed out of
his chair during a TT match, all because he had carefully put a realistic looking rubber
snake behind himself in his chair.
All this should not imply that only the students could generate fun. Every 18th August
there used to be a fancy dress football match between the staff and the students. Fancy
that! You could see the Institute Director made up as an Arab sheikh, another faculty
member as a portly sadhu or a student dressed as Long John Silver.
Talking of the wooden legged Long John Silver, I may mention that once during the summer
vacations you could see someone (a staff member?) going to the institute -- even climbing
stairs -- on stilts.
Then there was this absentminded professor of mathematics who ran to his friend's home,
requesting help since his house had been burgled clean out. His friend went with him,
checked it out and reminded him that as he had shifted his house the old one was naturally
empty. This worthy person once went to the library and wanted to buy some stamps. On being
told of the infeasibility of buying stamps in a library he exclaimed, "Oh no! I have
then posted the library books I had brought to return".
Explaining the concept of limits to a bunch of starry-eyed freshers, this same teacher
said that a limit was a value you could approach but not reach or cross. As an
illustration he said that the classroom door was, for the time being, his limit and going
towards it, crossed it and went out. The students waited for some time and then left for
the canteen. On being asked in the next class about his departure, he replied, "Oh, I
crossed my limits". Was this intentional? I wonder.
Other teachers have also got results not quite as intended. One Electronics teacher, who
was famous for his body-building and weight-lifting had the foible of wearing a 'Kara' on
his right hand (no, he was not a Sardar). When he first joined as faculty he set about
teaching with great gusto. At the end of the first class he rolled up his Kara with the
left hand, flexed his right biceps (17") and growled in his deep bass voice,
"Any questions"? Naturally, there were none.
Another Electronics teacher covered a large amount of material in his class, which in
those days covered a full year and not just a semester. One year, in a fit of enthusiasm
he set an extremely tough paper and expected everyone to do badly. Rather to his surprise
everyone did very well. "How did the paper get leaked", he mused. What had
happened was that the various students of his class went to him individually and asked for
important topics. Being a kind-hearted teacher, he gave each of them a list of topics to
study, taking care to include the topics set in the question paper. A neat little Venn
Diagram and none of the students had need to study very much.
One teacher of the Mechanical Department had a first hour class on Saturday morning. In
those days Saturdays were half working days. One particular Saturday was sandwiched
between two holidays, and the other teachers had agreed to leave off their classes. When
no student attended his class that Saturday, he started asking each student the reason for
his absence when he took the roll call the next time he took class. The first five
students had overslept and the fifth got a shouting, "All of you overslept"? The
next few students had therefore been unwell and it was obvious that the next unwell
student was in for a ticking off. So, the next student said, "Sir, I had acute coryza
(common cold, that is)". "Oh. Oh. How are you now? Feeling better?", was
the teacher's sympathetic comment.
One of the traditions of those days was for every Hall to hold a Hall Day once every year.
Almost every student and teacher (along with family) was invited by someone or the other.
The Hall residents put up a makeshift stage using room and dining hall tables, and
entertained their guests using local (Hall) talent. Dinner was served usually in packets,
but once VS Hall (then a regular UG Hall) arranged a seated dinner for all the guests with
the room cots improvising as serving trays. Often in these functions, some select teachers
were quizzed in a humorous style. Like when a professor of civil engineering had to
explain (in a pseudo-scientific manner) why the ash of his cigar formed a cantilever
instead of just failing off, and what limited the length of the cantilever. A professor of
Naval Architecture was often asked to speak because of his penchant for mixing up his
sentences. After one dinner, which he and his wife had attended, he thanked his hosts,
saying, "I enjoyed the chicken and my wife too".
To close, let me go back to an even earlier period of time when the Head of Electronics
Department was also in charge of the Netaji Auditorium and also warden of Azad (or one of
the other Halls in the old campus). The students of the Hall went to him at the TFS with
an application for issuing out some audio equipment for a Hall function. "This
application should be routed through your warden", said this professor. "But
Sir, you are the warden", said the students. "Not here", was the reply. The
students took the application to him later in his Hall office and found him marking it as
'recommended'. Happily they approached him again only to find him marking the paper,
"This matter is dealt with by the Head, Electronics Department". Once bitten
twice shy, these students went back to the Hall, wrote another application, got it
recommended by the warden and took it to the Head, E & ECE. To their dismay they found
the head writing, "Sorry, the equipment can't be given". One man, three chairs
and three caps!
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