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At 21, I joined the faculty of IIT KGP on 1st May 1965. May Day was not a holiday then. Bengal was yet to turn bloody red for the next half century. It turned left and then ultraleft and then ultragreen.
The other day I read that Buddha-da, after sulking and licking his wounds for many months, recently resurfaced at a public meeting. He used to be a veritable smoker and must have felt happy with the smoke signals emanating from the Writers Buildings.
May and June were summer months at IIT KGP and the campus was desolate and free from students when I joined. I was feeling forlorn and homesick and so, after drawing my first salary on June 1st, I took my summer vacation and went home to Vizagh. And reappeared at KGP on the 1st of July which happened, as I was told, to be the birthday of B C Roy. Pujas with rose petals were held to his naked bust perched atop a graveled mound in the middle of what came to be known as Lovers Circle. And songs were sung and recitations recited. It was all strange to me and it was my initiation into the Bengali Culture.
And within a week the whole campus was teeming with students, new and old.
There was no segregation of freshmen then into a separate hostel. The incoming lot of about 120 students were split up evenly and allotted to the dozen or so Halls of Residence by pot luck. And they joined their welcoming seniors...some welcome!
I was told that there was a ritual called Orientation, mostly conducted at midnights. Apparently it was a community affair and but for a few pampered ones the entire batch enjoyed the mass-disrobing ceremony, speaking figuratively, and joined the mainstream within a couple of months till the seniors held their Freshers Welcome in their Halls as well as in the Gymkhana.
And the severely oriented were supposed to turn veterans and leaders of the pogrom, sorry, program, when their turn came next year.
There were only 2 administrative posts then at IIT KGP...the Director (supremo) and the Registrar (ultimo). There was no post of DD, to say nothing of Deans. And so there was no concept of midnight-patrolling by the authorities. But the usual lot of half a dozen complaints were taken seriously since the flaunted reputation of IIT KGP was at stake.
The authorities then came up with a novel idea. The younger faculty were invited to join as Tutors (the word Mentor was not yet popular). Those teachers who enlisted themselves to this mentorial program were allotted three or four freshmen each. They were asked to visit the Halls of Residence (at a time of mutual convenience) and meet up their wards. At least twice every week. And help them settle down in their hostels and listen discreetly to their complaints and report or help sort them out.
The sweetener was an honorarium of a whopping Rs 30 per month.
But there was a catch...the Tutor was required to fill up and sign a cyclostyled form with several columns with the names and roll numbers and Halls, and the number and dates of the meetup between the Tutor and the Tutored. Also the complaints, if any, and how they were addressed.
Rs 30 a month was too good to lose for me and I signed up as a Tutor.
And tried to be as conscientious as I could...recall that I myself was a novice and knew neither Bengali nor Hindi. And looked and felt like a freshman. And there were no telephones. So my visits to the Halls on weekends were met by every freshman with surprise and every senior with contempt.
And after meeting my ward I didn't know what to ask him and our 1-minute-session went like this:
ME: How do you do?
HE: Fine
ME: Any complaints?
HE: No
ME: Bye!
HE: Bye!
And that was all I could report in my feedback form.
And I didn't know anyone else of my tutor-colleagues and how they did their jobs and filled up their forms.
It went on for a few months and I got tired of it but did my best to continue my tutoring of my four students in four Halls.
And after they settled down, my wards came to know that I was being paid for my services.
And a couple of them visited my Faculty Hostel with stories of their unique complaint:
They were short of funds and wanted a hand-loan of Rs 50 each on an emergency basis.
And I was feeling too embarrassed to ask them to go to hell...
And next morning I resigned from my Tutorship, after losing a whopping Rs 200, for good as it turned out...
After a couple of years I came to know that the Tutorship Program was withdrawn by IIT KGP.
Rumors went that a couple of tutors filled in their forms with as many as 12 against the number of their Hall-Visits; and met and resolved all the complaints of a couple of students who, it turned out, had quit IIT KGP and left for BE College, Calcutta, to be with their parents, within a week of joining IIT KGP....
The word again was not popular then...but it was a SCAM!!!
...Posted by Ishani
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The other day I read that Buddha-da, after sulking and licking his wounds for many months, recently resurfaced at a public meeting. He used to be a veritable smoker and must have felt happy with the smoke signals emanating from the Writers Buildings.
May and June were summer months at IIT KGP and the campus was desolate and free from students when I joined. I was feeling forlorn and homesick and so, after drawing my first salary on June 1st, I took my summer vacation and went home to Vizagh. And reappeared at KGP on the 1st of July which happened, as I was told, to be the birthday of B C Roy. Pujas with rose petals were held to his naked bust perched atop a graveled mound in the middle of what came to be known as Lovers Circle. And songs were sung and recitations recited. It was all strange to me and it was my initiation into the Bengali Culture.
And within a week the whole campus was teeming with students, new and old.
There was no segregation of freshmen then into a separate hostel. The incoming lot of about 120 students were split up evenly and allotted to the dozen or so Halls of Residence by pot luck. And they joined their welcoming seniors...some welcome!
I was told that there was a ritual called Orientation, mostly conducted at midnights. Apparently it was a community affair and but for a few pampered ones the entire batch enjoyed the mass-disrobing ceremony, speaking figuratively, and joined the mainstream within a couple of months till the seniors held their Freshers Welcome in their Halls as well as in the Gymkhana.
And the severely oriented were supposed to turn veterans and leaders of the pogrom, sorry, program, when their turn came next year.
There were only 2 administrative posts then at IIT KGP...the Director (supremo) and the Registrar (ultimo). There was no post of DD, to say nothing of Deans. And so there was no concept of midnight-patrolling by the authorities. But the usual lot of half a dozen complaints were taken seriously since the flaunted reputation of IIT KGP was at stake.
The authorities then came up with a novel idea. The younger faculty were invited to join as Tutors (the word Mentor was not yet popular). Those teachers who enlisted themselves to this mentorial program were allotted three or four freshmen each. They were asked to visit the Halls of Residence (at a time of mutual convenience) and meet up their wards. At least twice every week. And help them settle down in their hostels and listen discreetly to their complaints and report or help sort them out.
The sweetener was an honorarium of a whopping Rs 30 per month.
But there was a catch...the Tutor was required to fill up and sign a cyclostyled form with several columns with the names and roll numbers and Halls, and the number and dates of the meetup between the Tutor and the Tutored. Also the complaints, if any, and how they were addressed.
Rs 30 a month was too good to lose for me and I signed up as a Tutor.
And tried to be as conscientious as I could...recall that I myself was a novice and knew neither Bengali nor Hindi. And looked and felt like a freshman. And there were no telephones. So my visits to the Halls on weekends were met by every freshman with surprise and every senior with contempt.
And after meeting my ward I didn't know what to ask him and our 1-minute-session went like this:
ME: How do you do?
HE: Fine
ME: Any complaints?
HE: No
ME: Bye!
HE: Bye!
And that was all I could report in my feedback form.
And I didn't know anyone else of my tutor-colleagues and how they did their jobs and filled up their forms.
It went on for a few months and I got tired of it but did my best to continue my tutoring of my four students in four Halls.
And after they settled down, my wards came to know that I was being paid for my services.
And a couple of them visited my Faculty Hostel with stories of their unique complaint:
They were short of funds and wanted a hand-loan of Rs 50 each on an emergency basis.
And I was feeling too embarrassed to ask them to go to hell...
And next morning I resigned from my Tutorship, after losing a whopping Rs 200, for good as it turned out...
After a couple of years I came to know that the Tutorship Program was withdrawn by IIT KGP.
Rumors went that a couple of tutors filled in their forms with as many as 12 against the number of their Hall-Visits; and met and resolved all the complaints of a couple of students who, it turned out, had quit IIT KGP and left for BE College, Calcutta, to be with their parents, within a week of joining IIT KGP....
The word again was not popular then...but it was a SCAM!!!
...Posted by Ishani
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