My Own China War

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My Own China War

In March 1962, I stood first in the Mains Physics B. Sc. (Hons) Exams at the Andhra University, Waltair. My friend and benefactor, Linga Murty, (now Emeritus Professor at Raleigh) stood second somewhat way behind (He nonetheless bagged the prestigious Sripati Medal given to the First All-rounder including the Pass subjects Math and Chemistry which I barely scraped through).

And then the Chinese hordes swept Tawang, Chusul and co inflicting a humiliating defeat on our young minds.

The immediate aftermath was that the moribund NCC at our University was reactivated. Students were enticed with a whopping 5% of the aggregate marks to be added for those enrolling for NCC. There was thus a veritable flood from us the Final Year M. Sc.s whose exams were barely a couple of months away. We all thought that if only we slog every evening for a couple of hours at the NCC parade grounds, we would all be in the pink; and we compromised: except one lateral entry offside genius, Trivikrama Rao (later TIFR + NEHU). He took up the challenge that he would spend that time with books and outshine us all.

For two good months we all invented ways and means of cheating the unwonted PT, March Past, ‘dayaee mood’, ‘baayee mood’ and all other bad moods. Creativity of us lazy final year lubbers was met with equanimity from the genuine Junior Leaders, and we all managed to extract the necessary ‘Pass Certificates’.

Final Exams were held in March 1963, and I dropped down to a mean fourth rank, largely because of the Quantum Mechanics Paper. The Cal Univ Paper-setter (I now have reasons to suspect it was SDM, my subsequent Ph. D. guide at KGP) cruelly set 4 of the 8 questions ‘out of syllabus’. I walked out sullenly, but later learned that anyone who attempted those ‘ghost’ questions got 5 marks each gratis.

As expected, Linga Murty stood first and was awarded the Metcalfe Medal. But when the marks lists came out, we found to our dismay that Trivikrama Rao actually stood first sans the 5% NCC grace. I wrote a Letter to the Editor of Indian Express that he too deserves a Prize for his meritorious performance, and was gratified to learn that a Special Prize was awarded to him at a later date (he left for TIFR). Linga Murty left for Cornell.

Those of us who were stranded at Waltair all applied for CSIR Junior Research Fellowships. CSIR used to award at best one or two JRFs @ Rs. 100 each in previous years upon Interviews held at Delhi. So, we were all exploring other avenues too. I lectured part-time at the RSS-run Bharat Tutorial College at a measly but badly needed Rs. 30.

But Chinese invasion woke up the Central Govt too; and our humiliating defeat was attributed to the lack of encouragement for Scientific Research. As a result, all those who applied (22 in all in Physics) were awarded Fellowships at the staggering enhanced rate of Rs. 250 (equivalent to permanent University Lecturers) without any Interview!

And our JOY knew no bounds, thanks to Bloody Red China!

It is a different matter that our University couldn’t withstand the onrushing flood of JRFs with the earlier creaky infrastructure; and many of us had to flee, myself to IIT KGP as an Associate Lecturer with a princely take-home of Rs. 490.

But we did spend a 2-year picnic at Waltair which helped us all get good Govt jobs citing our (frustrating) 2-year ‘Research Experience’!

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