Recollections (4): From L. S. College to Darbhanga House and Beyond (I)

Note: The photo was taken by a Swedish lady at the Guest House of Sarva Seva Sangh, Raj Ghat, Varanasi in 1987/88.

Much is unknowable.
No problem shall be faced
Until the problem is;
I, born to fog, to waste,
Walk through hypothesis,
An individual.

-from Thom Gunn’s  “Human Condition”

The change of place, from Muzaffarpur to Patna was not as easy as it appeared.  The delay in the announcement of the results  and the deadline for the last date of admission in Patna University was drawing closer, the sudden illness and demise of  my grandmother and the flood situation in Bihar in the late seventies - all contributed to a feeling of unpredictability and unease in me.  I reached Patna by train via Barauni, tired and dejected,  as the steamer services were postponed. I went to the P.G. Department of English at Darbhanga House and got the form for the admission and yet the results were to be announced.  A friend of mine was already a student in the Hindi Department and when I expressed my desire to meet the Head of the Department of English regarding my admission his response   was very practical and unacademic.  Greatly nurtured by the collective unconscious of the caste equations in Bihar he strongly opposed that proposition of mine.   Ignoring his opposition I went to the residence of the Head of the Department of English. A magnificent personality was sitting before me who listened to me intently and reassured me for my admission on the condition that I must pass the exam with second class honours. And he told me to see him once the results were announced.  After about a month the results were announced, I got second class and the marks I received were as I had expected.  I came to Patna again and went to meet the Head of the Department at his residence.  A domestic help came out . And I diffidently announced my arrival.  I was not sure whether our first meeting would be remembered!). The person went in and came out and ushered me into the  room where a majestic presence reclining on a pillow was reading a book. He told me to sit down and instructed the domestic help to give me a piece of paper. When the paper was handed over to me I was asked to write an application stating the reasons for the delay in applying.  Feeling nervous in his presence, with trembling fingers I wrote the application and handed it to him.  He picked up a ‘fountain’ pen and wrote on my application, “Delay condoned.” The person was the one and only of his kind in the world of academia, one of the greatest teachers, Professor R. K. Sinha! I was overwhelmed by his reassuring   personality: his strong memory, his quiet understanding and his courtesy and kindness to an unknown student!

 Destiny we may call it!

 What a coincidence it was that I came from nowhere to pay him my respects when he was being cremated at Gulbi Ghat on the banks of Ganga!  For a long time I kept a copy of that application on which he had written and whenever I recall that incident I always go back to those periods of time for reassurance and comfort! 

That was Patna where I was sent by late Professor Kamta Charan Shrivastava (KCS), a great classroom teacher, an introvert and a great scholar and a perfect gentleman. I was fortunate to have him as my first Guru! Late Professor Dev Nath Sahay, the former Principal of Gopeshwar College Hathwa sent me to meet KCS, his cousin, with a letter of introduction in which he addressed me as his son.  KCS asked me to buy some books on the basics of English Literature and he sent me to ‘Madhav Stores’ to buy books which he strongly recommended.  Even to this day I have preserved those books, the very fundamental readings for an English Honours student to get the knowledge about the fundamentals of English literature.  Later, when I was a P.G. student at Patna I opted for Linguistics Group-B papers as my special subject and again he guided me by suggesting names of books on Linguistics and as a result I scored very high grades in Linguistics.  At Patna, I was introduced by Madhukar Bhaiya  (Late Devanand Madhukar ) to Professor Kameshwar Prasad, Professor Mrs. Suman Prabha Prasad and Professsor Shaileshwar Sati Prasad.  My long association with these brilliant professors has been a seminal influence on my career.  I will come to it sometime later!

Meet me with the correct answer !

Here I would like to recall an incident which taught me to understand the ‘nuances’ of reading .  At Muzaffarpur I lived in ‘New Hostel’.  Ajay Kumar Anand was one of my closest friends.  One evening while returning from Moti Jheel,  Ajayji ran into a young professor of Political Science and introduced me to him.  The professor asked me a question, “Who was the father of Romanticism?” Without thinking I answered, “William Wordsworth!”  The young professor smiled and said, “Young man, you have just come to the College, study well and then see me, after two days, in my office. But please come with the correct answer!”  I got scared and more than that embarrassed. I went to the hostel and consulted books and found the answer.  The young professor by asking one question taught me how to read well! With Ajayji I went to his office and gave him the correct answer, “Jean Jacques Rousseau!” And he smiled again and told me to read for information and to read with ‘discrimination.’ During the summer vacation when I went to Hathwa I carried my box full of books and planned to read them there. Before I left I went to see KCS and he asked me about my plans during the long vacation. Enthusiastically I told him about my plan to read a lot.  He advised me to read less and think and analyse more.   I always remember KCS and that young  professor who changed my reading habits and that was further strengthened and developed by the professors I was introduced to by Madhukar Bhaiya at Patna.  

Met the Mentors!

Madhukar Bhaiya introduced me to Professor Kameshwar Prasad and Professor Shaileshwar Sati Prasad. Later I came to know that Professor Kameshwar Prasad was the son of Professor Sitaram Prasad and the latter was the son of Shri Shiv Sati Prasad alias Mahadev Babu.  Both of them were illustrious personalities in their own respective fields and   were known to my father.   Madhukar Bhaiy and Prof Sitaram Prasad  got the first rank in Bihar School Examination  Board from  Eden School, Hathwa.  Professor Sitaram Prasad retired as the Registrar of Patna University.  Like his son Professor Kameshwar Prasad he was a rare gem. One can feel this by reading his reminiscence about Professor D. P. Vidyarthy ( “In Memory of late Dr. D. P. Vidyarthy “ by Prof. Sitaram Prasad http://drvidyarthy.hypermart.net/obit1.htm). Shri Shiva Sati Prasad was one of the famous lawyers of Bihar. I was fortunate to be in association with not only  these two brilliant professors of Patna University but also the daughter-in-law of Professor Sitaram Prasad, and the daughter of Dr. Alakh Narayan Dhar, Professor Suman Prabha Prasad who later was my Ph.D. supervisor as I registered myself in Patna University as a Ph.D. student from the first batch of English Literature students of  the UGC NET 1985 Exams.  

As a research student I was given teaching assignments in Magadh Mahila College as my supervisor was working there.  I taught Lawrence’s stories in B.A. (Honours) and John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in M.A. classes.  Both Professor Kameshwar Prasad and Professor Suman Prabha Prasad obtained their Ph.D. degrees from U.K. (Leicester University) under Professor R.P. Draper and Professor G.S. Fraser respectively.  I benefited from their knowledge and the teaching styles in the beginning of my teaching career, though I did not know that it was the beginning of and the preparation for my teaching career, as I was preparing for the Civil Services Exams.  Both were formidable scholars of Lawrence in particular and Modern Literature in general.  They were very popular and well-respected teachers with who a student could easily have discussions and disagreements.  I remember with pride that they did not want the students to parrot what great critics have said but to come out with their own interpretations.  

The passion for reading I inherited from my grandfather and father and was later strengthened by Professor Shaileshwar Sati Prasad (who I call Shailoo Bhaiya!).  He is an avid reader with a fine sense of critical judgement!  I remember when Jyotsana published her first novel Argala in Hindi, we went o him and gave him a copy. We had come from Yemen and we were staying at our Bahadurpur flat. The next  morning he came to our flat after morning walk and congratulated her. He had read the entire novel at night! He liked the storyline and crucially discussed the novel with Jyotsana.  In his company I had the opportunity to read African Writers and some of the seminal post-colonial texts.  Whenever he was to write he would call me. He would start pacing to and fro in the room and dictating his streaming thoughts to me. I learnt from him many things of research writing during that period.   He always told me do not go to a class unprepared and do not underestimate your students.  His rapport with students has been unique. They love and admire him immensely.    His training as a linguist and as a post-colonial scholar from the Universities of U. K. along with his inherent lively ‘Tirhutia’ (as he refers to it jokingly) spirit have shaped up his versatile personality.

A Period of Pause and Perseverance!

After my PG results were published I was inexplicably happy as I secured fourth position in the first class in the University. My grandfather and my father were happy too. But my happiness slowly dissipated into a sense of boredom and depression.  One of the reasons was the aimlessness of the middle-class students imposed upon them by the environment and the job situation in Bihar.  Preparing for each and every exam for jobs, no single-minded devotion to a single vocation! The aim with which Professor Dev Nath Sahay and Professor Syed Ahmad insisted on my taking admission to English Literature as Honours subject was defeated with the change of UPSC syllabi. I used to qualify prelims with Geography as English Literature was not a subject to be opted.  I did not appear for my for my M.A. Exams with my original batch and I did it for next year. The vacancies for lectureship were advertised in 1980 and I missed them as I graduated in 1981! Then there was a lull for about a decade. 

 Though I have no grievance yet I feel that very few lecturers in India are appointed on the basis of their merit.  I attended the interviews of the universities in Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Tripura, Delhi, UP, West Bengal and some reputed universities like Delhi, Vishwa Bharati and Banaras  twice and found that there was always a  someone already assured for appointment! My sense of euphoria as a UGC JRF (NET) frittered away as the time passed.  My odyssey as a research scholar to find a job in my country was interminably long. My parents did not say anything; my grandfather was the one whose watchword was very inspiring, “Keep trying, finally you will get it.”

I spent my time reading Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Ishiguro, Soyinka, Ben Okri and many others and listening to classical music and reading about the great musicians of India. My interest in classical music turned into a great respect for Baba Allauddin and Ma Annapurna Devi during this period.  In the morning I used to Gandhi Ghat and attend a free Yoga Class and the rest of the day was spent in looking for job advertisements applying for them and waiting for interview! I crossed the upper age limit of the Civil Services exams, and took  BPSC exams,  qualified for it twice but my name did not appear in the list of successful candidates.  Suddenly I got an appointment letter to work in Yemen as an assistant professor. Though I worked there for about 17 and half years but in 1991 immediately after my arrival there, when I received an interview letter from BPSC again, there was an immense pressure from my father and well-wishers to come all the way and attend the interview.  I came and faced the interview but it was of no avail.  I went to Yemen; my destiny was not my destination.  Over the years I have been trying to find out an answer to my own personal, very personal yet an eternal question for me: what was there beyond, what was there beyond the society and the academic milieu in which I was nurtured, to sustain me all these years?

At worse, one is in motion; and at best,
Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,
One is always nearer by not keeping still.

- from Thom Gunn’s  “On The Move 'Man, You Gotta Go.'”

(to be continued)