The University Of Roorkee Nostalgia!

Professor DV Singh was the last of the Vice Chancellors of the University of Roorkee. He became the first Director of IIT Roorkee, when the University of Roorkee was converted to an IIT in the year 2001. I had the opportunity to hear Prof DV Singh talk at IIT Roorkee in 2015. The venue for the professor’s talk was the same old Hangar, where, as a student, I had watched Saturday movies, played badminton - and - attended my convocation.

IIT Roorkee traces its origins to University of Roorke and Thomason College of Engineering, and is therefore, the oldest engineering institution in the country. From Prof DV Singh's talk, I also learnt a couple of other interesting facts. The University of Roorkee was to be the first IIT in India but Shri Govind Vallabh Pant, the Chief Minister of UP declined. He would not part with the jewel in the crown. There is an anecdote associated with the use of expression upgrade vs conversion to IIT. In a high level gathering in Delhi, in response to a statement that University of Roorkee had been upgraded to be an IIT, a clarification was promptly made. It was pointed out that it was not an upgrade! University of Roorkee was only converted into an IIT. For the setting up of IIT Delhi, all the syllabi were picked up from Roorkee and not from another IIT. Prof DV Singh won the hearts of all!

Even in my student days, despite the existence of five IITs, the University of Roorkee had a special place. I had classmates who had given up a seat at an IIT and chosen to study at Roorkee. Unlike IITians, it wasn't fashionable for Roorkee graduates i.e. Thomsonians, to mass migrate to the West. And so, the Indian scenario was dominated by the Thomasonians, in short called Ex Thos. The seniors had a word of encouragement for the freshers; ”Ab Roorkee aa gaye ho to Chief Engineer to banoge hi!” That was the top most appointment in every Engineering Department in those days.

It was a happy coincidence that my first boss – the Chief Engineering Officer of the base  - was a 1951 batch Ex Tho, Wing Commander PC Bugga (later Air Commodore). Even more to my delight, one of the Senior Engineers was a 1962 batch Ex Tho, Squadron Leader Amrit Lal (later Air Commodore). The Ex Thos were everywhere!

After nearly four decades with the Indian Air Force, and forty two years since graduation from University of Roorkee, I turned lucky with an opportunity to return to my alma mater. I must thank my alumni friends who pushed me to accept an offer to be Advisor to the Director, IIT Roorkee. This was to present my beloved institution to me in a different perspective. It was heartening to see that the campus had been modernising with the rest of the world. In any case, I could not help my myriad reflections on ‘kya khoya, kya paya’. I kept looking for the special people I had known and some glorious traditions of Roorkee that seemed lost to the modern world.

Along with academics, sports in Roorkee had played a major part in character building. It was a mandatory requirement for every student to participate in an individual sport and a team game during the first two years - For associated credits besides! In two years, sport would became a habit for most students. A player from the faculty was assigned Officer i/c in every game. Unknown to us at the time, this was a channel for instilling character and values into students.The wide range of sports facilities at Roorkee were  unmatched at any contemporary institution of the time. I can say with pride that at the end of four years, the University players in different games were capable of giving company to the best anywhere. Some exceptional guys could do so in many different disciplines.

To me, cricket, a long duration game that goes through different phases of ups and downs, has always been special in building camaraderie and leadership. This was especially so in the amateur era of the game when relationships were man to man instead of the price tags of players. By Air Force analogy, I have maintained that engaging in a team game like cricket has been akin to being with a team of technicians on the squadron tarmac. Cricket has been an effective tool for my character building and many others who I have played with.

At Roorkee, the cricketers were blessed to have as gurus Dr. Prem Krishna and Dr. KG Rangaraju, among other faculty members, who played with us and with whom we came to enjoy a special relationship. In a 30 overs match with the Staff, after the initial overs bowled by Mr. Mansoor Ali, Mr. Bartar and Mr. Subramaniam, the rest were usually shared between Dr. Prem Krishna and Dr. Rangaraju. Looking back, I could understand their art of leadership development. They never overwhelmed us with their presence - When they joined us for the nets, the man in-charge continued to be the student captain. At no time did they impose their set of values on us. Their being with us was enough for us to be influenced by their strength of character.

There were other inspiring senior cricketers in town. Besides Mr. Bartar’s elegance and simplicity, none of us can forget the graceful demeanour of Mr. Vaish. I could relate to his poise years later when I had an opportunity to play some veterans’ cricket alongside the elegant Abbas Ali Baig.

On returning to Roorke after over four decades, when I saw Dr. Prem Krishna, then President of the Alumni Association, I promptly approached him and introduced myself as ‘Athawale’. I was a shy boy during my student days and I hardly expected old professors to remember me. As I was preparing myself to answer the great man’s queries about my year of graduation etc, he clean bowled me as he said,”Leg spinner?” Sometime later Dr. Rangaraju visited Roorkee for a guest lecture. Meeting him was another delightful experience when he identified me spot on and recalled those wonderful times. These have become some of my fondest memories of my 2^nd stay Roorkee.

On joining Roorkee, we found a perfect mentor in DPS Duggal. He was the Cricket Captain and also a top level player in many other games. The senior most batch had an imposing number of cricketers - other than Duggal, there were Prabhu ji, Op Srivastava, VK Duggal, VK Bhargava and Ajit Mittal. The next batch had two wonderful cricketers – Vinod Malhotra and KN Sehgal. Then  CM Trikha and Daljit Singh. They also had Amit Sanyal, who was a champion Lawn Tennis and Badminton player besides being a natural Bengali Footballer. After being with the cricket team for a season he decided that he couldn’t afford to spend so much time with one game. Finally, our ’68 entry batch produced a large number of good cricketers – Vikas Gupta, Pradeep Kapse, Pankaj Tyagi, Jayant Johri, DV Singh and Tribhuwan Singh. We were followed by smaller numbers but by some outstanding cricketers – Sandip Bose Mullik, Arvind Agrawal, RRS Kohli, Harish Gurnani, Bartar Jr. and Ravi Tandon. We also had a few excellent cricketers and gentlemen from the post graduate courses. I fondly recall KG Ramesh, Kalyan Bose, Ashok Kaul and Khetrapal. How ecstatic I become simply to recall some of these names – men who must have delighted their colleagues with exemplary leadership wherever they went after Roorkee. Unfortunately, most of these extraordinary players didn’t find opportunities to continue with cricket later. Some of them especially Vikas and Sandip would have gone on to play cricket at the highest levels. While I fondly recall names, I won’t be forgiven by friends if I omit mentioning our Chief Umpire, Anil Malhotra. He was a master class, who could have stood alongside the best.

Post script, I am reminded about the most vital cog – ‘Prem’, the Mali, who was a one man Army maintaining the ground, the pitch and the equipment. We respected him as a father figure while he treated us as Rajkumars. Without a conscious effort, we learnt a lot from him too - Hats off to him! 

In another article, I had reminisced about my cricketing days in the Air Force in which I had endorsed a friend’s expression of love for the Air Force -“Given any number of choices in my next janam, I would never trade my Air Force life for anything else!” I must now affirm something unsaid at that time. While opting for the Air Force each and every time, I will ask to be given a foundation of the University of Roorkee kind!

Air Marshal Pramod Athawale