school to SCHOOL

I was excited going out to live in a hostel and study and the very same had apprehensions for mother and other elders. Trek to Dhanbad was interesting. Father accompanied to check it himself. I have always like train journeys and it was now the longest train trip I was embarking on Coimbatore – Madras – Calcutta – Dhanbad about 40 hours by train. Bid bye to family holidaying in Madras (Chennai now) and had the railway guide handy tracking the journey.

Father had some work in Calcutta where we halted for a couple of days, experienced Calcutta (Kolkatta now) and took the Coal Field Express to reach Dhanbad the night before registration date. We stayed at hotel at Bank Mode, had breakfast at madras café in the morning and took a cycle rickshaw to reach campus I think it was a princely fare of Rs.3/- for 3-4 km ride.  

Barracks Hostel - the cooridor and in front- Pram, Sanjiv and ?

Indian School of Mines – since 1926 has a nice and quaint ~120 acre campus. We deposited ourselves in the Barracks – the hostel for freshers. There was great anticipation for the arrival of Murgas (as freshers were called & means chicken) by the Seniors eagerly awaiting fresh stock for ragging. Anti ragging activism had just started in early eighties but was a prevailing practice. To protect the Murgas, barracks was a guarded place under Prof Ganguly as warden. We had a special mess arranged at Barracks for the first few weeks till Freshers day which was supposed to mark the end of ragging. 

We had a protected parade to Penman Auditorium for orientation and induction where each had to go on stage introduce self and come down. Post induction the parade back was the first glimpse of things to come. An array of seniors from various batches stood in groups like to spot and mark their picks. I had broken ever rule for a fresher – unshaven face, a untucked half sleeved shirt , Chappals and to top it even had the shirt unbuttoned at the top and walked with a hand in pocket. So notice was given to all us offenders. So the attire till Freshers day at any time of the day with a Senior in sight was full sleeve shirt, tucked in, trouser, clean shaven face, shoes and belt. While all this was happening my father, encountered few from the senior batch and where he felt like had put a word to take care of his son.

The next few weeks was a storm. One had to figure out route to avoid getting caught by Seniors. Had to remember to salute and greet till a Senior says it’s not needed. Then there was this Murga stance where one had to bend, put your hands between the knees and then hold your ears. It made one bend double and the punishment or stretch was when one had to walk that way for failing to do something. In suspense was the mass ragging which happened on rainy night when all were woken up paraded and it tested how one can wriggle out of it and escape. While it has its dark sides it helped a good sense of bonding with seniors. I think

ISM ground from water tank - my fav spot for pics

was a few of us were lucky as in each batch there are a bunch of sensible guys who tends to spot and take care of some. Suresh Nair, Divyendu, Atre, Vijayan, Banja, Arindam, Senthil and Manavalan (pics here are taken by me courtesy his camera) and many more such well wishers took care.

There was the intelligent side of ragging which started mostly with this common problem when sitting in a room –

Q – Is door half open = Half closed.

A – Yes

Q – Can you cancel half of both sides? What does that leave?

A – Yes , Open = Closed

So close the door when inside the room and get out.

Then it went on to various twisted problems, riddles etc. and deep dive into hobbies. I think I got away a lot just by entertaining people with my rudimentary Madrasi Hindi.

The 12^th results came for a bunch of us and some left for other campuses but I decided to stick to the course and did not even try for admissions both to engineering and medicine back home. The only disappointment for me with the results was none of us got Centum in Maths to please our Headmaster.

Cricket nets

The first year was a year of discovery. We were a small batch of 65 and all 4 years put together there were just 250 odd students in this huge campus. There was games that peaked with  each season starting with football then kabaddi, hockey, tennis, basketball, badminton, cricket and then finally sports day. Discovering the hostels – Old hostel for the 2^nd years, New hostel for the 3^rd & 4^th years, The music room, the common room which had the only television, Ramdhani the chai dukaan with Tania – the chotu. Then we had to choose to join one of the messes which were interestingly region based – so there was Punjab, Bihar, Bengal, UP and New mess which largely covered the south of Vindyas. I joined the New mess and so did a bunch of us Unni, Satish, Pram, Sanjiv, Sashi… Evening snack time was on the house in all the messes so after games one could walk in and snack out any where or at times at all of them. Then came the string of festivals starting with Janmashtami, Durga Puja, annual college festival Saturnalia and deeply colouring Holi. First time Baang indulgers were fun. As aprt of the rescue brigade some of us would put guys to bed. All kinds of drama from laughing non-stop to holding to the mosquito net rods to save self from a  free fall lying flat in bed became folklore for years. Then there was exploring place to go to see cinema – the railway club which showed English movies, theatres at Jharia and some time later a brand new theatre nearby Bokaro

Desk at Barracks

Academics was not stressful. Attending classes (notes mattered) and occasionally spending time in

library more than sufficed. We got 3 breaks – Puja to Diwali, Winter break and Summer. These gave time for all of us home-sick to go home spend a few weeks get refreshed and come back. Concession forms for travel and Dhanbad beign a divisional headquarter for railway had quota which could be used for advance reservations and came as a big help. My father had insisted on a simple thing which I think disciplined me quite a bit – consciously. Every week there was an inland letter which had a line to be written for each day and any major requests for help. I think it helped me settle and also gave parents the comfort of what I was upto.

Upanayanam in Chennai

Summer vacation was after a compulsory internship in a underground coal mine in the first year. We went o Singareni collieries in the then Andhra and a month of going down incline no.7 and seeing how they worked what they worked, living the life of a  miner was tough but great experience. In between this I rushed for my upanayanam which took place with 3 others Ravi, Anand & Bhaskar at Chennai and rushed back to complete the internship.  Post this went with Unni to Tirupati where his aunt Indu taught at the university to transit and go see Balaji. That was the first time I climbed and it was such a rejuvenating experience that I climb every time I go ever since, though the path has got crowded and much modernized and has lost the natural charm it had then.

We were getting ready to welcome the next batch of Murgas.