Life Back Then

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

In life, you make friends and accumulate memories. Some go their different ways, but again meet later and become close. That is what I experienced since July 1953 after finishing my higher secondary (first year of Intermediate Science (I.Sc.) in Delhi.

Up to higher secondary, I enjoyed the home cooking of my mother. Then I moved to Banaras for 2^nd year of I.Sc. in Central Hindu College in Kamaccha, Banaras,  which used to be Annie Besant College. It was a branch of Banaras Hindu University. I was assigned to live in King Edward (KE) Hostel. The College Principal was Mr. Lalwani, brother-in-law of Acharya Kripalani, a famous freedom fighter and former President of All India Congress Committee. Kikiben, sister of Acharya Kripalani, was our Principal's wife. She was a freedom fighter in Karachi, and following footsteps of her brother,  was jailed. The Principal came to know me as he liked to play table tennis with me.

Dr. Anand - an unholy person born in 1932 in the holy town of Nankana Sahib, central Punjab. A lawyer father, a doctor mother. Peripatetic childhood - almost gypsy style. Many schools. Many friends, ranging from a cobbler's son (poorly shod as the proverb goes) to a judge's son. MB from Glancy (now Government) Medical College Amritsar, 1958. Comet 4 to Heathrow, 1960.
Widower. Two children and their families keep an eye on him. He lives alone in a small house with a small garden. Very fat pigeons, occasional sparrows, finches green and gold drop in to the garden, pick a seed or two and fly away.

Posted: October 2017

IT WAS IN 1958, I think. I had been out-posted from my proper job as a "casualty medical officer" at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. The out-posting was to  the dispensary at Sauja village, about ten miles away (actually 18 km.) I was required to be there for the working hours of the dispensary. Then, return home to my quarters in the hospital in the evening.

Every morning I would  catch the train to Sauja, and then back to Patiala in the evening.

One day, an emergency delayed me - I missed the train back to Patiala. There would be a very long wait for the next, and last, train.

I started walking along the railway track. It passed over a rivulet which was  almost dry. However, the bridge was rather high and I did not relish the thought of falling down if I failed to step on the next railway sleeper. Nor did I relish the thought of being knocked down by a goods train, if it happened to come along.

Chittur Veer Vaidyanathan was born in Churu (Rajasthan) in 1948, and grew up in Jaipur. After a successful corporate career, during which his work with his company led to an Export Promotion Award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles, he is now a developer of real estate near Mumbai http://www.universalbuilder.co.in/.  He lives in Mumbai with his wife Hemlatha\; his son and daughter, both married, live in the U.S. His hobbies are swimming and traveling.

Before India became independent in 1947, Rajasthan had 22 Princely States, under British control. Some of these States had established good educational institutions. Jaipur was one of them.

St. Xavier's School for boys was founded in July, 1941 under the name of St. Mary's Boy's School. In 1945, it was transferred to the present site, and renamed St. Xavier's School in January, 1945.

There were some other reputed public schools in Rajasthan. For instance, Sadul Public School established in 1893 (earlier it was known as Noble School) by the Maharaja of Bikaner. Mayo Public School Ajmer was founded in 1895 by Earl of Mayo, Viceroy of India. Mayo's curriculum was similar to Eton College. BSP and BHS (Birla School) Pilani, Rajasthan founded in 1944 had a huge campus covering 100 acres, presently ranked amount ten prestigious institutions in India. Maharani Gayatri Devi (MGD) Girls school was the first public girls school in India. MGD was established in 1943. Ms. L.G. Lutter, a Scottish, was the school principal. She was awarded a Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Kamakshi Balasubramanian is a retired educator living in Mysore. She is an occasional writer. Her interests include cinema, popular culture, travel (particularly within India), and sewing by hand. Kamakshi received her higher education in India, the erstwhile U.S.S.R., and the U.S.A. She speaks Tamil, English, and Russian fluently, and knows Hindi.

For over 50 years, my sister Savithri has continued to follow an age-old southern-Indian tradition in Hindu families: Navarathri Kolu.

In the households that follow this tradition, the family sets up an arrangement of handmade figures made of wood or clay. The figures are generally religious divine beings, such as images of Vishnu reclining on a magnificent snake, Shiva in his exquisite dancing form, Lakshmi seated on a pink lotus, sometimes the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, and of course, Ganesha, without whose presence nothing auspicious ever gets off the ground in Hindu households.

Clay doll depicting Goddess Lakshmi on a pink lotus. Sourced from internet.

Chittur Veer Vaidyanathan was born in Churu (Rajasthan) in 1948, and grew up in Jaipur. After a successful corporate career, during which his work with his company led to an Export Promotion Award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles, he is now a developer of real estate near Mumbai http://www.universalbuilder.co.in/.  He lives in Mumbai with his wife Hemlatha\; his son and daughter, both married, live in the U.S. His hobbies are swimming and traveling.

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work related memories.

Editor's note: This is adapted and expanded from an exchange on Facebook in October 2017. C V Vaidyanathan (older brother of one of my classmates) and Subhash (one of my older brothers) lived close to each other in C-Scheme, Jaipur in the early 1960s, and attended St. Xavier's School, Jaipur, followed by Rajasthan University.

Vaidyanathan

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

For the last 70 years, I have been trying to reconstruct what happened to our lives in 1947.

I was ten years old in 1947, and I remember the details of 1945-1947 very well. Like attending my uncle Lachman Chachaji's (uncle) wedding in Bannu, and sitting behind him on a horse in the summer of 1945. There were Pathans on dhol, and dancing in their Bannuwal style. Looked like if they had a drink. Then attending my sister's wedding in 1946 in Bannu during the summer vacations. The bridegroom had come from Karachi, but hailed from Dera-Ismail Khan.

Bannu was our ancestral home. Here we had a house built by my father Ram Narain Mullick, who was born in 1906.

Ram Narain Mullick. My father. 1906-1956.

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

I graduated from Banaras Engineering College in June 1958. In August 1958, I got a job with Larsen &amp\; Toubro for the construction of Rourkela Steel Plant.

Off I went from Delhi to Rourkela via Calcutta (now Kolkatta). It was over 900 miles, and took me 36 hours because I had to change trains in Calcutta. I arrived on Sunday. Then, I went straight to my Chief Engineer's house as I needed a place to live and eat, because Rourkela had not developed much. The Chief Engineer, Mr B D Malani, told his driver to take me to L&amp\;T quarters. It was a house with where the cook used one room to feed us and sleep. There were three others employees, who had come a few days earlier from Bombay (now Mumbai). One was the L&amp\;T Headquarters accountant, a second was the Rolling Mills accountant, and the third was in charge of Erections of Steel girders.

We got along well as all of us knew that there is no entertainment in this town except work and drink. Since I did not drink local booze or even brand names whiskey, I had to pretend that I am enjoying my soda and lime.

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work related memories.

My wife and I were visiting our son Gaurav and his family at Ahmedabad in 2012 for a few weeks. One fine Sunday morning, out of the blue, I announced that I needed a haircut.

Before anyone else could react, our DIL (daughter-in-law) Poonam took control of the situation. She immediately suggested "Papa, why don't you soak in some new experience?"

Reflexively I shot back: "Like what?"

"There's a new hair spa in town. L'Oréal. Why don't you give it a go? The ambience is amazing."

"Have you been there?" I asked

"Not personally but a few of my friends have spoken glowingly.

It's swanky. It's shiny. Fancy gizmos. New hair wash sys. Lovingly perfumed. The works!"

I went into a reverie.

When I was growing up in the 1960s, the family barber Sohan Lal would visit our home at B-87 Ganesh Marg once a month on a Sunday morning, generally in the middle of the month.

Before breakfast time.

We were eight male members to be tackled. Daddy, Chachaji, and six brothers. And the fiat of the household was that everyone had to submit to this discipline.

Narendra Vashisth grew up in Jaipur. He got his medical degree from SMS Medical College, Jaipur. As a doctor, he worked in TB control, Pulse Polio immunisation, and rural health programs. He retired in 2011 as Senior Specialist (Medicine) and Principal Medical Officer, Jaipuria Hospital, Jaipur, and is now in private practice. He played cricket in school and college, and was a member of his college swimming team. He lives in Jaipur with his wife.

I joined St. Xavier High School, Jaipur in 1957 in Class Prep B, and left in 1966 with the Indian School Certificate high school graduate degree. The school Principal all these years was  Reverend Father R. J. Pereira, S.J. (Society of Jesus.

I enjoyed my school days thoroughly.

Narendra Vashisth - from a school magazine. 1966.
ISC - studied for Indian School Certificate degree
N.C.C. - participated in National Cadet Corps activities
Social Service - participated in activities to help poor people
Dial M - School production of Dial M for Murder
First. Div. All India Gen. Knowledge - high score in national general knowledge test
Passed Jr. Air certificate exams - a typo\; did not do this

One part of the fun was playing handball - American handball, one-wall style.