topics: |  fiction | india | english | iit | kanpur

this is a work of love, born out of a passion for iit kanpur, an institution and a campus where the author lived for most of his working life. mixed into it is also a pride for having helped build this institution in an inhospitable climate, and a passion for indian science.

like all works of art based on too strong a passion, however, the love story develops between the author and the subject, quite often leaving the reader high and dry. this is particularly true of the elaborate descriptions of the university campus, the lanes of the city, and the tragedies of indian science.

the detail is often excruciating. why does the reader need to know how to turn a latch to open a door? he walked to the main door, opened it by turning the latch clockwise, went out and pulled the door shut behind him. p.23

experimental science and mango trees

the story traces one day in the life of Virendra Chauhan, an experimental scientist at a newly founded academic institution in India, a not-at-all "disguised" version of IIT Kanpur.

the plot follows the process of trying to get an expensive electron microscope, which had been specially designed and supplied for Chauhan's group by the US firm MatTech, under tight financial constraints. The machine works in nearly pure vacuum, but the image blurs and disappears as soon as "even one Torr of gas is introduced".

a representative from MatTech, is coming today, after years of letter-writing.

the representative inspects the equipment and finds that he requires a stainless steel part. chauhan sets off into the labyrinths of the nearby city, to find a machine shop that can make it to the high tolerances necessary.

despite the seemingly unpromising and technical nature of this plot, the storyline manages to hold interest in the key central chapters. it is in the excursive asides and the unnecessary detail that the author often loses the reader. there are several excursions - some, like a discussion with two students heading to the US for their PhD's - hold interest in parts though they are quite unrelated to the story, and surely the discussion didn't need to range so widely over forty pages? The nearly mythical dream-ending seems completely out-of-place.

the campus is vividly portrayed, and the row of mango trees "running northwest cutting throuh central school", make several appearances. the trees may have marked an ancient road to the capital "three hundred miles away" (i.e. Delhi). These mango trees, of whom i have heard of from many people, are long gone today.

[the "long winding line of stately mango trees" is also mentioned in this page on the history of IITK.

poor fiction, but a colourful history

this book was written during the 1980s, when the campus was being wracked
by labour unrest.  It describes the situation vividly: 

	electricity was cut off to the campus community by [striking]
	workers, and in that darkness there were processions by hundreds with
	flaming torches.  There were more complications and blunders by the
	administration.  Eventually the students and faculty also turned
	against the administration.  Calm returned with the forced
	resignation of the [Director]; ironically, he was one of those who
	loved the university most. 

on the whole, the writing provides a colourful history of IIT Kanpur. 
whatever its weaknesses as fiction, for those associated with IIT Kanpur, it
holds a magnetic interest.  surely more entertaining than the utter inanity
of the semi-official history Eye for Excellence.  

much has changed in iit of today.  this was a period where the gulf between
india and the west was far greater than it is today.  
the difficulty of doing experimental science in india is perhaps far less now
than in those years.  

the starkest change has come about perhaps in the living conditions.  in
those days, among iit professors (and public officials in general), almost no
one owned a car, and taxis were non-existent or out of reach; faculty going
to the city would take tempos (and these had a big bonnet - they were called
bhaT-sowars).  the funding was also far tighter.  but many of the themes - 
students and their aspirations, the bureaucratic hurdles, the reticence to
publish (demonstrated so clearly by the protagonist's friend Vishwa Khanna) -
will be just as familiar today as they were then. 

but then, fiction set in academia - at least from the p.o.v. of the teachers
- often tends to be bland.  among the better of the lot may be malcolm
bradbury's Eating people is wrong -- brilliant in snatches (esp. the title,
based on a tribal chief's son who has come to study), but the storyline is
weak.   

on the other hand, stories from the student's perspective have always had a
better chance - Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone
is a case at hand (though many people don't like the book, the story moves
and delivers). 
    

Excerpts

On the twenty-fifth of May, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, Virendra
Chauhan's early morning sleep was pierced by a peacock's loud call.  [opening]

[row of mango trees going NW cutting throuh central school.
from NW (towards Nankari)]

[about "health addicts" - joggers and walkers on the lane of his house]
an interesting fact [was that] very few of those health workers had managed
to change their body shapes. 7

[all books were smudges of ink on paper. But]
it took a genius to provide an outstanding smudge.
	[This lighthearted comment gives too much importance to the "smudge"
	- as much a decision of the typesetter and the layout designer.  But
	it makes one think - what is the physical manifestation of the
	authoral genius - it is in the end, in the realm of ideas, of
	course - but what is this "realm" - and how does the physical
	manifestation of a particular edition of a particular book relate to
	it? ]  p.22

[romance with abanindranAth's story of rAjputAnA p. 12-13]

[description of house, lane etc p. 15-21]
[university issue mirror
positioned to show everyone, it cuts off at VC's forehead. - p.17]

[excruciatingly detailed description of walk from a house behind central
school to his office.  p. 22-33]

coming up of fence around acad area p. 25
trees

a coppersmith [barbet] on a large jacaranda tree near the beginning of the
brick path.  32

ch2: V reaches office p34

before throwing away senate papers, first
removes cover sheet with his name on it.  35

library sculpture:
By itself it was not repulsive, but it was grossly out of place.  It stood in
disharmony with the streamlined pillars just behind it. 43

the final year for students:
ironically ,the time of professional training which could be a time of great
excitement, turned out to be a time to coast, and a time to look towards
distant horizons.  46

the campus was badly dressed.  the first year students appeared with shiny
new shoes bought by their parents- but within weeks they had shifted to
hawaiiian sandals, which continued for the entire duration of their stay. 47
[also on p. 208: blue straps and white soles]

[entering the Master's programme to prepare for IAS p.48]

In the formative years of the university, there used to be a lot of social
mixing transcending ethnic and regional barriers, perhaps much more than
could be sustained for a long time.  With time ,the pattern changed.  Like an
expanding gas breaking up into small zones of matter, the faculty society
stabilized into small clusters of four to five families, the most common
binding being a common language.  53

[the inner urge of the faculty to do research.  imperceptible genesis.] 54

staff: separate from the students and the faculty, owing to:
  a) warm, hospitable, but rather lethargic, there was a philosophical calm
     in their nature (from the local, state culture), with no hurry to go
     anywhere.  In sharp contrast to the students and faculty.
  b) deeper difference - faculty and students were motivated and tuned in to
     the global profession - including actual travel.  staff were limited to
     campus - there was little acknowledgment of their role.  56

project work - extras to some staff; others gradually went into a complete
stall. 59

staff strikes; 60

electricity was cut off to the campus community by the workers, and in that
darkness there were processions by hundreds with flaming torches.  There
were more complications and blunders by the administration.  Eventually the
students and faculty also turned against the administration.  Calm returned
with the forced resignation of the [Director]; ironically, he was one of
those who loved the university most.  61

daily wage workers are regularized. ...
the union participated in ceremonial parades on foundation day with
elephants, torches, and so on. 61

[staff running their own businesses].  A clerk from AE ran an insurance and
investment business.  [malhotra; he was hired as a draughtsman, i believe.]
At the computer center, an operator had a business of buying railway tickets
and making reservations.  62

The LHC caretaker was untouched by the lure, and inspired a band of
dedicated workers by his personal example.  [Borwankar] 63

ch3: Brennan of MatTech arrives

[they discuss the problem of the specially designed electron microscope.  At
ultrahigh vacuum, it gives clear images of a single crystal.  But as soon as
a gas at even one Torr is introduced, the image blurs and disappears, and
does not reappear for hours.
the machine was supplied at a rather low price, in an area where MatTech does
not have sufficient expertise.
Initially, there is some sparring over who should be blamed.

Brennan is to return to Delhi today itself.  Clearly there isn't enough
time.  He also has not been briefed on the real problem.]

to make a phone call to his lab, he has to go to the deptl office. 72

one lift is running, the other being installed; p.72

[In the matter of removing wearing shoes inside the lab, V makes an exception
for Brennan] 75

[MatTech has supplied lenses that are a wrong size.
Brennan asks for a stainless part to be made, to very tight milling
tolerances.

University shop is completely impossible.  From a staff member, V gets an
address of a workshop near Kalpi road (p.109).   Yet the route
he takes (next chapter) is to the parade / Meston road area.]

ch4: going to the city p.113

[V goes to the city. description of Kanpur, travel by tempo, the main street,
lanes and bylanes of the city. ]

V's two accidents from tempos p.116

Gurdev Palace movie hall under construction 120

--Spitting after pAn
[in the health department of the municipal building near moti jheel]
the person inoculating spat out nonchalantly inside the room, which was
meant to be hyginecally clean.  122

reaches parade and walks to the poultry and fruit market. he takes a
rickshaw.

... houses on the verge of collapse but still full of inhabitants. 124

prostitutes at the bottom of stairs leading up.
... coolie bazar area... 126

ch5 : meets up with pals Khanna and Harjinder Singh

[lunch at Ritz; large room, ground floor; manager sitting on a raised wooden
platform, overseeing the entire room. ]

Khanna has not married and makes trips here and there - next to Namche Bazar
where the Everest expeditions start to the Sunderbans. 149 

"The trains ran right on time during the Emergency", Harjinder said.

V: "There is nothing to say for corruption, but even some corruption is better
than any kind of authoritarian rule."

how to remove corruption?  the saying goes: "the ghost is sitting inside the
very mustard see that would be used to chase it away." 153

[discussion on politics in funding projects.]  There is no accountability.
After twenty years of zero result, there is no one to publicly ask them a
question.  165

brain drain 165-6

H: Recently, our students have developed a general aversion to experimental
   work.
K: Computer have taken over...
H: It is incredible how this virus has affected the entire academic research
   in our university.  Everybody has a sideline of a computer, and for many
   it is becoming the main line.
K: But that's the only thing that works in your university!
H: Earlier our senior year UG projects used to be 75% experimental work, and
   only about 25% theory.  Now it is exactly the opposite.  Even in our
   circuits group, we are studying the circuit theoretically ten times more
   than making new circuits. 168

Long list of people who have left and gone abroad.  171

Teaching vs Research

Vishwa Khanna, from the very beginning, steadfastly refused to get into
research.  He declared that his research had ended with a stint of
post-doctoral work, and publishing a thick paper in Physical Review.
Regardless of the admninistration's prodding or the other rules in the
system, he carried on what he thought could be done meaningfully from here.
Teaching. 148

Virendra to Khanna: You know, Vishwa, in the recent past I have often thought
   that though you and I adopted drastically different paths and attitudes
   towards research, we are standing exactly at the same point, of no
   accomplishment.  I have wondered about who was right, you or I... I am
   still unable to give you credit for having this foresight - about how
   things would turn out after twenty years -- that you did not take the risk
   of burning out, and I took it and the effort turned me into cinder.  Who
   was right?
K: I don't know, V.  I didn't try because by nature - oor would you say by
   predestination, or by character, I always had very little ambition... but
   I too feel unhappy that the efforts of so many people have simply gone to
   waste... 174

ch6

[the mechanic at the shop has managed to finish his part, to the tolerances
specified by Brennan.

V (to the owner):  The mechanic is so good that we would be pleased to have
  such people in the university.
O: You may not know, but he once applied for a jon in the university.  Twenty
  years ago.  ...
  He was rejected.  He was not even called for the trade test.  He had his
  school education only up to the seventh class.  He could not study further
  as his father died then and he had to take up the family responsibility.
  Any other person would have collected a fake certificate - you know it is
  not difficult... But he refused to do that.

V froze. He knew his total helplessness in the existing social situation.
His limitations loomed large in front of him.  180

[returns to the lab.  however the part is no longer of any use.  a pump
controller has burnt out.   Brennan suddenly seems to feel bad about the
whole deal.  he says he has an idea of what needed to be done to get
everything in order, but he would need to discuss with his bosses before
confirming the plan. ]

ch7 : discussion with students Urmi and Rajendra

[Urmi and Rajendra are going for higher study abroad.  Rajendra to
Columbia. ]

The visa business is absolutely whimsical and arbitrary.  They look at you
and hurl back a decision, and that is it!  212

V: If you decide to return to work here - I am now convinced about this: It
   is generally not a wise thing to be trained in a real frontier area or
   technology, because our country is way behind the developed countries in
   science and technology.  So when you return you will find a nearly
   unbridgeable gap ... Unless therea re drastic changes in the science and
   technology policy and there is an honest and enlightened leadership, the
   rest of your professional career may simply wither away in efforts to
   bridge the gap.  215

R: "Are there some do's and don'ts of attempting to do good work?"
V: (laughs) You are asking a wrong person this q., because I have not ever
   done any piece of good work. 217

U: You are constantly saying that nothing can be perfect for long if at all -
   entropy doesn't permit it.  Some disorder is quite normal in nature.  218

V: On the whole, behaviour is deterministic, predetermined.  But the systems
   and interactions here are too complex for us to be able to make accurate
   predictions...
U: You ean there is no role of free will?  That is rather fatalistic!  Sir,
   that would be like believing in astrology. ...
   Do the movements of the planets and constellations determine how our lives
   would go?
V: Well, what if both are effects of some common cause?  Perhaps you could
   tell some day positions of heavenly bodies looking at people's lives;
   perhaps some principle of reciprocity exists there...
U: You mean because it is pre-destined, both are evolving together?
V: Yes.
U: And it is too complex for us to resolve all the initial conditions and the
   details of the processes?
V: Yes, one could speculate that way.  But despite my feeling about
   predetermination, I myself act as if there is free will; there is a great
   joy in it. 222

V: There are biological limitations, there are social limitations, there are
   limitations of every kind. Some are impossibilities and some are
   improbabilities.  Unless they are true impossibilities, they are all
   improbabilities - and given adequate time chances are that even the most
   improbable would happen... Lindbergh flies the Atlantic,  Bannister runs
   the 4 minute mile, and the Challenger fails.
R: It means that a mixed fate is the fate of everything and everybody.  225

V: We have defined perfect state such that tthre is only one way it can be
   realized - all attributes, all initial conditions, just right.  That
   formally, is zero entropy.  But if there are a hundred attributes which
   have to be just right, there are a hundred ways it can go wrong. 226

   The state of high quality is a state of low entropy and a tense and
   unstable state.  Nature's relentless tendency is to get one of the
   attributes to falter.. It is therefore a fundamental struggle to protect a
   quality against nature's actions, to protect an attribute which satisfies
   some stringent requirement of quality against a mixing by an attribute
   which satisfies only a less stringent quality.  The dominant theme of this
   universe is mixing.  A relentlessness and a ruthlessness is necessary to
   retain quality.  In our single-state view we would say, it would be
   difficult to come across such a quality.

R: But sir, that is a near-Nazi precept.
V: Good point.  227
   e.g. take academic excellence.  One way to counter decay is ruthless
   purging wherever the decay shows its head.  Some western university
   systems follow this to a large extent.  And it has succeeded maintaining
   excellent standards in many institutions.
   The other method if prevailing over the entropy effect is to keep the
   sample size very small, an example would be another occidental system.
   There would be so few professorial positions that unless you are truly
   good, yet is impossible to get into such a positions.
   [Both methods are not humanitarian]
   We have managed to copy the worst aspects of both the systems; we have a
   rather large number of positions at the highest academic level and no
   ability or wish to purge.  Humanitarianism and excellence are not always
   compatible. 228

[Looking at a grass flower]
Beauty was distance dependent; an object was beautiful only between two
distances.  229

As a kid, remembers lying down on the grass quite often, after evening
games, he would lie down on the grass on the field near the lake
shore... 229 

[takes a walk near the canal, has a fall and is knocked out for some time]

ch 8: reverie in Nalanda and along the Ganga

in a reverie set in Nalanda, V is first Vidushaka, a scholar, who doubts the
wisdom of having royal support for the vihAra; he suspects that independence,
through the begging bowl as initiated by buddha, may be a more correct path.

[senior monk Jnanadeva is effusive after Asoka's visit to the vihAra, but V
is doubtful]
V: Limitless growth, perfect fruition - I feel are tenets which violate some
   basic principle of nature.  I feel disturbed when in an otherwise
   disciplined life such illusory objectives are entertained in earnest. 250
J: I feel I understand what you are saying.

then V is Padmasambhava, a friend of Hieuen Tsang, taking leave from him on
the verge of his return to china.  Hiuen Tsang's monastery name is
Mokshadeva...

the monastery head is the renowned scholar Shilabhadra [also historical]

and then he finds himself by the roaring mandakini as it plunges down from
the himalayas.  he walks along the river, and crosses rudraprayag,
devaprayag, and finally is at har-ki-pauri, where the lamps are being floated
and the priest's many-tiered lamps gleam on the water.

in the last scene he finds himself in the sky, amid the stars.


---
pradip k. ghosh was a professor of chemistry at iit kanpur for more than
thirty years.  one of india's well-known researchers in physical chemsistry,
he is the author of three technical texts on physical chemistry and
scientific instrumentation.