Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The attempt to secure an Engineering seat

The June of 1982. Engineering and Medicine were the only two options boys and girls in Gulbarga district considered after their 12th(PUC, PDC whatever). No other career avenues occurred to them. Thinking back, very few students from Wadi or Shahabad even aspired to take up Medicine as a career. Securing a job in the ACC factory was the priority, and a simple ITI or a Diploma or, if you were extremely ambitious, an engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering was what one aspired for. Engineering colleges in those days were few and far between. The mushrooming of private engineering colleges was a nascent phenomenon which started in Karnataka and spread to Maharashtra. But in the early 80s Karnataka had something like five government engineering colleges and close to 20 private engineering colleges. Most of the private engineering colleges operated from sheds with asbestos roofs like the Raichur Engineering College. The HKE Society’s Engineering College in Gulbarga was fairly well off by private engineering college standards. HKES by the way stands for Hyderabad Karnatak Education Society. The four northern districts of Karnataka, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar and Bellary along with the northern districts of Andhra Pradesh like Medak, Rangareddy etc. were considered to be an integrated cultural unit with similar culinary, linguistic and sartorial traditions. The culinary traditions of Hyderabad Karnatak area is elaborated in the post http://cynicism2euphoria.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-north-karnataka-recipes.html.

The HKE Society was run by the Lingayats who overtly conducted the affairs of Institutions like the Sharanabasaveshwara Group of Colleges and covertly ran the affairs of the HKE Society. More about the Lingayats and the Sharanabasaveshwara Institutions later. The HKES Engineering College is now called The Poojya Doddappa Appa (PDA) College of Engineering.

It was on a June morning that I and my father boarded the Bargal, with my PDC Certificates with the hope that I could secure a seat in engineering in the HKES Engineering College. I understand that it rains heavily ,and Gulbarga goes green and verdant these days during the mid summer months, but in those days the rains were far and few between and June was a hot and sunny month. The ticket from Wadi to Gulbarga, I remember was a paltry(by today’s standards) one rupee and fifty five paise. But then, my father drew a salary of Rs. 753 per month too. We therefore reached Gulbarga at a cost of three rupees and ten paise. Ten paise coins in those days were made of alnico and had a wavy border.

Surprisingly the Bargal was on time that day, and we reached Gulbarga station by 8.45 am. We had enough time to have a breakfast of huge bondas and idlis liberally covered with dilute coconut chutney at the newly opened Janata Café at the Aiwan-e-Shahi Road, followed by coffee. We had to reach the Engineering College only at 1030 am. My beard was just sprouting, and I had not yet thought of shaving. We reached the college gates and I had my first glimpse of a Fighter aircraft that was displayed prominently in the front of building. It was an unimpressive building built of grey limestone blocks and mortar. The Principal of the College that time was SV Mallapur, a dark balding gentleman. My father and I were led into the Principal’s chamber where sat the Principal, with the redoubtable Shankar Rao Chincholikar who was the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. I learnt later that Chincholikar had a Java motorcycle, whose engine he had modified to run on kerosene oil. He rode this invention of his around the college, exhuming noxious fumes. The kerosene engine created deposits of carbon in its insides, which Chincholikar used the First Year BE (Mechanical Engineering) students to clean.
Be that as it may be, the interview with Mallpur, Chincholikar and the other professors present, did not go as well as presumed. After a cursory perusal of my certificates, the Principal demanded a 25000 rupees donation to the college, which on negotiations came down to Rs. 20000/-. Considering that my father was earning a mere Rs. 750 per month at that time, this was more than two times his annual salary. Neither he nor I took this seriously and having paid our respects to the HKE professors, left.

After dining at the Timapuri Circle Kamat, we took 9 Dn Bombay-Madras Mail to Wadi , during which journey my father told me that I had better take up a B. Sc. Degree course in the Sharanabasvehswara College of Science. I acquiesced. In fact I was so enamoured of the Organic Chemistry that Cyriac taught, that I was more inclined to do a Masters in Organic Chemistry rather than in manual pursuits like Engineering. That day the 9 Dn Mail reached Wadi on time at 11.50 AM and we were home for a lunch of keerai molagoottal, vendakka kichadi and rice.