We are back on the road. The remarkable machine called the auto-rickshaw is an ideal tool for transport in India. It is very efficient on gasoline and its engine is prep ready always. The only handicap is that it lacks a good pair of shock-absorbers to smoothen the bumps in the ride. The roads should not be bumpy, but the corrosion through water is strong. In general the ride is more "oscillatory" than "linear." It is the poor man's conveyance in India. I had chosen it. My father was a good student. He graduated with English as his Honors and studied law. Then a group of them vowed that they would not work for the British. All employment was directly or indirectly controlled by the Government. Such a vow was popular among his elders in the State. Some of his colleagues changed their minds and broke the vow. My father could stick, possibly his parents helped. My mother also brought resources, but only for a while. Her parents' estate was dissolved through some newly formed land-reforms in the free India. Unplanned deprivation followed. I grew up with my grandmother and joined the upper primary grade in an urban high school. The school went through 4th grade upto XI grade and was known for its excellent headmaster. I had great friends, many lived near the school. I appeared the Middle English scholarship Examination and succeeded. After a year, my father thought to transfer me to the school from which he had graduated. After graduation I came to college that my father had attended. I went on the Science stream, eventually completing the Master's degree that the college offered. We were twenty four students in our Master's degree program in Physics. A student was supposed to choose a specialization stream. The offered streams were a function of the available faculty and the laboratory facilities. The streams offered in our time included (i) Spectroscopy, (ii) Electronics, (iii) Theoretical Plasma Physics. While Spectroscopy was mostly optical, sub-stream specialization in x-ray spectroscopy was allowed. The students could take a written examination or complete an acceptable thesis. I had chosen the thesis track. The head of the Physics Faculty in our time was Dr. B. Misra, an absent-minded experimentalist who had earned his PhD in London in the '40s. He had set up a large laboratory to monitor the dual properties of matter. The idea was that the high vacuum plasma would create a trace in a wave form on a photographic plate. Called "matter wave" experiment, he would constantly brood to himself about his experiment. While the theoretical speculation had merit, the sensing was difficult. Lately the phenomenon has been connected to plasma instability. It was a bold experiment much before any high energy colliders were designed or installed. He wrote papers on his experiment and spoke in seminars. He was considered a local genius.
I had chosen Dr. Misra as my Thesis Advisor. I was given to do a spectroscopic study of of the night sky emissions and do a laboratory simulation of the outer space collisions. Dr. Misra was a big supporter of research and he helped me procure extremely fast films as available in the '60s. I got myself well versed in photographic techniques and the literature of detecting feeble signals. Outer space signal detection is a road to negative results. One long exposure on a Fabry-Perot spectroscope did encounter a signal. Many of my classmates did help through the work. A female student was particularly helpful whom I later married.
We graduated in 1968. I was awarded the Gold Medal. Two from our graduating class are currently in the US. Many from our batch went in to teaching. A few entered the civil service in banking, railways and forestry. One became a successful businessman. The teachers rose through the hierarchy and retired as the Principals or Directors. Most keep track of each other though people do not meet as often as they could.
The business friend of ours did have access to an Engineers' Club where we had met with our other friends in my earlier visits. Many of our friends live in Bhubaneswar area after retirement but some do not like public meetings. After being abroad for a long time and having seen various aspects of life I am a curious student of people and events. I loved my friends when we were young, I have my sincere respects to each. All make the best use of available time and opportunities. There is an element of luck in human living.
We had to find our way to the Engineer's Club. To locate an address in Bhubaneswar was not the easiest task. There would be letters and numbers but there would not be any reference point. Any development can start with their own "A"s. A total renumbering is needed for a systematic identification. In the activity of the town, it is a low priority. After various false moves, we succeeded in reaching a small local Temple. The destination was next to the Temple but it had no lights. The street lights in Orissa are the dimmest in the country. Orissa remains a handicapped State.
Our friends slowly walked in. We were eight from our batch. There was one person from our younger batch, an engineer friend who was with me in High School and then my childhood friend, who became a capable Cricket player. Most interesting was our teacher in college, Dr Torasia, who had expressed interest to join. He walked in. He was elegant with a trim frame and a handsome face. He led the x-ray stream in the college and also was the reserve cadet coach. Past eighty years of age, I loved his style. I was more delighted when he said that he did not want to miss the students' meeting.
Here was a group of talented individuals. Each had traveled a road to serve people. Only one had lost his wife. All seemed to be in good health. There was plenty of nostalgia and memory of the younger days. Some were happy to be juvenile in their expressions and renderings. Some were reflective. Someone had said "a baby lurks in everyone's body!" A child is free. It is good to be child-like.
Jnana was a High Energy theoretician, Lambodar was a University Professor. Alekh, Surendra,and Nrusingha taught college Physics. Saroj retired as the Director of Public Instructions. Prabhat served the Forestry Department and then taught the incoming officers. Chaitanya retired as the Head of the Thermal Plant. Bikram served as a Personnel Officer in the Steel Plant and headed his own business. Niranjan was a plant owner. I liked the diversity. I imagined how each life might have been. Wives existed, but they did not show up. Women let men be boys for an evening.
Dr. Torasia helped install the city Planetarium and saw it functioning. Besides him we had many other teachers whose faces flashed before me. It is easy to be a good student, but not so easy to be a good teacher. Then I recalled many other friends, who could not join or could not be contacted. Age brings loneliness and people have a tendency to get confined. Friendship helps. A good bout of laughter is needed to wipe off the grime of life.
Food was cooked locally. Attired people served the food. The food was simple but tasty. It was a casual dinner. After we ate, Dr. Torasia arranged to take some pictures of the discussion. I am attaching a few. Returning home late night in Bhubaneswar is not a trivial matter. Surendra offered to drop me off with a request to drop by in his house. His wife was a computer scientist and was active in software development for Oriya language. She showed a few innovative learning drills on the computer. The work was new and impressive.
