Woes of a research scholar

Woes of a research scholar

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I was engrossed in reading a thriller when I heard someone calling my name. I looked up from my corner desk.

It was KG who was 2 years senior to me in IIT , a popular debater of our college was calling me , he too was in the same establishment.

I got up to the door when he asked me to bring the book along. I innocently picked up the thriller and walked out in the corridor to meet him. I was caught red handed, that rascal was waiting with juniors of IIT, Kharagpur who had come on study tour to National Physical Laboratory in Pusa,New  Delhi.

“Look what a Senior Research fellow does in NPL! Meet Samar.”

There was all round ribbing among us.

After passing out in 1965 from IIT, Kharagpur thought we would get job immediately but unfortunately that did not happen though some of our friends got offer while in the college.  There was no campus interviews those days. Our friend Sanjay Majumdar’s father had a steel plant in Durgapur and he arranged job for some of the friends there.

Me and Bhaskar would walk the corridors of Connaught Place every day  in search of job and close the day with coffee in Coffee House by the side of Regal cinema. 1964,65,66 were the recession years in India, graduate engineers were either underemployed or unemployed. Every day I would scan the paper for job and apply. There was an offer from Atlas cycle but because of bond did not take. Then in frustration applied against an ad for Senior Research Fellow  in CSIR( because we did 5 years after HS so was eligible along with MScs). I was interviewed by Dr.Zaheer, DG ,CSIR. He offered me Senior Research fellow in any of the regional laboratories in India.  I wanted to stay in Delhi with my parents so it was NPL, JNU was not there then . Thus my research job with a princely sum of Rs 400 per month started. Yesterday I heard someone saying in TV channel debate that they get a measly some of 32,000 as research scholarship.

I must admit that because I was not getting job anywhere so joined as research scholar. It was a stop gap arrangement for me. In the meanwhile I was in the lookout of a proper job of engineer. I spent about 3 months as a scholar without starting a project, I was helping the laboratory in carrying out standard tests. I was using the well stacked library of the establishment to keep myself abreast with the latest development in electrical engineering and of course there would always be a light book as time filler like that day when KG called me.

Finally I competed in All India competition for engineer trainee in IOC and was posted in Gauhati Refinery to start my one and half years training stint at a princely sum of 350 rupees as stipend.

I am sure majority of those so called scholars are those who could not get a suitable job or could not compete in All India competitions and went on remaining in campuses on scholarship for doing some sort of research; certainly most of them are not brilliant scholars or toppers of the universities.

I remember I had accompanied my friend Virendra Kumar to Kalayani  sometimes in 1998 or so for the inauguration of Solar heater supplied for drying of milk to produce milk powder in NDR, every alternate person was a doctorate there. I remember Budhadev Bhattacharya ,Chief Minister of West Bengal once commented about the galaxy of doctorates of not doing enough to increase the agricultural productivity in West Bengal but only adding degrees to their names.
My association with CSIR took a full circle, i was a council member  of Regional Research Laboratory ,Bhopal an appointment made by GOI during my Bhopal days from 2000 to 2003.I was in the selection committee of scientists in the laboratory.Took part in selecting bright candidates who wanted to come back from abroad and serve India.By virtue of that association i came in contact with many scientists who were working activly in adivasi villages on projects to find alternate occupation for them in their villages so that they don't have to migrate out to cities in search of job. They had developed systems of keeping storing area cool by using sun and air, a kind of natural refrigeration. Yes those scholars worked for the downtrodden.They were contributing positively to uplift the society and i made it a point to visit that laboratory as often as possible to know more. From BHEL,Bhopal we had taken help of the Laboratory to resolve knotty technical problems.
To conclude i started my career as a Research scholar and retired by associating myself with real productive researchers.