MY GANG OF SIX AT IIT MADRAS
I am K RamChander 1.186/64.
I failed one subject, Fluid Mechanics in my 3rd year at IIT Madras and was forced to repeat the entire year meaning all 12 subjects I had not only cleared but done well too. The IIT System at my time sucked to be honest. Had that system continued we would have hundreds of suicides in IITs every year today in 2019.
Fortunately the Semester system was introduced in years that followed and students were allowed to take additional summer classes and supplementary exams to clear the failed subjects.
I must admit I was so ashamed to have failed considering I was Ducks of my class at school from years 6 to 10, I did contemplate ending my life but the thought of my mother and sisters made me abort the plan and somehow mustered enough courage to join my junior 1965 batch to repeat my third year in Civil Engineering.
Remember this was in India and people look down upon you if you have failed as you are deemed to be an idiot. People meaning new classmates, old classmates, family & friends and most of all Faculty members at IITM. They look at students who had failed and were repeating the year with a kind of contempt and disdain and even ignore your existence.
University reopened and classes began and here I was dragging my reluctant body into a class room full of unknown and also junior students. Pretty unnerving situation and of course I gravitated towards the back rows to avoid being conspicuous. I then spotted two familiar faces. Chaps who used to be my seniors and had failed two years in a row. Karve and Chari. Some consolation that I was not alone.
Repeating the third year was a breeze as I had learnt it all before. This made me a "Dada of sorts" for the Back Benchers of this new bunch.
The Back Benchers were Anupam Sen, Prasun Das both lazy Bangla Babus and Rameshwar Chillar the Haryana Hulk who were always running late for classes and ended up in the back benches.Then we had Ramanujam, S.Ramamurthy and me, Ramchander who were clubbed together for Lab work as the class roster was arranged alphabetically. It so happened that we were all in the same hostel too. Then there was my Wing Mate Mohanan Nair who was up there in front few rows to portray himself as a serious student.
My closest of friends in the class was Raju Jairam but he was in Jamuna Hostel whereas we fellows were in Saraswathi Hostel. I'd say Raju even today is my best buddy but we never shared the same hostel or study groups except for our Survey Camp at Yercaud where we were in one group and he fell madly in love with this gorgeous tribal girl on the very first day of the camp and the theodolite was pointing at her from the time she appeared to the minute she disappeared on a daily basis. The girl was cheeky too and seemed to be parading up and down the hills too many times. Was it puppy love? But even today Raju will fall in love with anything in a skirt or frock :-)
Anupam Sen aka Dada for every one was one door away on the right and S. Ramamurthy was one door away on the left. Mohan Nair was the first room in the wing. S Ramanujam was in the first floor right below, Chillar and Prasun Das were in the opposite wing in Saraswathi hostel.
We had Periodicals or Tests every Monday Wednesday and Saturday mornings which meant the night before we assembled mostly in my room as I had all the notes from Previous year. Plus after a few weeks there was this realisation I was not dumb at all. The Real Teachers of the gang with current class notes were Ramanujam and Ramamorthy and both were studious too. When we are all at a total loss we always had Easwaran and K.P Raghavan to lend their notes after they had finished studying and gone to bed. They left the notes on the window sills of their rooms in the ground floor. Mohanan Nair was a reluctant gang member who was in and out Yet he served a very important role in our Gang. Mohan had friends in the Army which meant he had a constant supply of good quality rum and coke bottles were available in the hostel mess any way. We were disciplined though. Drinks only on Saturday nights after the movie at Open Air Theatre.
Mine was the tidiest room and so every saturday night after the movies we played three cards for money. But we had rules. The winner of the night had to declare the amount he made ( we knew as we had to buy in at the start of the game) and all the winners had to put the money in a kitty and the gang of six who played cards that night would go and eat Egg Parathas and Murthabas at Runs Hotel. Ramanujam, Ramamurthy and I had to go home to see family so we did not eat at runs every week unike Anupam and Chillar. Ben Thomas, Mohanan Nair and Prasun Das used to join us from Time to time but were not regulars.
Anupam Sen and I were as thick as thieves and inseparable. But Boy was he a slob, would never wake up in time for classes, his room stank of Panama Cigarettes and happily he would just grab any shirt or t-shirts of mine as he never got to wash his clothes. Most would have considered Dada a burden and a nuisance but I adored him. He was such a gifted Soccer Player and man he had a golden voice. His rendition of "Nodire" a Hemant Kumar Song still rings in my ears when I sing this song today on "Smule" with hundreds of Smule friends.
One day I accompanied Anupam for an Inter College Soccer Match with Loyola College. There was a familiar looking face in the Loyola Team. He looked Nepali but reminded me of my classmate from Port Blair Andamans, Mong Tua a Burmese Chap.
The game started and I hear his team mates yelling Mong Tua pass the ball here to the left wing etc etc. My heart skipped a beat. So when half time whistle was blown I rushed up to him and asked him are you from Port Blair.
He recognised me immediately and we were hugging each other and shedding tears of joy. I had left Andamans in 1953 and I was meeting him in 1968.
He was happy that I had made it to IITM and happier to meet Dada who had scored a goal already. An evening I can never forget. Sadly there was no internet, no emails, no Face Book or Whatsapp and never could stay connected with Mong Tua.
One most memorable incident was when one night around midnight I was asleep and someone was banging my door with a rage. Scared the shit out of me. Looked through the window and I saw Chillar out there so I quickly opened the door and he charged straight into the room and crashed on the bed and his body was in shock and quivering.
He looked pale as if he had been kissed by a ghost. Trust me there were many ghosts in Godavari and Saraswathi hostels as they were built on Velacheri graves. I have heard of empty chairs in the common room moving closer to the TV.
Chillar was sweating so I poured him a glass of water to calm him down and did not pressurise him. Just waited for him to calm down and then tell me what happened; which he did after about ten minutes.
He was walking back to his room and in the stairwell in his wing he saw "His very good friend Ramu, except Ramu had died in a freak accident at the Adayar Elliots Beach Madras, a month earlier.
"He was not a swimmer and was just wetting is feet when he got caught in a rip and drowned" we were told by friends who had accompanied Ramu to the beach that day. Ramu's Body disappeared and reappeared the next day at exactly the same spot.
Only at The Funeral I realised "Ram was playback singer Ghantasala nephew as the funeral was at Ghantasala's house and he was affectionately called "Pandu" meaning fruit by his family in Telugu.
Another thing that puzzled me was he looked as if he was asleep and I even saw him move and blood pouring from his nostrils. Was he alive I thought? but I was alone in this and he was cremated soon after.
Here was this huge Hulk of a Chillar who was called the Haryana Gandu who was scared and shaking and crying and refused to go back to his room. I had to sleep on a sheet on the floor as Chillar was snoring a few minutes later.
There is just one more incident that I need to share. It was 4th Year. Mid term exams had finished and every one was going home for the vacation. My mother had said I should invite all these special friends of mine home for lunch and find out what they wanted to eat. We talked about it and Prasun Das proposed an it was unanimously agreed that they all wanted to eat Lamb Brains.
We kids had said no to offals being cooked at home and I was reluctant. My Mother said you gave them a choice and we have to stick to it.
Chillar, Anupam Sen, Prasun Das, Mohanan Nair and Ramamurthy (Pure vegetarian) came for lunch. I had to rush off to the butcher that morning and told the Saibu I wanted six Lamb Brains. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said Enna Thambi Periya Kalyana Sappadaa veetlae ?. I came home with Six Lamb Brains and my mother screamed at me and said One would have been more than enough for four chaps now what am I going to do with this as no one eats this at home. I told my mother to cook the lot and we could give the leftovers to the servant maids family to eat as a treat.
Believe it or not the four Thugs Chillar, Anupam, Prasun and Mohan said it was absolutely delicious dish and licked the bowl clean. My mother was immensely pleased.
In 1983 when my mother and sister were in Sydney with me my mother remembered the "Lamb Brain Eating Competition"
In 4th Year Chillar and Anupam Sen Failed in Theory of structures and had to repeat the courses and the rest of us moved on.
Prasun Das became a Management Trainee at Batas and Mohanan Nair joined Narayanan architects at Design engineer and I joined the Highways at Junior engineer. Ramamurthy went to USA and Ramanujam joined BABA Atomic centre. The only member of the gang who stayed connected with me for a couple of years was Mohanan nair, He later joined Engineers India in Delhi I think and I moved to Sydney.
Believe it or not I was not lucky enough to touch base with even one of my buddies since 1976 until year 2003.
Chillar is some where in USA and so is S.Ramamurthy, Ramanujam was not interested in staying in touch, Prasun Das I heard had married a Tamil girl. No idea where Anupam went or for that matter Mohanan Nair.
There was a glimmer of hope when someone wrote Anupam was in USA with his son but then came the news that Anupam passed away in 2012 and he had worked at the steel mills in Ranchi all the time. But that was Anupam "Out of sight out of mind and too lazy to be bothered". May his soul rest in Peace.
Hope and Pray the others will surface and reconnect one day soon.
I am K RamChander 1.186/64.
I failed one subject, Fluid Mechanics in my 3rd year at IIT Madras and was forced to repeat the entire year meaning all 12 subjects I had not only cleared but done well too. The IIT System at my time sucked to be honest. Had that system continued we would have hundreds of suicides in IITs every year today in 2019.
Fortunately the Semester system was introduced in years that followed and students were allowed to take additional summer classes and supplementary exams to clear the failed subjects.
I must admit I was so ashamed to have failed considering I was Ducks of my class at school from years 6 to 10, I did contemplate ending my life but the thought of my mother and sisters made me abort the plan and somehow mustered enough courage to join my junior 1965 batch to repeat my third year in Civil Engineering.
Remember this was in India and people look down upon you if you have failed as you are deemed to be an idiot. People meaning new classmates, old classmates, family & friends and most of all Faculty members at IITM. They look at students who had failed and were repeating the year with a kind of contempt and disdain and even ignore your existence.
University reopened and classes began and here I was dragging my reluctant body into a class room full of unknown and also junior students. Pretty unnerving situation and of course I gravitated towards the back rows to avoid being conspicuous. I then spotted two familiar faces. Chaps who used to be my seniors and had failed two years in a row. Karve and Chari. Some consolation that I was not alone.
Repeating the third year was a breeze as I had learnt it all before. This made me a "Dada of sorts" for the Back Benchers of this new bunch.
The Back Benchers were Anupam Sen, Prasun Das both lazy Bangla Babus and Rameshwar Chillar the Haryana Hulk who were always running late for classes and ended up in the back benches.Then we had Ramanujam, S.Ramamurthy and me, Ramchander who were clubbed together for Lab work as the class roster was arranged alphabetically. It so happened that we were all in the same hostel too. Then there was my Wing Mate Mohanan Nair who was up there in front few rows to portray himself as a serious student.
My closest of friends in the class was Raju Jairam but he was in Jamuna Hostel whereas we fellows were in Saraswathi Hostel. I'd say Raju even today is my best buddy but we never shared the same hostel or study groups except for our Survey Camp at Yercaud where we were in one group and he fell madly in love with this gorgeous tribal girl on the very first day of the camp and the theodolite was pointing at her from the time she appeared to the minute she disappeared on a daily basis. The girl was cheeky too and seemed to be parading up and down the hills too many times. Was it puppy love? But even today Raju will fall in love with anything in a skirt or frock :-)
Anupam Sen aka Dada for every one was one door away on the right and S. Ramamurthy was one door away on the left. Mohan Nair was the first room in the wing. S Ramanujam was in the first floor right below, Chillar and Prasun Das were in the opposite wing in Saraswathi hostel.
We had Periodicals or Tests every Monday Wednesday and Saturday mornings which meant the night before we assembled mostly in my room as I had all the notes from Previous year. Plus after a few weeks there was this realisation I was not dumb at all. The Real Teachers of the gang with current class notes were Ramanujam and Ramamorthy and both were studious too. When we are all at a total loss we always had Easwaran and K.P Raghavan to lend their notes after they had finished studying and gone to bed. They left the notes on the window sills of their rooms in the ground floor. Mohanan Nair was a reluctant gang member who was in and out Yet he served a very important role in our Gang. Mohan had friends in the Army which meant he had a constant supply of good quality rum and coke bottles were available in the hostel mess any way. We were disciplined though. Drinks only on Saturday nights after the movie at Open Air Theatre.
Mine was the tidiest room and so every saturday night after the movies we played three cards for money. But we had rules. The winner of the night had to declare the amount he made ( we knew as we had to buy in at the start of the game) and all the winners had to put the money in a kitty and the gang of six who played cards that night would go and eat Egg Parathas and Murthabas at Runs Hotel. Ramanujam, Ramamurthy and I had to go home to see family so we did not eat at runs every week unike Anupam and Chillar. Ben Thomas, Mohanan Nair and Prasun Das used to join us from Time to time but were not regulars.
Anupam Sen and I were as thick as thieves and inseparable. But Boy was he a slob, would never wake up in time for classes, his room stank of Panama Cigarettes and happily he would just grab any shirt or t-shirts of mine as he never got to wash his clothes. Most would have considered Dada a burden and a nuisance but I adored him. He was such a gifted Soccer Player and man he had a golden voice. His rendition of "Nodire" a Hemant Kumar Song still rings in my ears when I sing this song today on "Smule" with hundreds of Smule friends.
One day I accompanied Anupam for an Inter College Soccer Match with Loyola College. There was a familiar looking face in the Loyola Team. He looked Nepali but reminded me of my classmate from Port Blair Andamans, Mong Tua a Burmese Chap.
The game started and I hear his team mates yelling Mong Tua pass the ball here to the left wing etc etc. My heart skipped a beat. So when half time whistle was blown I rushed up to him and asked him are you from Port Blair.
He recognised me immediately and we were hugging each other and shedding tears of joy. I had left Andamans in 1953 and I was meeting him in 1968.
He was happy that I had made it to IITM and happier to meet Dada who had scored a goal already. An evening I can never forget. Sadly there was no internet, no emails, no Face Book or Whatsapp and never could stay connected with Mong Tua.
One most memorable incident was when one night around midnight I was asleep and someone was banging my door with a rage. Scared the shit out of me. Looked through the window and I saw Chillar out there so I quickly opened the door and he charged straight into the room and crashed on the bed and his body was in shock and quivering.
He looked pale as if he had been kissed by a ghost. Trust me there were many ghosts in Godavari and Saraswathi hostels as they were built on Velacheri graves. I have heard of empty chairs in the common room moving closer to the TV.
Chillar was sweating so I poured him a glass of water to calm him down and did not pressurise him. Just waited for him to calm down and then tell me what happened; which he did after about ten minutes.
He was walking back to his room and in the stairwell in his wing he saw "His very good friend Ramu, except Ramu had died in a freak accident at the Adayar Elliots Beach Madras, a month earlier.
"He was not a swimmer and was just wetting is feet when he got caught in a rip and drowned" we were told by friends who had accompanied Ramu to the beach that day. Ramu's Body disappeared and reappeared the next day at exactly the same spot.
Only at The Funeral I realised "Ram was playback singer Ghantasala nephew as the funeral was at Ghantasala's house and he was affectionately called "Pandu" meaning fruit by his family in Telugu.
Another thing that puzzled me was he looked as if he was asleep and I even saw him move and blood pouring from his nostrils. Was he alive I thought? but I was alone in this and he was cremated soon after.
Here was this huge Hulk of a Chillar who was called the Haryana Gandu who was scared and shaking and crying and refused to go back to his room. I had to sleep on a sheet on the floor as Chillar was snoring a few minutes later.
There is just one more incident that I need to share. It was 4th Year. Mid term exams had finished and every one was going home for the vacation. My mother had said I should invite all these special friends of mine home for lunch and find out what they wanted to eat. We talked about it and Prasun Das proposed an it was unanimously agreed that they all wanted to eat Lamb Brains.
We kids had said no to offals being cooked at home and I was reluctant. My Mother said you gave them a choice and we have to stick to it.
Chillar, Anupam Sen, Prasun Das, Mohanan Nair and Ramamurthy (Pure vegetarian) came for lunch. I had to rush off to the butcher that morning and told the Saibu I wanted six Lamb Brains. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said Enna Thambi Periya Kalyana Sappadaa veetlae ?. I came home with Six Lamb Brains and my mother screamed at me and said One would have been more than enough for four chaps now what am I going to do with this as no one eats this at home. I told my mother to cook the lot and we could give the leftovers to the servant maids family to eat as a treat.
Believe it or not the four Thugs Chillar, Anupam, Prasun and Mohan said it was absolutely delicious dish and licked the bowl clean. My mother was immensely pleased.
In 1983 when my mother and sister were in Sydney with me my mother remembered the "Lamb Brain Eating Competition"
In 4th Year Chillar and Anupam Sen Failed in Theory of structures and had to repeat the courses and the rest of us moved on.
Prasun Das became a Management Trainee at Batas and Mohanan Nair joined Narayanan architects at Design engineer and I joined the Highways at Junior engineer. Ramamurthy went to USA and Ramanujam joined BABA Atomic centre. The only member of the gang who stayed connected with me for a couple of years was Mohanan nair, He later joined Engineers India in Delhi I think and I moved to Sydney.
Believe it or not I was not lucky enough to touch base with even one of my buddies since 1976 until year 2003.
Chillar is some where in USA and so is S.Ramamurthy, Ramanujam was not interested in staying in touch, Prasun Das I heard had married a Tamil girl. No idea where Anupam went or for that matter Mohanan Nair.
There was a glimmer of hope when someone wrote Anupam was in USA with his son but then came the news that Anupam passed away in 2012 and he had worked at the steel mills in Ranchi all the time. But that was Anupam "Out of sight out of mind and too lazy to be bothered". May his soul rest in Peace.
Hope and Pray the others will surface and reconnect one day soon.
