ARTICLES
Simis’ Lively Social Scene at Jamalpur
Jamalpur is what you make it to be - a lazy,
sleepy little town in Bihar or a vibrant, picturesque spot in Eastern Railway.
Striking a chord in each of us - be it golfers, painters, poets, dramatists,
scouts, students, trekkers, climbers, couch potatoes or workaholics.
Though occasionally dabbling in all these
pursuits, one wonders how the representatives - of the most upcoming stars of
the new millennium - the dynamic Indian women - are largely occupying
themselves.
Well Jamalpur seems to have cast a spell on
them also. ERWWO - short for “Eastern Railway Women’s Welfare Organisation” has
Simis comprising one third of its strength - it’s President Ila Jain ’65 also
being a Simi. ERWWO, besides starting many welfare schemes, is also bitten by
the creative bug and has many colourful gala events to its credit in the last
two years. To begin with, the festival of Teej was celebrated in a milieu of
colour and ethnic ambience - the dress code being ‘Rural India’. The officer’s
dresses ranged from village “choudhurl’ to the “dudhwala” and
women dressed as pretty and pert village belles.
The fest had a solo classical dance
choreographed and performed by a Simi, Reena Poddar ’84 to the lilting tunes of
‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. An authentic looking thatched hut’s courtyard
constituted the stage’s facade. Some folk songs and a ghazal sung by
Abha Pradeep Kumar ’68 were part of the programme. A harvest dance of Bengal added
colour, and more solo dances on Ila Arun’s sprightly songs zing, to the evening
‘s entertainment. The dinner was imaginatively served in earthen vessels lined
with banana leaves and decorated with marigold petals along with buttermilk
enjoyed in kulhars.
The next attempt was a cultural programme put
together for G.M./ Eastern Railway, Mr. & Mrs. Ramanathan’s visit. Mr.
& Mrs. R. N. Aga’61 along with many officials from Headquarters also
accompanied him.
This time the programme called “Aadaab Arz”
was conceived with the theme and dress code of ‘Mughal Era’. The officers had
their gear coming from Calcutta and Patna, while the Simis raided their friends
and relatives lockers looking for exotic jewellery in Moslem designs. The
officer’s club was be-decked with a ‘Meena Bazar’ at the entrance and the hall
was transformed into Diwaan-e-khaas. An ingenuous plywood structure was created
to give the ambience of the arched architecture of the Muslim Era with satin
curtains and chandeliers adorning it.
Instead of the ceremonial ‘Diya’, a ‘Shama’
was designed which Mrs. Ramanathan lit and to welcome the guests a ‘Nazm’
composed by Ila Jain ’65 was sung by a Moslem beauty.
A solo dance by Preeti Kumar ’88 on ‘Inhi logo
ne’ and a spirited qawwali in which officers also participated, Dharmendra
Kumar ’88 mainly upholding the men’s side, were the highlights of the
programme. The best-dressed couple, in the most authentic Moslem finery, was
given a prize by Mrs. Aga ’61. This was followed by the finals of the ghazal
singing contest held for the railway staff by ERRWO. A delectable spread of
Mughlai cuisine was then served and enjoyed by one and all.
The latest regalia displayed in ERWWO
Jamalpur’s “Husbands’ night 1999" reproduced the gaiety of Rajasthan’s
‘Pushkar Mela’. ERRWO-ites and officers really went to town in obtaining
authentic Rajasthani gear. Nikhilesh Jain ’65 dressed as a Rajput sporting a
huge ‘naqli’ beard and moustache was difficult to recognise.
A very creative transformation took place when
the former facade of Mughal arches were repainted and done up to look like the
backdrop of Rajasthan’s haveli’s. The evening started with Rajasthani folk
songs and Dandia dance. Inspired by India’s astounding success at the world
beauty pageants lately, a catwalk and a fashion show contest was organised.
Jamalpur, no less than Hyderabad, in having talented beauties, may just as well
be in fashion news in future. Ila Jain ’65 and Preeti Kumar ’88 were amongst
the winners of the contest.
To further entertain the guests a ‘Safa’ tying
contest for men was held. Hilarious attempts were made and most officers got
educated in this intricate skill of Rajasthan.
The evening concluded with Gutte ki subzi,
roti, sag and many other Rajasthani delicacies served in thatched roof huts
with haystacks and charpoys placed strategically around coal sigris.
Major events interspersed with picnics at the
Gorayya falls and Kharagpur lake, a dip in the hot sulphur springs at Bhim
baandh, dance parties around camp fires, Mongolian food on a Sunday afternoon
etc. kept up the fun. We now hear a ‘ladies-day-out’ is being planned by the
ERRWO husbands!!!
So these last two
years have seen a whirlwind social scene at Jamalpur due to the efforts of the
Simis here. Their creative and hard working aspect is as much in display as the
fun loving one - confirming that they take the business of being SAMs’ better
halves seriously.
To
The Hon. MINISTER of RAILWAYS
Smt. Mamata Banerjee
Rail Bhawan,
New Delhi-110001
Sub:
- FULL UTILISATION of RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE
Ref.-
TOI News Service Report, published in TOI of Nov. 20, 99
As a retired General Manager of the Railways and
an active railwayman from 1940 till today, I highly appreciate your calling
upon leading public/private industries“ to make greater use of the railways
freight carrying capacity and investing in railway infrastructure.”
There are certainly some railway sectors, like new
rolling stock, replacement of overage track, new technology signalling and
safety projects, which need urgent investments. There are, however, some
important railway assets, like big marshalling yards and almost all steam
locomotives workshops, which have become redundant and are lying almost idle or
heavily under-utilised. While on one hand existing workshops, still called only
mechanical workshops are lying mostly idle expansion and new investments
continue to be made in other workshops, called electrical, civil and signal
workshops.
For a railwayman today all workshops
are Railway Workshops and must be utilised fully before any new investment is
made anywhere else.
Your decision “that the task force
recently constituted by the ministry to identify areas for private sector
participation will be expanded to give adequate representation to public
(probably the reporter has missed out the words “and private”) sector
undertakings dealing with the railways.” It will be my privilege to help this
task force to achieve its objective, if they so desire.
To start with, it is strongly recommended that the
Task Force takes up the study of the best and biggest workshop JAMALPUR, which
at one time was humming with the highly efficient output of 13,000 men. And
today, not even 30% of its original fixed assets and skilled technical human
resources are being utilised!
Another unique feature of this
workshop Jamalpur is that by its side a small technical school started in 1888
has now developed into a sprawling international standard engineering
institution producing Mechanical/Electrical Railway engineers, since 1927. This
Institute, too, is considerably under utilised and its full potential for
development of Human Resources for Indian Railways , other Railways in Asia,
and Indian Industry, public and private, is not being fully exploited.
May I request you to spare a little
of your time to grant me an interview during which I can place before you some
more proposals , based obviously on my personal knowledge, observations and
experience of railway working during the lastfifty years or so, mainly with a
view to make our Railways safer and profitable !
A line in reply will be highly
appreciated.
Yours faithfully
L.R.Gosain ’40
…I read the morning newspaper in
total peace and at leisure.
…Enhanced the feeling of peace and leisure by sipping a hot cup of the
best tea from the eastern hills while reading the paper.
…I got into
whatever clothes that caught my fancy on that particular day.
…Played my
favourite FM music programme in the background.
…And so on.
Crash! My idyllic world came
to an abrupt end a few months back.
Peace, quiet, leisure, idyllic - now alien words, whose spelling I have
got right only by using SpellCheck in my Word programme.
No, readers, there hasn’tbeen a
flood or earthquake or cyclone, of which there have been plenty in the last few
months. The cause of my sudden change
in fortune has been the fact that my wife decided to give up her teaching job
and began to stay at home and reverted to being a full-time house-wife.
Not that I have anything against
house-wives. They have their roles and
functions. Many advantages too. Reminds me of my first posting at Rajkot as
AME way back in 1972. The railway house
allotted to me came along with a family inthe outhouse. The lady of the outhouse met me on the first
day itself and being a novice at the game I asked her what she would do. She replied that she would do whatever the ghar
ki aurat (or house-wife) did. Needless
to say I had no difficulty continuing with her in the out-house. The point I’m trying to make is that at that
stage in life I was not married and thus needed the services of the lady of the
outhouse. After marriage, such services
by the outhouse types can be dispensed with.
If the outhouse inhabitants are used at all, they are used by the
house-wife and not by you.
Coming back to the immediate
problem. While house-wives are Ok on
week-ends or in the evenings, too much of a good thing can lead to
difficulties. With my wife doing a
school teaching job for the last two decades, I had got used to certain
comforts which resulted directly out of her being a working woman. For instance, schools have the horrifying
tendency to open at unearthly hours.
Thus, the good teacher left home at least an hour before I did. And, that gave me the pleasure of being by
myself when I got ready for facing the bad world of the railways. Now, this peace is missing. The better half wants full-time attention
all the time you are at home. I have
now perfected the art of skim reading morning papers. While being fond of music, the type she likes is quite different
from the type I normally listen to - so, bye bye to FM radio. After I have fully dressed and am ready to
step out, she finds that the colour of my gray shirt is too dark for my graying
hair or that my socks don’t match my tie.
Any tea after the morning one in bed is a no no.
So, now you understand my
predicament.
The problem does not end
there. In the past, the good old
teaching days, since she spent a major part of the day outside, she had quite a
bit to do in the evenings. I was left
to my own devises pretty often. Those
were the days…. Now, she completes all
chores during the day itself while I am at office and is available full time to
give me attention when I’m at home. My
evening Discovery Channel viewing has gone in the same direction as the morning
radio FM, to name just one problem that has arisen.
But that’s not all. My wife happened to be a counselor when at
school. She’s actually good at it. She enjoys doing it. All her compulsions were fully satisfied
when a school-full of children going astray due to the doings of their
misdirected parents was at her beck and call.
Now, her only victim is the hubby.
I am analysed every dayand even if I sneeze, the intensity and type of
sneeze leads to conclusions that can often be incriminating. So, I have to keep very quiet and not open
my mouth. My friends will tell you that
I seem to have lost my voice.
My only advice to all with working
wives is that you ensure that you retire before your wife does. On the other side of the coin, female Sams
with working husbands, of course, are too young to be able to answer the
question as to what working husbands should do!! Apart from being young, all working husbands till date have been
Sams.
P.S.: After reading the manuscript of the above, Ed SAM was heard to say,
“Does Ma’m read SAM?”
I
heard with great dismay that IRIMEE has tied up with a local Engineering
College for a degree to be awarded to the SCAs passing out. This, I presume,
will in effect mean that SCAs will have to follow the curriculum imposed by the
college.
I
want to give some of my experiences I have had in the non-railway world with my
Jamalpur teaching and training.
When
we joined Jamalpur in 1949, it was a little known place and the SCA scheme was
not even well known in the Railways let alone the business or Govt.
organisations. We had a very difficult time explaining to anyone (including
departments in the Indian Railways other than Mechanical Dept.) who or what we
were.
I
think this continued till the end of the 60’s after which thanks to the
illustrious Principals and the outstanding performance of SCAs in all spheres,
that the SCA scheme of Jamalpur started getting known and, to some extent,
acknowledged.
Today
all this is history and IRIMEE and the SCAs have come to be recognised as a
force to reckon with. The anecdotes recounted below will illustrate what I
mean.
Late
last year I was on the way to acquire a public limited company quoted in the
stock exchange. As per SEBI regulations I had to fill up a form which amongst
other things required my qualification. There were two very senior reputed
persons of the business world sitting withme helping me fill up the form. When
I was about to fill in M.I.Mech they said just write Jamalpur and nothing else.
I was somewhat taken aback but they assured me that Jamalpur is so well known
that only the name will explain all.When the notification came out in the
papers and to the shareholders, I found it was written that I was a Graduate
Mech. engineer from the Rly. College of Engg., Jamalpur.
The
next surprise came to me when I had gone to the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur a
few days ago on one of myregular visits. One of the monks whom I knew over the
last 10 years suddenly came to me and said that I knew you were in the Railways
but you never told me that you were from Jamalpur? I asked him what was so
great about Jamalpur that I should specially tell him.He said that he had heard
from both from Rly. and non- Rly.-men that only the most brilliant of boys get
selected and they come out even more brilliant and have excelled in all spheres
of life!!
Currently
I am the Chairman of the National Backward Class Finance and Development
Corporation- a Govt. of India organisation under the Ministry of Social Justice
( Smt. Maneka Gandhi). I have to interact with a large number of Sr. Govt.
Officers. When they learn that I am from Jamalpur their respect for me goes up.
Today
I feel IRIMEE Jamalpur has come to hold a very high place in its own right and
its needs no crutches to stand on. In fact it will only bring ridicule.
I
would respectfully request the authorities that be, to reconsider their
decision and go back to status quo. If a degree from elsewhere is felt
necessary in place of the M.I.Mech.E. (only for ego satisfaction) I would
suggest going to a reputed foreign university which can be done via satellite
these days. A few years ago I had nearly concluded such a deal for Peerless
Hospital with Canada. As I left Peerless this did not materialise.
Summing
up I would suggest that SCAs should be given training in the traditional stream
and not recourse to taking up degree studies of the local Engg. College. In
time to come distance learning via satellite from a world renowned college
abroad could be introduced, which would really enhance the knowledge and
prestige of both IRIMEE and SCAs. These would also catapult the boys into the
international arena which is the need of the hour.
Vinamra
Mishra ’98
(This is not an original idea. However, the
author has got it from an esteemed member of our community only.)
Talking of the new millennium, you have to
talk of the almighty bug …The Y2K. Intellectuals opine that it is because of
some inadequate data information that makes it an uphill task for the
‘artificial-intelligence’ to make an entry into the new millennium. On the
other hand, the philosophers argue that amidst the phenomenal development of
the machine, the error has come as awarning bell to strive towards an improved
consciousness among the engineers and software designers.
But perceptions and arguments differ from
person to person. I was interested in how the people of our good old Jamalpur
reacted to this. So I went aroundon a survey and came across many people
unaware of this global bug. Interestingly the people came up with unexpected
answers, answers that did befit their position but that did not have any
relevance with the topic in question.
The first pigeon in my cage was a school
going child with a bag, of almost half the size of his small stature. I hastily
put my question across to him,” Do you know something about the biggest problem
facing the world in the new millennium?” He thought for a few seconds and
suddenly the grin on his face vanished into thin air. He said,” Bhaiya, my
teacher is very shrewd. He has given me fifteen chapters to learn in Geography,
overall revision of Maths course and submission of the assignment book just
after the school re-opens. You know whosoever does not do his assignment he
makes them stand on the bench. That is very embarrassing. I don’t think there’s
any problem mightier than that”. “Well, that was it”, I thought. He really had
a difficult job at hand and though it was not exactly the answer I was looking
for, yet I felt that the boy had his own Y2K.
Next was the manager of our local bank, a bank which,
inspite of being a double-room structure, still remains to be the hub of human
activity. I put across the same question and this time the answer didn’t take a
lot of time to come. “Why, there can be no bugs in my bank?”, he retorted back
in a flash, “because there are no computers here”, the reason was quick to
follow. “We still believe that a human brain is more efficient than these
boxes. So we have decided against keeping the computer. And my Strong-Room is
not so weak either, to allow these erratic bugs to get in anytime they like”,
he said pointing towards a depleted door with a even more depleted lock. He
could have gone on to make me understand his point of view, but I thought it
was better to make a speedy exit. Even the manager had got his own Y2K.
I decided to take a rickshaw to go back to Gym and on my
way I thought it would be interesting to test his wits. I asked him the same
question. At first he tried to avoid me but I repeated shamelessly, so he had
to. He said,” Sahib, as you see this rickshaw is a new one. I didn’t have the
adequate money to buy it. So I had to mortgage my small land to the Sahukar.
The time limit that he has given ends this January. I am not able to make out
as to what should be done”. I didn’t feel the need to continue the conversation
with him. Well, the rickshaw-Walla had a pretty justified version of Y2K with
him.