Memories
Reflections from a late entrant |
Professor B Sudhakara Reddy
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400 065, India
Tel: 022-2841 6526 (O); 022-2841 6226(r); Fax: 022 2841 6399;
email: sreddy@igidr.ac.in; URL: www.igidr.ac.in
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“The essence of history does not reside in recorded facts but in the thoughts, emotions, ideas and aspirations of the human beings who have made it. Facts are the outer shell, the crystallisation and materialisation of ideas and emotions."
- Amaury De Reincourt
(From "The Soul of China")
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“Chadavanivadagnundagu
Chadivina sada sadviveka chaturta galugun
Chaduvaga valayaunu janulaku
Chadivinceda naryulodda chaduvumu Tandri”. |
(Those not educated will be unintelligent; educated have knowledge and wisdom; all should aspire for education; my son, study from the (feet of the) learned one).
'Prahlada Charitra' of Mahakavi Potana’s “Maha Bhagavathamu”
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| My grandmother Rukminamma used to recite this poem frequently during my childhood. This is the advice that Hiranyakasapa, a demon, gave his son the pious Prahlada emphasizing the significance of education in one’s life. The gentle advice had sown the seeds and urge in me for higher education, unheard of in the area where I grew up paving the way for a farmer’s son to become a professor at a premier research institute. It is in no small measure due to the education that I received at IISc, more particularly from my teacher and mentor Prof. AKN Reddy who made people contemplate. IISc moulded my character (apart from my grandmother) instilling in me the values and virtues of education. |
| After my post-graduation in Mathematics, I joined as a research associate at the Indian Plywood Industries Research Institute (IPIRI), Bangalore, in 1978. It did not have any appreciable work and hence had plenty of leisure. Being a book worm I visited the main as well as gymkhana libraries at IISc. These had excellent collection of English and Telugu books. I spent most of my evenings there. I came in contact with three musketeers—Mr MV Rayudu (doing his MS and presently the head of Chirra Electronics, Bangalore), Mr.K Rajanikant (doing his PhD and presently the Principal, MSR Institute of Technology, Bangalore) and Mr D Sudhakara Babu (doing his MTech; now a businessman at Bangalore), who later became very close friends. I used to visit their room D-14, named “Sunyasramam”. Serious discussions used to take place here on issues ranging from Naxalbari movement to new wave cinema. They were very active in Telugu Samskritika Samiti activities and used to write articles for the Samiti’s journal “Teluguthota”. They were original pieces with full of satire. Another person with whom I got in touch during this period was Mr K. Sreenivasa Rao (editing the Journal of IISc) who till date remains a friend and guide to whom I always turn to for advice. He widened my reading horizon and introduced me to Alvin Toffler, Khalil Gibran, and famous Telugu critic “Ra Ra”. |
| Mr Rayudu had a vibrant social life and often used to throw informal dinners. He used to organize many parties. He knew everyone and their families, his remarkable memory and interest in people made everyone feel part of the community. He used to narrate many incidents, which were hilarious. One such concerned the visit of Prince Charles to the Institute. Those days Prof. S Dhawan was both IISc director and ISRO chairman. Because of the pressure of a bigger assignment at ISRO he used to spend considerable time there, away from the Institute causing concern among IIScians. So when Prince Charles’s visited the Institute, Rayudu and his friends protested uniquely with banners welcoming both Prof. Dhawan and Prince Charles!
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| There was a group at IISc, in early 1980s, mostly from Tamil Nadu (with Marxist orientation), consisting of Mr.Pannerselvam (ECE, now in Canada), Mr.Duraisamy (ME, now at Coimbatore working in an industry), Mr Michael Joseph (FLS, now a faculty at Chennai), Mr. Rajdurai (Met, now a faculty at Chennai), Mr.Raja (Met, now a faculty at IITB), Mr.Ezhil and Mr.Murugesan (IPC, now faculty at Madurai), Mr. Subramanyam (CHE, presently in Australia), and Dr.Sudheer Kulakarni (Maths, now at IIT Chennai) which used to meet once a week and discuss issues on scientific temper. I became a part of that group. Sometimes the discussions were on books such as Bronski’s The Ascent of Man, Alex Haley’s Roots and Paul de Kruif’s Microbe Hunters. Lectures were arranged every Saturday, and mostly by the Institute faculty. One such lecture by Prof. S Rangarajan (IPC) on the theme Science and Society impressed me a lot. He was popular among the students and colleagues for his commitment to work. Some other well-liked lectures were of Prof. AKN Reddy (nephew of the legendary Telugu writer and educationist Kattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy) and Prof. S Soundranayagam (ICE). Prof. Reddy was easily the best public speaker I have ever heard, and most who heard him agreed with my assessment. From outside the Institute, the memorable lecture was on science and rationality by Mr.Abraham Kovoor, the Sri Lankan rationalist, in which he highlighted various frauds by god men. The scientific temper I had imbibed from him continues to this day and my sons too follow the same path.
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| There was another active group (mostly from OC), consisting of, apart from Mr.Amrita Reddy, Mr.Mani, Mr.Madhusudhana Reddy, Mr.Srinivas, Mr.Murthy, Mr.Suresh Chandra Rao, and Mr.Nageswara Rao (all now settled in US) and Mr.Ranga Rao (IITM) with whom I had interacted widely. We used to go to Majestic area to watch late night movies and return by walk, after midnight!
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| I met Prof. KVN Sarma (Civil Engg), a well-known Telugu writer (his stories such as “Publish or Perish” and “Conference Melas”, are brilliant satires on academia), in 1982. I introduced myself to him during a Telugu Samskritika Samiti programme and told him that I adored his writings. From then on we became close and were like Krishna and Arjuna in Telugu Samiti activities. Along with Prof. KVN Sarma, Prof. Krishna Sarma (then faculty at MSRIT, Bangalore, and a student of KVN) and P. Amrita Reddy (OC) we organized many programmes, invited popular Telugu writers such as Kalipatnam Rama Rao, Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastry, DV Narasaraju and C Narayana Reddy (Krishna Sarma was a great host; despite moving away from Bangalore quite a while ago, memories of many wonderful dinners at his residence linger). Our relationship continues to this day.
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| I first read about Prof. AKN in Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave. Prof. Reddy’s work emphasises the sustainable use of energy, energy security to the poor and deprived, the degradation of environment and the technological solutions for these problems. To achieve this objective he had established ASTRA (Application of Science and Technology to Rural Areas) at the Institute.
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| I was eager to meet Prof. Reddy but was also hesitant. It happened, however, by sheer chance. At the swimming pool I used to see a tall gentleman swimming vigorously. One day, I introduced myself to him. He was Mr.Siddharth Bhatt, son of Professor MV Bhatt (Organic Chemistry). He worked as a scientist at the Central Power Research Institute, a neighbour to IISc, in the field of energy analysis. At our first meeting at his residence he suggested that I associate myself with his research. We worked together, collected information on energy use in agriculture and prepared a research article and sent it to Energy Management for publication. To our satisfaction it was accepted and was published. One day I mentioned to Mr Bhatt of my interest in meeting Prof. AKN; he suggested fixing first an appointment with his secretary Ms Niramala Das (incidentally the mother of noted singer Vasundhara Das) at ASTRA. I introduced myself to Ms Das and requested for an appointment with Prof. Reddy. She had arranged the meeting and I met AKN probably in June 1981 with the article which I had co-authored with Mr Bhatt. He had a glance at it and asked who had collected the data and who had written it. I told him that I had collected the data but the paper was written by Mr Bhatt. I tried to explain my background and limitations in writing research papers. He said “it is not important that you should know good English. You have the inquisitiveness and the drive. You can join as a research associate”. I could not believe my luck!
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| After joining IISc, AKN wanted me to work on fuelwood consumption in Bangalore. I was bewildered! Would a city dweller use fuelwood? Anyway the task was assigned and I had to complete it. I had consulted several people, including the Chief Conservator of Forests, faculty at the Forest Research Institute, Bangalore; they all laughed at the idea. However, a gentleman at Aranya Bhavan, by name Seshagiri Rao, suggested that I visit weighbridges in the city where the incoming material is weighed. I visited all weighbridges in the city and to my surprise found that significant amount of fuelwood was being ferried to Bangalore city (1200 tones per day!). After that there was no looking back! For the next three months, I gathered information on the sources of fuelwood, its transportation modes and distribution pattern. I had tabulated the data and shown it to Prof. AKN. He was pleasantly surprised by the enormity of the data collected and suggested I do a survey on the pattern of utilization. It took six months to complete it. During that period, I visited AKN regularly at his residence (Though from a royal family (of Kolhapur), Mrs Reddy was humble and a generous host who served us food herself and used to treat me as a family member.)
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During interactions Prof. Reddy would guide me how to prepare the tables, analyse the data and draw inferences. He suggested making policy recommendations based on the inferences drawn from the data. He instilled in me the value of caring needed to the vulnerable sections of the society—the rural masses, the poor and the women. He stood outside of the crowd and remained immune from its stifling and mindless conformity. And that is the master image, if there is one, in all of Prof. Reddy’s writings.
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AKN wanted me to write an article on the data I had collected but I had no clue to writing one. He therefore wrote the entire paper titled “Energy in a stratified society: A case study of fuelwood in Bangalore” himself which later became a kind of a classic (and gave me co-authorship too!). He never spoke off the cuff, and always prepared his notes in long hand. The discussions I had with him during this period paved the way for my future professional writings.
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Prof. AKN, impressed by my work and commitment, offered me a permanent position at ASTRA. At that stage I dared to tell him that I wanted to do PhD under his guidance. He agreed to it on the condition that I get admission on my own merit. I could get the research admission in the Department of Management Studies (at that time called the Industrial Management) in 1985 and Prof. Reddy became my research supervisor. The Department was quite small, with a teaching staff of only six and a small number of students.
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Prof. Reddy was not only an outstanding scientist but also a rare human being. He had powerful ability to reveal and challenge hidden assumptions. His observations are true to the man I knew and to his many writings. The questions he posed forced me to stand outside of myself to reconsider my thinking. I had learnt from him how to identify a research problem, how to tackle it and analyse it from different perspectives. When I produced the first draft of my thesis, he was not satisfied. He felt it lacked original contribution. The data and analysis were not enough. He suggested me to develop a mathematical model linking energy use–income relationship in the mode of biological prey–predator relationship. |
I was perplexed by his suggestion and struggled hard to conceptualize it. I turned to my friend Mr T. Srinivas, a research scholar at ECE (now a faculty there). He is an original thinker and despite his enormous knowledge, never wears it. I explained my problem to him; he patiently heard, wrote a couple of equations and explained them to me. I was overjoyed, worked on them and developed a detailed model. When I showed it to Prof. Reddy, he glanced at it and said “the PhD degree is in your pocket”! However, it took more than an year to submit the thesis. Prof. Reddy corrected it over five times (I still cherish the versions corrected by him) He used to argue logically compelling me to clarify and integrate concepts. He always said that his reputation was at stake since the examiner might not know me but knew him and hence it was imperative that the thesis should be free from errors. I wonder how many such rare teachers we can find now. I try to emulate him.
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Another friend worth mentioning is Mr P Balachandra who joined the department in 1986. He is very talented and hard working too but speaks out his mind; he quickly came into the inner circle of AKN. During the initial phase of the famous work DEFENDUS (Development Focused End use oriented electricity scenario for Karnataka) he used to come out with innovative ideas. Initially, I was associated with that work, but somehow AKN did not appreciate diversion from my own research and slowly I was out of the loop. But my association with Mr Balachandra continues to this day and we have done many research studies together and have published several papers jointly. |
Prof. NJ Rao, as Chairman of CEDT, was really helpful in the final stages of my thesis. He made his computer available to me (access to a PC was difficult those days) to edit and print. Later, when he became the chairman of Management Sciences, we had regular interactions on issues pertaining to Technology Management. He extended his wholehearted support when Dr Balachandra and I mooted the idea of conducting a seminar in October 2005 coinciding with the 75th birth anniversary of AKN. It was a huge success and the department gave full cooperation for it. |
I have no count, but I sense a dwindling number of people in the academic world who are unclassifiable. I met two such gems at IISc—Prof. GN Ramachandran (GNR) and Prof. ECG Sudarshan. GN Ramachandran was an outstanding figure in the field of protein structure. His discovery of the triple helical structure of collagen and his analysis of the allowed conformations of proteins through the use of the 'Ramachandran plot' rank among the most outstanding contributions in structural biology. Surprisingly, GNR was known to be afraid of ghosts. Prof. ECG Sudarshan, inventor of takyon, was a rage among students. I met him in 1986 at the IISc guest house. He was very courteous and answered all my queries patiently (some of them very silly too!). Friends from science departments used to tell me about the scientific works of Prof. Shashisekharan and his younger colleague Dr Balaram (the present director). I used to go for walks around 4.00 am and encounter the then Director Prof. CNR Rao going to his lab at that odd hour! |
At IISc, all are treated equally. That is a unique culture. Most faculty follow this in letter and spirit. Many a time I had noticed Prof. Ramaseshan and Prof. Padmanaban, when they were directors, queuing up in the library to get books issued. Another noteworthy aspect is that faculty and students go together for tea/coffee and find out-of-the box solutions to many problems. Yet another custom worth remembering is that of faculty inviting students home for dinners and students reciprocating and inviting faculty and their families for lunch/dinner at the messes. When I got married in 1985, many faculty invited us for special lunch/dinner at their homes. |
Prof. N. Somasehakara guided me during my first year at the Department. Credit in varying degrees goes to Mr Rajabapaiah and Mr.Venkatarami Reddy (ASTRA), Prof. Rama Sarma (BC), Prof. GSR Subba Rao (OC), Prof. VMH Govinda Rao (CHE), Prof. DP Sengupta (EE), Dr PH Prasad and Dr Radha Rama Devi (Health Centre) and Capt. MS Venkatesh (Unit III). With gratitude I remember all of them for their generosity to spare their valuable time for me and for kind support at various times. |
I used to involve myself in various student activities and became the secretary of Gymkhana during 1985–86. We organized many events and the one I remember most was “Kalavahini”, a cultural festival. Dr PH Prasad was its chairman and I was the secretary. It was a one-week event with music programmes, plays, mimicry, etc. But the uniqueness was its multi-lingual nature. On a given day we had a Marathi drama or Telugu light music, or a Tamil skit or Robindra songeet. Two programmes that caught the attention of the viewers were a Tamil play “Silappadikaram” in which Mrs Dharma Rajaraman played the role of Kannagai and stole the hearts of the viewers. Another was the Telugu light music programme (Veena by Mrs NJ Rao, Flute by Mr Subba Rao and vocal, among others by Mrs Vijayalakshmi Sarma and Mrs Lalitha Prasad). |
Although hailing from different states, cultures and language groups, there was a strong bonding among the IIScians. It is still a lovely place to do research and I am greatly indebted to the Institute and the faculty for what they have given me and to my research. I am short of words to express but my heart is overflowing with gratitude when I think of my condition when I entered the Institute and that exists now and think of all the blessings I received there. |
During my ten-year stay at the Institute I got married and was blessed with two sons. Later, I came over to Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, with wife Lalitha and sons Sandeep and Siddharth where I am working as a faculty since 1991. I have been extremely fortunate having IISc as my Alma Mater. I have a godly heritage and have been very fortunate to experience such a period. |
The Institute always beckons and woos me and so have built a house closer to it in Bangalore to live in its shade after my retirement. |
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