A memorable story of my stay at IIT, Kanpur and work under his guidance
My guru, Dr. G. D. Agrawal lived a sage-like life, I consider it my privilege to have the opportunity to do a PhD with him. The influence of his personality became a constant source of inspiration in my later life.
Gurudas (his name), who was very intelligent and revolutionary from his childhood, did his B.Tech from Roorkee IIT. He was a loyal follower and main promoter of the Ganga Mahasabha Arya Samaj founded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in 1905.
He then completed his MS and PhD from Berkeley University in the US in just four years and joined IIT Kanpur as a Professor. Even so, he always wore white kudta and pajamas. He was batchlor and cooked his food and ate alone at home without any servants even when he was Dean and Head of Dept in IIT, Kanpur.
When he came to our college in 1971 on the occasion of an examination, he met Dr. Subbarao and saw our field projects in sugar factory as well as our laboratory. Influenced by our work in laggon waste treatment he asked me to apply for PhD under QIP scheme.
Later when I went to IIT, Chennai for PhD interview with Prof. Bhalba Kelkar, he interviewed me. At that time, despite the hot weather, he forbade the servant to put on fan. He said that no fan is required in India,when we sweat, our body gets cooled cold.
Within two days after I took my admission to IIT, Kanpur, I was convinced of his courage and outspokenness. The director of IIT, Dr. Jagdish Lal welcomed the new students and stressed the importance of environmental protection. Then Agrawal stood up and said whatever the director said about environment was wrong, we were taken aback in surprise. He then pt forth his strong conviction about the meaning of environment preservation.
He dealt with his students harshly in old teaching pattern. We were afraid of him. He did not tolerate unpreparedness and indiscipline. He used to teach the subject of air pollution blended with his views with reference to Indian conditions. He did lab testing in lab himself. Even outside client water and wastewater samples he tested by himself without help of assistants. This was not so for other professors, who relied of testing by lab staff. Unlike other professors, he did not mix with the students at all, as he felt students should not have friend previleges.
Although I lived there with my family for three years, he never came to my house. Friendly behavior with students did not fit into his principle. Even then, we had a lot of respect for him as compared to other teachers due to his crarity of concepts and honesty. There was fear also about him. Hence while going to him, we had to prepare properly. He permitted students to meet him any time without prior permission, but scrutinized the student work with strict expectations.
I received harsh treatment from him in the first year. I showed him my draft proposal for my thesis and when he saw the scratching of words in in the first line, he got angry and threw away my paper. He told me why you are writing without thinking and then changing words. I returned scared and felt sorry. It was all new to me. At Walchand College, I was treated like friend by Dr. Subba Rao. Here, however, I had encountered Jamadagni. But then I got used to his nature and did not do such mistakes.
Knowing that he did a PhD on water purification, I wanted to do a PhD in that subject because our Sangli group lacked this branch. Hence, each time I took a proposal on water purification he would not approve and ask me to take other subject.His expectation was that I should do research on wastewater related to the sugar industry as I had experience in that field and he wanted to use it in UP. But I also was adamant in choosing topic. Finally, he agreed to my water topic and sent me to study water treatment projects of Dr. S. V. Patwardhan in Roorkee University. Dr. Patwardhan had developed horizontal and multimedia filtration plants. I chose dual media filtration as topic and Dr. Agrawal approved it suggesting to use Indian bituminous coal instead of imported anthracite coal as media.
Our respect for him grew more when we realized that he was praising us while talking to outsiders, despite his harsh treatment of me and his students. He was never satisfied ( or showed like that), expecting more work. Because of them, I got into the habit of constantly working.
To be continued ---
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