A memorable story of my stay at IIT, Kanpur and research under his guidance -III
Dr. Agrawal used to come to Kanpur Water Works any time and see my work, discuss with the workers and explain their difficulties like their colleague forgetting his professor status.
Although Dr. Agrawal did not like computers, his behavior was like computer basis of on(1) and off(0) ie yes or no. He didn't believe in between adjustments. His opinions were strong. He thought that Reward or Punishment only can change person’s behavior. Hence he did not hesitate to punish. His method of rewarding student was never known to student as he did it in praising the work to others but not in front of student. He used to say that I am a cunning trader but his trading was for the good of his students.
He was well acquainted with the engineers of UP Jal Nigam. He had deliberately invited Dr. R. C. Singh of Delhi IIT who was famous at that time due to his nearness to Sanjay Gandhi and his work on synthetic coagulant aid (which was later criticized to have health effects) His visit gave publicity to my research in UP Jal Nigam. He also arranged visit of Prof. Hudson, an expert in water supply from USA to IIT and for training workshop for Jal Nigam engineers. He visited Kanpur water works and our dual media filter. Hudson's workshop for Jal Nigam Engineers provided guidance on how to make low cost but effective improvements to the water purification system.
I prepared research paper describing augmentation of filters to dual media filters and put the authors names as Dr. Agrawal, Shri. Y. D. Misra and S. V. Ranade in our usual style that was being followed in Walchand College. Dr. Agrawal reversed the order and put my name first. We sent the paper for the First Convention of the Institution of Public Health Engineering to be held in Calcutta. We all went to Calcutta by train with our families. I wanted Shri Mishra to present paper as he was known to all. Shri Mishra had purchased a special suit for presenting the paper. He spent lot of time with me getting technical details.
At the time of presentation he sat near me and started getting tips for presentation and marking in his notes. But when Agrawal learnt that he was going to give a presentation, he stopped him and asked me to go on stage. I wanted to plead for him but could not dare to speak. Silently I got up and went on stage. Everyone liked my presentation as our research topic was novel and with application potential. Luckily I got the first prize for presentation and also got an invitation to accept the award in Delhi next year. I felt sorry for Shri Mishra to loose this opportunity.(Later, of course, Shri Misra also got promotion to Delhi's Waterworks because of this research.)
In all these events, Dr. Agrawal never came to front and always gave credit to his students. He was not interested in self publicity but was particular that students get it.
Let me tell you about my student colleagues and their research topics. My seniors were Shriramalu, D.D. Oza and D. S. Bhargav whereas my batchmates were Manmohan Rao from Bangalore and Dr. Lazer John from Kerala. My friend Shri. Vinay Kane was Elect. Engineer but was doing PhD. in maths. My M. Tech friends from Sangli were D. D. Kutte, and G. N. Kulkarni from Sangli,Shri Madhav Joshi, Sanjay Dhande, Dabke and many others used to come to our house in the evening and for functions. There was Maharashtra mandal in Kanpur and Ranade and Natu families were active and known to us. In front of IIT there was Kanpur Sugar Institute and manr sugar factory technicians from Maharashtra were my friends there. In the last year Dr. Pramod Vitkar came as our neighbor.
There were get to gather functions in IIT Red Rose shopping complex but Dr. Agrawal came occasionally. Other professors were very friendly with students and we used to go for tea together. Naturally Agrawal being absent was the target of criticism, which I had to sustain.
Strike broke out against Director Dr. Muthana, and students started agitation demanding removal of Director. Dr. Agrawal was given the task of controlling the students. He became more unpopular in students due to his strict orders. He lacked negotiating techniques and was firm on his views.
Next year, we went to New Delhi to receive the prize. I had invited my parents for that event in Delhi.
Myself accepting award certificate from Hon'ble Karansingh
I introduced my parents to Dr. Agrawal. To my surprise, he praised me for my work and my parents got delighted but were shy to speak freely with him. Dr. Agrawal then made them speak by his friendly gestures with respect. The award was given by Union Minister Karan Singh and my parents felt very happy. After the function we completed trips to Delhi, Agra, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Allahabad, Kashi and Gaya. However, Agarwal could not meet us later at IIT as he was busy with work.
After completion of PhD I returned back to Sangli and joined college duties in August 1976.
Next year my Ph.D. Viva took place in IIT, Kanpur. Reports of external foreign examiners Pearson and Bauman were favorable. Hence viva was taken in presence of local external examiners Dr. A. G. Bhole from Nagpur and Dr. Datar from Jabalpur. I was awarded PhD.
In 1977, I received his letter before leaving IIT. For the first time, he expressed his sadness in a letter. He had written that associate professors had made it difficult for me to stay here and he is resigning from IIT .
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