As years
pass, reality slowly turns into vision. What was a daily routine – after a long
passage of time – becomes a story in recollection. That’s time’s chemistry:
with fluid time – days and nights – congealing into reminiscence.
some of my old students – glimpses of my years passed as the Programme Officer (PO) of the National Service Scheme (NSS) unit of my college (R.D.& D.J. College, Munger, Bhagalpur University) flashed on my memory-screen; often asking to be inscribed in words. Once or twice I wrote on my Facebook page short posts of some of the memories of my activities as PO, NSS during 1976-’87, always promising to return someday to a longer, fuller story of my experiences of my extra-curricular activities as an NSS-PO.
So, I
recall here today how it all began with Gandhiji, in his centenary year 1969.
The NSS scheme was launched by the Union govt to mark the Centenary
Celebrations which was to be organized in our college by a committee
constituted for the purpose under my Secretaryship. We drew up a 10-day
celebration programme of daily ‘Prabhat Pheris’, lectures and symposia,
exhibition of Gandhiji’s photos & quotes, poetic and music programmes, etc.
The core principle for the entire 10-days Celebration was ‘absolute
punctuality’.
Every day
programmes were held before or after the teaching hours. But some of the
lectures, symposia, etc were also held during day hours. In the very first
address to students, I’d explained that we shall abide by one single rule
PUNCTUALITY in all our activities. All our programmes were guided strictly under
this principle. They began with clockwork punctuality. We didn’t delay by a
minute even for our invited guests or speakers. Students assembled right on
time. This overriding sense of punctuality had a magical effect on the entire
campus. That was the beginning.
Initially
for a couple of years the NSS/PO was one of my younger colleagues, Prof.Jabir
Husain, but I formally took over as PO in 1976. And the one single hallmark during
my decade-long tenure was absolute punctuality and transparency in the conduct
of the NSS activities.Our NSS unit was allotted an office room in the tutorial
block where I held all my meetings on Sundays for an hour - strictly at 9 am - to
foster a sense of dedication among the volunteers. An attendance register was kept
at the door in which every volunteer who came, had to sign giving the time of
arrival. Coming on Sundays for the meeting, and coming punctually on time were
thus the cardinal principles which manifested the sense of commitment among the
volunteers. The attendance register thus became a measure of commitment to national
service – those who were regular and most punctual were my most committed
volunteers whom I selected on that basis for my NSS Annual Special Camps (SC).
Generally, the numbers in the SCs were 60-70, with about half-a-dozen college staff
members in the management team. In our weekly Sunday meetings there were
motivational lectures or cultural activities in which my college colleagues
also participated. Two of my dedicated companions in these NSS activities were
Prof Milind (Hindi Dept) and Prof. Shamshad Sahar (Urdu Dept, who had also been
my student) who both accompanied us in all our SCs. [I pay my fond tributes
here to both of them who passed away early in life.] In some of my SCs some
other colleagues also joined for short visits. (I shall write about some of
these friendly anecdotes in a sequel to this post.)
During my
decade long tenure as NSS/PO, besides the regular motivational Sunday meetings
in the campus, I held seven SCs in all: four annually between 1976-’79, and
three during 1984-’87 (all held during the X-mas vacation). Besides these Scs,
we also participated in the flood relief programmes of the local administration
and Social Service organizations. One such was PARASEVA with which I was also
closely associated. (A very detailed account of my participation in all such
social service activities held during my stay in Munger – 1960 to 1988 – would not
be of interest here.)
My first
NSS SC was held at Kharagpur, a small sub-divisional town, about 30 kms south
of Munger, famous as a local tourist attraction for its beautiful lake, with
several tribal villages surrounding it. We held three SCs there in 1976, 1977
& 1984 with our Camp always situated in the local High School premises. Close
to the Kharagpur town, on way to the 3-4 km road to the lake, lies a small tribal
village with the poetic name ‘Vanvarsha’ (‘rainy forest’).
Our First Special Camp:1976
Let me
tell you the small story about the inauguration of our first SC in Kharagpur. As
NSS/PO I was in close association with the district administration. We had been
working with our NSS volunteers in the various flood relief programmes
conducted with the district administration and local relief organizations (as
you can see in the photos here). So, I requested the DM (Abhik Ghosh, IAS) to
inaugurate our SC, which had been programmed to be held punctually at 11 am. In
the school premises all preparations for the inauguration had been made by the
students. As we had arrived one day earlier, my volunteers had gone on a survey
of the village Vanvarsha. I had asked them to distribute red NSS printed
tickets among the most poor people in that village and tell them to assemble three
days later at a designated place in the village to receive some free aid
materials like winter clothes, blankets, food-packets, etc given us by Red
Cross for distribution among them.
On the day
of inauguration, at 9 am I phoned the DM’s office, but was told that he was in
a meeting. I immediately asked my students to go, search and bring the poorest
person in that village to perform the inaugural ceremony. Hirriedly some
students had gone and brought a Khadi dhoti and kurta from the market as a gift
to be presented to that poor man who was now to be our chief guest. The
inauguration ceremony was held exactly at 11 am with the garlanding of the
bare-bodied poor untouchable villager, amidst a roar of clappings and
sloganeerings. The poor man came to tears in my embrace while the jubilations resounded
in the hall! This had a highly uplifting impact on the students which remained visible
in the form of a high degree of discipline and motivation throughout the rest
of the days in the camp. Three days later all the Red Cross gift materials were
distributed to the ticket-holder villagers of Vanvarsha in a ceremony held
under a huge bunyan tree at the centre of the village in the presence of our
Principal Acharya Kapil, Dr B G Bose, myself and Shamsad (see photo). I had
always encouraged my students in cultural activities and we always had a team
of musician performers among our volunteers in all our SCs.
After the
conclusion of the SC, we held a small function in a Munger public park to give award
medals and certificates of distinction to some volunteers who had done
exemplary work during the camp. I met the apologetic DM again to grace this
small special event, quite near his official residence in the Fort area, and
this time he arrived on the venue 5 mts before time. This again had a saluatary
effect on my NSS volunteers! I always reminded my students about the value of
time and the habit of truth and integrity, and I did so by not by preaching but
my own practice!
Our Second Special Camp:1977
Our
experiences in our first SC were so positive and encouraging that we held our
second SC (X-mas, 1977) at Vanvarsha again. But this time we had a more
ambitious project. We grouped our students into two, one team (of about 15
boys) for building of a half-built school on that same road going towards the
lake, and the other (of the rest about 50) repairing a ditchy dirt-road going towards the village
Vanvarsha. We have many photos of that second Vanvarsha project. After morning
breakfast at the Camp, we would march to our work-sites singing our anthems –
one of which was written by Shamshad.
कदम-कदम पे साथियों चिराग सौ जलाएंगे
नये सफर के वास्ते डगर नयी बनाएंगे
तरस रही हैं लालियों को गाँव की हथेलियाँ
लहू जिगर का दे के उनमें मेहदियाँ रचाएंगे
खिला चुके कलम से खूब अक्षरों के फूल हम
जमीं की अब पुकार पर कुदाल भी उठायेंगे
चलेंगीं सज के गाँव में ये शहर की जवानियाँ
हलों के साज पर हसीन गीत हम भी गाएंगे
सितम की आंधियाँ हजार जाल फेंकती रहें
दिशा-दिशा में फिर भी एक इंकलाब लाएंगे
The Bhagalpur Akashvani had sent its reporter to prepare
a radio feature on our camp programme which was duly broadcast after the camp. The
walls of the school building were raised to the roof level – the donated bricks
procured from a nearby kiln, and laid with
mud-plaster by our students with appropriate guidance from a local professional
mason. In the other project a 300 metre joining road to the village was
repaired with earth filling in the numerous ditches all along that stretch, the
spades and baskets provided by the villagers.
This second SC proved extremely successful motivationally
for our students, and the students were so inspired by the earnestness and the
discipline of their camp experience that our college NSS unit got praise and
acclamation both in the town and the university circles. In our co-curricular
activities in the various relief camps, we also used to visit nearby villages and
distribute relief materials with the assistance of the district administration
and the local social service organizations.
The photos in this first part of the story are of the
various flood relief initiatives in which our students played key roles, as
well as of the two SCs at Vanvarsha in the X-mas vacations of 1976-’77. In a
second (sequel) part of this story shall be given details of the other local
relief initiatives, along with accounts of those other five SCs (1978-’87) with
the projects undertaken in them. Most of the photos shown
here were taken by Sudhir Gupta (‘Kebu’), our college photographer (who has
also digitized them, though not all of them yet!).
I’m publishing this post for my old students – most of
them now in a grandfather generation – to see these photos of those good old
days and cherish those memories of their good work!
[ The NSS Story-2 to be continued in the next post with more of all relevant photos.]
THe photos above are not in in their proper order, but they show our NSS Unit's activities during the various floor relief programmes held in and around Munger during 1976-78 and our special camp activities in Vanvarsha village (Karagpur, Muger) during our first two special camps.
A part of this story is also told ina a short memoir on our colleague (also my student) Prof. Shamshad Sahar who died shortly after these early days of his participation in our acivities. That memoir can be read on my other blog:
vibhutimurty.blogspot.com
More photos from our other Special Camp activities can be seen in the sequel to this post which can be seen on this very blog by clicking on NEWER POSTS. {I would like all my NSS students to visit these posts & wish those who visit them can inform others who may have participated in these Camps.
These unforgettable memories!
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