Centre for the Study of Developing Societies: My Virtual Home – Part V

I was dealing with several files related to China Report. I didn’t have a proper place to keep those. There was a huge table on which I use to spread the files. One day that table too had to be taken away for more important use. The files and registers were transferred onto the floor. I thought some arrangement would be made to keep those. But nothing happened for several days.

I then wrote a note which started with, ‘We are the files and registers lying on the floor and used by Mr Namboodiri.’ The note was signed by the ‘Files and Registers’ and it was ‘submitted through Mr Namboodiri’.

The note was submitted to Mr Rao, who promptly forwarded it (with a smile) to the Secretary, and a new bureau was purchased for my use within a week. Sometimes you need to catch things the curved way.

It was a couple of years after I joined CSDS that I changed my name from PKJ Namboodiri to PK Jayanthan. Right from my school days I had been called Namboodiri, which was my surname and caste name. In Delhi I was staying with my cousins PKS Namboodiri and PKK Namboodiri. Both were known by their surnames. I wanted a change. Also, PKS always introduced me to his friends as Jayanthan (it would have been absurd to introduce me as [yet another] Namboodiri, wouldn’t it?). It was then that I realized how much I liked being addressed by my name and what I have been missing all these years. And I promptly took out the surname. I also informed the office regarding the change.

I have never worked directly under Prof. Rajni Kothari. But Kothari Saheb was a father figure to everybody in the Centre. When I decided to leave CSDS, I wanted to go and meet him in the Lokayan office. He was an extremely busy person, and I didn’t even know if he would recognise me. Though I had met him several times when he used to visit the Centre, I had never talked to him. I couldn’t even muster the courage of wishing him as much as ‘Good Morning, Sir’. He was such a towering figure.  

But as soon as I entered the room he said, ‘Ah, Jayanthan, come.’

I don’t know if he was ‘warned’ of my visit. When I told him that I was leaving CSDS to join TERI, he wished me all the best. For the first time we shook hands.

When I started working in TERI, the institute was located in the members’ flats in the India International Centre.

One day Dr RK Pachauri, Director, told me, ‘Some people from CSDS are coming for discussions. Don’t you want to go and hide somewhere?’ He asked jokingly.

It is true that I was on leave from CSDS, but everyone knew that I was working with TERI. So? No hiding. I was, however, eager to know who were coming. Later Prof. Rajni Kothari and Dr Ashis Nandy arrived. When they saw me, Dr Nandy immediately said, ‘Ah, Jayanthan is here, we had forgotten that. Where is Dr Pachauri?’  And I proudly accompanied them to Dr Pachauri’s office. 

Even now when I visit the Centre, some pricking feelings overwhelm me. I look at the corners where I used to work from, one of which is lying empty and disused and the other used for keeping filing cabinets. Sometimes I go and see the places where Mr Rao or Mr Bhattacharya used to occupy, or where Mr Khajan Singh had his empire from where he used to prepare the journal copies for mailing and prepared the register with paper cuttings. All the places have since been renovated and changed. There were several people with whom I worked and shared very cordial relations. Some of them are still working or are otherwise associated with the Centre. There are several people who were, or still are, my close friends whom I have not mentioned in this note. Some of them are my own colleagues while some others are Jayasree’s colleagues, and some common. It is only due to the fear of this note becoming quite unwieldy that I am restricting myself from mentioning their names.