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

A few days after I joined, I typed a letter for Dr Ashis Nandy. There was a mistake. As I used to do in DPD, I put ‘xxx’ mark over the mistake and typed the correct version in the margin.

When I handed over the letter to Dr Nandy, he said, ‘Hmm … in the Centre we don’t do such things, okay?’

He was not upset (if he was, he didn’t show it), but was telling me the difference between working in a government office and at the Centre. But I remember for several months after that he dared not give me any work. Later on, when I came to know how particular he was even regarding full stops, commas, and spaces, I realized what a stupid thing was it that I did for him.

Dr RK Srivastava used to be the ultimate solution to all our information needs. Ask him anything, he had the answer. Not only that, he used to explain his response in detail with ample examples. There was no topic under which he could not answer any question. I don’t know if he knows this but in our friends’ circle he was referred to as the ‘walking encyclopedia’ then. I have discussed several things with and learned a lot from him.

Sujit Deb, or Sujit da, as we fondly used to call him, passed away in September 2012 in Kolkata. Sujit da was a carefree character, the come-what-may-I-don’t-bother type. He did not care about the cloths he wore, the food he ate, the chair he sat on, nor the bed he slept on. He was a nice and kind human being, thoroughly down-to-earth. Though he was elder to me, we were close friends. We used to discuss several things, though personal matters were normally avoided. Sujit da never acted busy and was always in a relaxed mood.

I think Bhuvan Chandra was the first colleague who started using an electric typewriter in the Centre. It was charming to watch him working on it. This typewriter had several daisy wheels and Bhuvan used to interchange them when he needed italic or bold faces or entirely different fonts. Bhuvan was very enthusiastic about the novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. According to him, that was the only novel worth reading. He was never tired of harping on the qualities of the book. In fact, it was due to these enthusiastic descriptions and near insistence that I read the book for the first time while in the Centre. And yes, you guessed right, Bhuvan arranged the book for me. 

Some of us – Bharat Singh, Khajan Singh, Rudra Singh, Ravi Raghavan, PKK Namboodiri, MK Riyal, I, and a few others – used to take lunch together. For some time a large table used to be kept outside the store room where we all used to assemble and take lunch. We also used to share each others lunch. But some of us, including me, were, however, exempted from sharing since we were vegetarians and some friends brought food that we were not very keen to share. Bharat Singh passed away a few years ago. He used to call me Punditji, not because I am a knowledgeable person, but because I am a Brahmin. Temple priests are generally called punditjis.

I was using an old Remington typewriter and it was extremely difficult working on that. I wanted a change of typewriter. I put my problem before Mr CRM Rao, who agreed to my request and talked to Ms Ava Khullar, Secretary. She asked me to send her a note explaining why I needed a new typewriter. I prepared an elaborate note and sent to her. After a week or two I received a brand new typewriter. I was very happy and proud. To my surprise, within the next week, three or four more new typewriters were purchased for use by other colleagues! It was like push-starting a vehicle. The initial push-start was very difficult, which I had to do all alone, and then it was a smooth drive for others!