There
are great influences that shape your life. There are obviously negative
influences and positive too; but as you go on the wrong side of thirties, you
start appreciating, more than ever, the influence of the institutions on your life.
I
realised this at a very conscious level when I read ‘Chitale Master’ written by
PL Deshpande. Teachers have great influence in our life. My children blindly
accepted whatever their teacher said. Now my grand-daughter does the same.
Although this phase in life lasts for a brief period, and by the time you are
ready to pass out of your school, you learn to question your teacher on many
things, sanity returns when you are in your twenties, more so when you reach
late twenties, and when you marry and raise family, you acknowledge openly what a great influence the teachers always had on your life.
Looking
back, my school days in Chembur High School, I would say that the school has
done a unique job of developing some young minds. There were students, some
much senior and some junior to me, who went on to earn a name for themselves. Among
them were Kumar Ketkar [a Padmashree recipient] and Sharada Sathe, Jyoti Mistry
Mhapsekar, to name a few, who achieved name and fame.
When
I joined SIES College, I was overawed by the reputation and personality of Prof
Ram Joshi. Later he became Vice Chancellor of Bombay University. Prof Ram Joshi
would address students on the Independence Day and students listened to him
with rapt attention. I could not completely grasp his messages in the speech,
having moved to college from a Marathi Medium school, and I was also partly
inattentive because his oratory made me wonder if I would ever be able to speak
English like him!
Teaching
at SIES College then was also Prof Vinda Karandikar, the great poet and later a
recipient of Jnanapith award, Prof Dr Gogte [who held D Sc which also meant we
had more respect for him than any PhD!].
While
you are not taught by all such great men, they create a learning atmosphere and
contribute to the institution’s immense influence on you.
I
later joined Bombay Labour Institute, later named Maharashtra Institute of Labour
Studies and yet again as Late Narayan Meghaji Lokhande Maharashtra Institute of
Labour Studies which should qualify as the longest name of an institution in a book of records. This institution was set up in 1947 on the initiative of Gulzarilal
Nanda. It has given some great professionals in the field of Industrial
Relations and Human Resource Management to the industry.
The
positive impact of the earlier Professors like Dr BR Rairikar, Dr Mrs SA
Vaidya, Dr Bhir on the minds of such eminent professionals was unmistakable. When
Dr Mrs SA Vaidya presented me a copy of the booklet she published at the age of
eighty-two, I was speechless, and I touched her feet in reverence. She was an
inspiration to me even at that age!! But for my alma mater, Bombay Labour
Institute, I would never had such a great and positive influence in my life.
While
at studying at Bombay Labour Institute, I was also aware of great names in Tata
Institute of Social Sciences. Dr Mrs Suma Chitnis, a Professor there, was our
neighbour, she later became VC of SNDT University. Dr Panakkal and Dr Mrs
Sindhu Panakkal were known well to my parents. Dr Punekar and Dr Gore were held
in deep respect by us students then. And not just students, but even faculty in
TISS have always talked so highly of Dr KG Desai.
There
is something peculiar about institutions. Even those who do not teach you also
seem to shape your mind, your character.
These
institutions have been neglected. LNMLMILS is a subject of criminal neglect by
the Government of Maharashtra. Basic facilities are not provided, less said the
better about the appointment of teaching staff and professors. When sometime ago, the Labour
Secretary aired her view that she intends to close the institute, many protested. Looking back, we should have demanded more from her.
And
now it is the turn of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who has given many great
HR professionals and social activists, Medha Patkar among them, to us. TISS has
done pioneering work in social sciences and in the process has created some
great personalities.
TISS,
the news report says, does not have money to pay salaries and pension of its
staff because UGC and the HRD Ministry of Government of India are not releasing
funds! If this continues, researchers and academicians will be left with no
choice but to move away from TISS. The HRD Ministry will kill a great
institution just as Government of Maharashtra has reduced a great institution
to little more than a building.
The
alumni,whose lives have been transformed by both these institutes, LNMLMILS and TISS, consider this neglect as criminal
offence.
Are
you listening Mr Devendra Fadanvis and Ms Smriti Irani?
Vivek