Transition: Loss of a year

Year 1955-56;  Meerut College:

After my Intermediate, I joined Meerut College, Meerut for my B.Sc.( Physics, Maths, Chemistry). I had very good teachers in all the three subjects ( Prof. Tuli in Chemistry,Prof .Mathur in Physics, Prof. Jaggi in  Maths. and others ) It was all smooth. At the end of the year, I found that during examination for my first paper in Chemistry, I could not retrieve any thing from my memory to answer the questions. I was disappointed, then prepared very seriously for the second paper but for no avail.I dropped from the rest of the examination and went home.Lost the year.
It was a case of the loss of effective memory which was very good so far and I always relied on it.
As a corrective measure, I went to BHU - the only university which had final examination at the end of two years. In between were promotional examinations only . It was good opportunity for me to improve my situation. In my childhood, I attended a session on Gayatri Mantra by a saint who gave a few discourses on Gayatri Mantra in our village. He explained the importance of Gayatri Mantra, sound waves created by it and their effect on developing the various faculties of the brain - Memory, understanding, thinking, creativity, imagination etc=the intelligence especially the Memory. In BHU, I concentrated on my studies and Gayatri Mantra.I tested the improvement of memory by appearing for half yearly and annual examinations in the first year, then found that it has gradually improved. Finally, passed my B.Sc. Examination with a good second class good enough to seek my admission to M.Sc.
There was no difference in the life style here in Banaras from Meerut. It was rather more active and diversified with different groups; Religious group with Krishan Vallabh Paliwal, Roshan Lal Khandelwal etc; going visiting temples , going for Ganges bath etc; Prem Narain Agrawal, Victor Jeysellon etc. music concerts etc.Cinema group for going for cinemas; Fun group with Rajendra Prasad Srivastava, Lalit Kumar Srivastava, Bhoj Raj Singh and Kr. Diwakar Vikram Singh etc.
Towards the end of final year, I was demoralized looking at my friends as how seriously , they were studying and how much they were studying, I decided to drop from the examinations for the year and took it lightly. One night, my friend and anti-room mate , Roshan Lal ( from Ghaziabad ) commented about me " If this person passes his examination, then the standard of BHU will go down ". He was right and I took it seriously and reassessed my own situation. I decided to prepare for the exam even just to graduate as what is the guaranty to do better next year. Time was short but with the grace of Lord Shiva ( Baba Vishwanath ) in whom I had and I have tremendous Faith, confidence was more. It was miracle that I regained my memory tremendously , and I passed my Examination with a good second division. I knew fully well that I did not know the subjects very well but did well because my intuition and the help of my memory. Subject like Mathematics also. I scored better than my friends with the help of memory. My friends who were studying harder than me scored less than me.But it was a miracle not my performance. I give credit to Lord Shiva , BHU and Varanasi for my success for the rest of my education and career.
Analysing further, I found that it was mistake in 1953. After my High school, I sought my admission to DAV College, DehraDun. It was one of the finest college during those days especially for science education. Started in a very humble way from a life style of Chandpur- kind of rural settings then to a high class urban life style. In the beginning, it was very much demoralizing among the Hi Fi students from DehraDun known public schools but gradually settled  nicely.
I was living with my room mate, Mr. Satya Prakash Agrawal ( Jwalapur ) , a very good and serious student, in Pooran Ashram- a small hostel on DAV College campus . We two have been doing very well in all subject areas. We were also morally elevated and motivated by our teachers.
Another incident to mention here as it was very important and gave a new direction to the career and life. Initially, I took BIOLOGICAL group combination for my study which I switched over to Mathematics group. Once my grandfather, Shri Har Parasad ji came to visit me and convinced my to change the subject study group for wider choices .
Later in August, came a letter from Shri C.S.Sinha, Principal of Hindu Inter College, Chandpur that I should come to Chandpur to join HIC as he has started Intermediate science programme with very good faculty and facilities. I was attracted to come back and live with my maternal grandmother - Nani and enjoy her love , affection and rest of it. That was the mistake I committed and which changed the whole career and life though I passed the examination based on my memory but gave me very poor foundation for further studies.
Destiny played an important role in the whole affair.Looking back, I see as how I applied to BHU for admission ; the application process, choosing the subjects as Physics, Mathematics and Geology; It was destined to be in Vararnasi- Kashinagri- a place known to our saints and sages for its divine importance and a place of Lord Shiva as Kashi Nath.I was supposed to be here and of course BHU has to be the means for that.These were divine forces which brought me here and their influence, I got my life and career settled.GOD has always taken care of my by its own design. Obtaining both the degrees , B.Sc. and M.Sc. was simply a boon for me for which I was sent here.
Meeting Dr. Raj Nath , Head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics was not an accident but arranged by God. Dr. Raj Nath took care of of every thing for me especially my admission to M.Sc.( Geophysics); Prof. Rathod being my guide for my MS thesis work, and my choosing the topic " Off-shore Prospecting for oil and Gas " -( the topic was very hot at that time; C.B.Officer , one of the experts in the area in USA helped me a lot to provide and arrange a lot and very useful literature on the subject as almost nothing was available in the library; It helped me a lot to work out on my theses)  -were boons for me to decide rest of the things , my immediate career with ONGC and rest of it.; it helped  me to score very high marks to get me first division as well as good job without any difficulty.; Prof Rathod  treated me like his son and taught me for my thesis so thoroughly that it came out to be a master piece. Getting my First Division in M.Sc. was a great surprise to me, it was nothing but a boon and miracle for me.My MS thesis and my first Division helped me seeking my job so easily.Not going to CANADA, University of Western Ontario on the invitation of Prof.E.A. Beck...... my external examiner who was so much impressed by my thesis ,for my Ph.D. program is another example of destiny. If I would have gone to Canada in 1961 what would I have been by now? But it was not destined.
Prof. R.S.RATHOD: For my good luck / fortune joined the Department in the final year of my M.Sc.and to be  my Thesis guide. Prof. Gairola also came only in 1959 to join the Department. He was like a friend; Even Prof. D.P. Ghosh being a close friend of R.K.Sahi was very friendly.

Krishna Kant Singh

A strange story of my friend, K.K.; During my study for B.Sc. in BHU, I had many different kinds of friends, some good for going to restaurants/mess etc ( like Kr. Diwakar Vikram Singh, may be , I will write a seperate story about him ); for music, P.N.Agrawal, Victor Jeysellan; for visiting temples, Krishan Vallabh Paliwal, Roshan Lal Khandelwal, P.N.Agrawal ; etc. etc. but K.K. was a different kind of friend. He was lonely , isolated and reserved to himself. Perhaps, I was the only friend in whom, he could confide and talk about his personal life. He was very handsome, tall and princely like personality.I do not remember as how we became friends ( may be because I was very outgoing socially and used to be friend of any one ). I never had any thing in common with him like any class or hostel etc.I was living in Ruia Hostel while he was in Braucha Hostel.But we were very good friends though met only occasionally.
He told me his personal story at the time of departure after B.Sc.Examination ( he was quite emotional and said that to day he must share his secret with me). He said that he  was a son of a prostitute and he never knew as who his father is? though his mother knew who the father was but never revealed to him.She was moving from Lucknow to Faizabad to Ghazipur etc. according to her convenience, clients and market.She took care of KK very well from the childhood, kept him away from her own environment; sent him to the best schools for the best education as money was not a problem for her. Any way finally, he came for his B.Sc. to BHU in 1956 and passed his B.Sc. in 1958. Before departing from BHU, he came to me and he was very sad about our separation and departure. I gave my address but he told that he does not have one which is permanent but he will keep me in touch with his development and progress in life though , perhaps, will never meet again.
We left the BHU and Banaras to our respective home towns.It is then in September 1958, he wrote me from Calcutta that he has been admitted to Marine Engineering course with the influence of his auntie ( means another prostitute and colleague of his mother working in Calcutta; and those people responsible for his admission are the clients of this woman ). No letter or information for years; lost the contact for several years; then he wrote again that life is getting better and he is getting settled with his very lucrative job and posting in London, U.K.; then again lost the contact and I completely forgot about him as I got busy in my own job and family.
It was December 1976, I was preparing to join UI , Ibadan, Nigeria, one evening while shopping or roaming in Paltan Bazar, DehraDun, some one tapped me at my back. It was KK after 18 years of gap, but we did not loose time and our memory to recognize each other. He told me in brief that he is now posted at DehraDun as Regional Manager, UP.Industrial Corporation after his retirement from marine services ( normally marine services are of short duration because of hardship and nature of those services ).He gave his address of Rajpur Road ( probably, 74 Rajpur Road ) and invited me to visit him, his mother who now lives with him and his family.I visited him and his very happy mother and family; very satisfying for every one. He married this girl in London with his background then. He loves and respects his mother very much and the whole family , his children and wife, they just live like a normal Indian family. No body cares or cared to go into the details of the family background. He told me that that chapter is closed with this a new start. Great. Great mother, worshipful like a DEVI. She did all whatever she could do to bring him up to give a grand and fresh life. DESTINY, otherwise people are lost in the jungle of this nasty world.I left for Nigeria and now again 35 years have passed, no news of him. I hope and wish that he has nicely settled after his final retirement. For me, it is not easy to trace him back again.