By: Ganesh Saili
‘With 99% cut-offs in colleges, the pressure is maddening,’ said the late Avadesh Kaushal, founder of RLEK. ‘We should learn to appreciate those who tried but failed! You know the ones who fall off only to get back on the horse!’
Fitting the bill was Mauger Monk, a teacher in the Mussoorie Seminary in 1840. He was in the fledging hill station from 1840 to 1849 and the place was in her teens. He failed at everything he turned his hand to: be it soldier, or trader, or hotelier. And that’s exactly why his account is so fascinating. Every time he failed, he got up and tried again. For life is only measured from where you have clawed your way back, that is what makes for fascinating tales of graduating from the College of Hard Hits or the University of Life.
Success stories oftener than not take a predictable path, for the road to riches is paved with the bones of those who helped you get there. You use them and discard them, in the same way that a climber kicks out the lowers rungs of a ladder used to get to the top. Of course Monk’s efforts were thwarted by those who had struck deep roots in the hill station. His letters home were not meant for publication. They paint a real picture of those early days.
Looking back, when I finished school almost the entire class of St George’s College made it into the IITs. Those days, if you did not become an engineer, you perished. Much as I dreaded it, I too woke up one fine morning at the Pantnagar Agricultural University, hemmed in by the tall elephant grass in the Terai, set in the middle of a 16000-acre farm. Phoolbagh is classical Jim Corbett territory and whilst I was there, one could still hear of the occasional man-eating tiger lurking around. In retrospect, my stint there wasn’t too bad. I learnt to use colloquial language; I learnt to milk a cow; rear chickens and even achieve a three-point-hitch on a tractor.
‘Don’t count on your fingers!’ Dalbir Singh Rawat, the Mathematics wizard yelled shattering my daydreams. ‘What’s that slide-rule for – scratching your back?’
I continued to slide down the slippery slope of Calculus to fall flat on my face. At the end of it, I think the university was relieved to see me go.
‘Don’t bother seeing me off!’ I protested. ‘I know my way.’
‘No problem,’ they mocked. ‘The pleasure is ours.’
began on a spur above the
Library area.
Pic courtesy: Nilanjana
Singh Roy
Oh! How kind they were to me! They even helped shove my hold-all and tin-trunk on to the bus. I must say it was a cold homecoming, though it wasn’t the end of the world. Starting afresh, I went on to finish college.
Around the time, the legend of Aunty began to do the rounds. As a fifty-something year old, she was appearing for her High School examination for the twentieth time with the same result – they always forgot to print her roll number.
‘Her answer-book was so neat,’ an old teacher remembers. ‘She would copy the questions one at a time and having finished, she would start doing that all over again.’
As the years rolled by, dread replaced anticipation as she approached the Mussoorie Girls’ Inter College examination hall one more time.
‘Stingy, those chaps at the U. P. Board!’ opines her neighbour. ‘If you were to total her examination fees, it would entitle her to an honoris causa high school certificate.’
Lest we forget, she also had legendary knitting skills.
‘She would make me a pullover during the exams when I was a child,’ affectionately recalls Dolly, the Head Clerk’s daughter. ‘I can never forget her generosity, when years later she (while still reappearing for her exams) made one for my daughter!’
Nothing fazed her. Though she never did finish class ten. Instead she used all her grit and determination to educate her children and to see them go off into the wide world where they made a mark for themselves.
After all, success and failure are the two sides of a coin. If you fail, try again and fail better.
Ganesh Saili born and home-grown in the hills belongs to those select few whose words are illustrated by their own pictures. Author of two dozen books, some translated into twenty languages, his work has found recognition worldwide.
