dear rakesh
sorry for belated reply , but not forgotten.
i will narrate my recollection bit by bit, so bear with me please.
it was october 1946 when i had put my first step on the then college campas
in pilani.it was the first engineering college to add to the old group such
as banaras univ, jadavpur, poona, karachi ,maclagan(Lahore),and Roorkie (so far i
remember). so it was a big achievement in itself to have gotten admission into an
engineering college.so i was prepared for any hardship that may confront us.
i was given a cubicle in krishna bhawan.the class rooms were scattered all
over the campas and outside. we had to go to birla college in the village for some
classes. some drawing/design classes were held in thatched roofed buildings where
besides students there were some uninvited guests such as pigeons who would
leave some droppings on our drawing sheets . even some dogs would enter the
class rooms unchecked.we had to walk a mile or so to attend some classes at the birla
college in the pilani village.
in the mess it was all vegetarian and in the vegetable catagory we had
yaccuni (kadu and tori) with no salt and pepper. so we used to take our own
masala and ghee to have fried lintels (arhar dal). as i said it was
engineering college we swallowed the bitter pill.the college had no
university so itwas affiliated with agra university for the first 2 years.
what the discouraging thing was that the degree /college was not recognized
by any accriditing institution including institution of engineers.can you
imagine the topmost institute in india (now) had no recognition in 1946.. to
be on the safe side i amongst other students applied for admission to appear
in section A & B of I.E.
to come to pilani from th rail staion chirawa or loharu we had to take the
bus.if bus failed we had to take camel ride to sal through the sandy desert.
so long for now rest in my next.
darshan singh teji