(In continuation with the last Post)
2.1.9 Incident B7 creating Conflict of Mind: I was in JEC during the academic year 1972-73. During this period, I used to go home (located in a village called Jikakota, at a distance of 12/13 Km from the Sivasagar town—Image 2.5 given below) during holidays and at times even at the week-ends. Our village was at a distance of around 2 Km from the NH 37. Those days, the road from the NH was an earthen one. During our stay in the village, we very often used to come to the town by buses plying along the NH. On one occasion of this type, I along with one of my younger-brothers (who just completed his education and joined ONGC as a technical assistant). We two were waiting for a bus at the point of intersection of our village road with the NH (Rajabari Tiniali—Image 2.5). While waiting, we saw a beautiful car just crossing us and stopping at a distance. We two approached the car and pleasantly found that one of my class mates of JEC was driving the car with his young wife sitting on his left in the car. My friend stopped at that point on seeing me. We got into the car for the lift up to the town. It took around 15 minutes to reach Sivasagar town. We had a short chat and got down on reaching the town. They were on their journey to Jorhat. This incident has been referred to for a reason. A comment given by my brother (after we got down from my friend’s car)created on me a very strong conflict of mind. By then, my brother came to know that the person giving us the lift was my friend and by then he became a Sub Divisional Officer (now equivalent to Assistant Executive Engineer) in a Public Works Department of Government of Assam and that he got married only a few months back. My brother desperately commented —-“your class mates are growing professionally and enjoying their lives. You are still running after degrees. God knows what you are heading for. I did not react seriously to his comment and simply told him–-I do not bother much about these aspects. I am happy that you are slowly settling down in life and that I am following my path as per my conviction. By saying so to my brother, I closed down the issue. However, the truth is that I had to fight mentally with the reflection caused in my mind, by my brother’s comment for quite some time before I succeeded to settle down with my line of actions. I, then told myself—-I am not running after degrees but it is true that I am thirsty for deeper knowledge and skill in my field of specialisation, for which degrees are one of the accepted measures in the modern society.
2.1.10 Incident B8 creating Conflict of Mind: On completion of the academic year of 1972—73, I resumed my last leg of research in August, 1973 on leave without pay, as per earlier schedule. By the end of last part 1974, all the experimental works as per planning were completed. Simultaneously, theoretical formulations based on finite element analysis of the infilling wall (in the frame—both steel and reinforce concrete) and the full programme in the language of Fortran IV was written down.
Those day, IIT, Kharagpur had only an IBM 1130 computing system with limited capacity and speed of computing. The program source had to be generated and maintained on punched cards only. The full program could not be run in that computer, though the same was tested in parts in IBM 1130 for identifying if any error was there in the program. At that time IBM 370 (then supposed to be the fastest computer with the highest capacity in India) was in IIT, Madras. My institute booked a time of 4 minutes in this computer for running my full program. Accordingly, I proceeded to IIT, Madras and my full program was run. I got the results of different parameters, as sought through the program after one and a half minutes out of the total allotted time of 4 minutes were utilised.However, to my utter surprise and disappointment, it was found that the results so obtained were in great variation with those of my experimental investigations. I immediately informed Prof. Mallick Sir and I was advised to come back to Kharagpur. Accordingly, I came back to Kharagpur and had a long discussion with Mallick Sir over the issue of discrepancies shown by the results of my theory over the corresponding experimental results. He was shockingly surprised and commented cooly—Hema Kanta, I cannot help you at this stage in respect of your theoretical analysis, because you have gone so deep into your mathematical formulations that it is beyond my capability to identify the mistake. But I am sure, there is something going wrong with your formulations. Otherwise, the discrepancies of this nature cannot occur. You have to find the mistake on your own. Unless, your experimental results are corroborated by the theoretical ones within the acceptable range of variation, Hema Kanta, you cannot submit your thesis. So, go back to your hostel and try to find the mistake in your mathematical formulations. I am sure, you would be in a position to do so. I still remember the horrible night that day, I had to spend thinking over the consequences to follow in case of my failure to find the mistake/mistakes in my theoretical analysis. Many questions kept on creeping into my mind that night—-what will happen if I do not get my Ph.D.? How shall I show my face to my students? What will happen to my future? Likewise, many more thoughts kept on striking my mind that night. I remember the number of times I had to shed my tears that night. Eventually by next day, I brought myself undercontrol and gathered confidence on myself and came to the conclusion that there would be no mistake in my mathematical formulation—there would be something wrong in some of my program statements. With this belief, I started critically looking into each line of my program-statements from the next day.
I had more than 2000 punched cards for the full program. Each card had one program statement, as shown by the one given in Image 2.3. The program statement gets printed on the top of each one, as evident in the image. For each character of the program statement, there was a definite code for holes getting punched in the punching machine of the type adopted. Normally, the checking of the program by the programmer is done on the basis of the program statement getting printed on the top of each punched card, as evident in Image 2.3. I, too checked my program accordingly. It was, indeed a brainstorming task. I had to go for it under the circumstances. Eventually I did succeed, as briefly stated below.
In my mathematical formulation, there was a variable named as BA(I), I varying from 1 to 30. In the program statement printed in my punched card, I got a confusion as to whether the printed statement contains 1(one) or I (letter I), since it was not distinctly printed out in the
Punched Card. To identify the correct situation, I had to know the coding used for punching 1 (one) and I (letter I). On knowing the correct coding, it was concluded that the program statement in the punched card truly contained 1 (one) against I (the letter). It confirmed the fact that my program run in Madras IIT, in fact used only one value against 30 different values for BA in the generation of 30 simultaneous equations which were to be solved through my computer program. On identification of this error in punching my programs, I got excited and went straight to Mallick Sir. He was also convinced on this identification of the error and advised me to go to IIT, Madras again to run my program after making the due correction for the error.
After a few days, I reached IIT, Madras for the second time with a view to getting my program run within my remaining two and a half minutes of allotted time. This time, I got all the results of my program. To my greatest satisfaction in life, all the results were found to corroborate my experimental values within the acceptable range of variations. I vividly remember that day—a day that turned out to be unforgettable one of the happiest days of my life. Being extremely happy on this turnout of happenings, I decided to stay back in Madras IIT for two days more for enjoying the natural beauty of the campus of that IIT.
The greatest attraction of the natural beauty of the campus of IIT, Madras has always been the huge population of deer. Herds of deer are found in all corners of the campus—-may it be the surroundings of different hostels, in parks, in front of different administrative/academic buildings, forests etc. This community of deer is a protected one by law in the campus. I fully enjoyed this natural beauty for two days and then took my journey back to Kharagpur.
On reaching Kharagpur, I had a long discussion with Mallick Sir on the results of my mathematical analysis. He was so happy as to tell me—-Hema Kanta, excellent—now you go to your village home and enjoy your time with your parents for about 20 to 25 days and then come back, being energised and start writing your thesis. Gladly, I followed his advice and that
evening itself. I proceeded to my home and next day, by evening I reached my home, since those days, air freight was affordable for me with students’ concession. It was only 80 rupees for flying from Kolkata (WB) to Jorhat (the airport nearest to my village in Assam). While remembering my village now, I could not resist the temptation of having a look at my village (as it stands today) through the google map8, as shown in Image 2.5. I am whole-heartedly indebted to this village that provided me with the ideal environment both in and outside my home for my healthy growth at young age. This environment was fundamentally the primary factorgiving me a mind for completing A Journey through the Construction Industry, as enumerated in my book9.
As scheduled, I left my village and resumed the last part of my research works at Kharagpur. I started writing my Ph. D. thesis. My target was set—I had to complete it by end of July, 1975, the month by which the term of 3 years of my leave without pay was to expire. I had enough time at that stage—around eight months to reach the date of expiry of my leave. In fact, I did want to submit my thesis as early as possible for reducing my financial loss being caused by my leave without pay. However, my supervisor warned me by saying—Hema Kanta, you cannot submit before completion of three years, because nobody so far has got a Ph.D. under me before completion of 4 years. Therefore, he went on emphasizing the need for a deeper and deeper analysis of the results of both the experimental and theoretical investigations of my research work. I had to comply with his advice and finally I completed the work of writing the thesis and submitted the same by end of July, 1975. Before, I could get the final release after submission of my thesis, I had to face another conflict of my mind. Mallick Sir called me and stated to me- Hema Kanta, you have done an excellent piece of research work. So, we the members of your Doctoral Committee want to take a risk by sending your thesis to a great external examiner named Prof. R. H. Wood, the then Director of Building Research Station, London. We are not sure if he would agree to examine or not. We want to have a strong measure of research work of our institute through him. But you rest assured, you would get your Ph. D. However, it might get delayed by another 6 months in case he rejects your thesis. Because, in that case, we would have to go for a second external examiner. I got frightened for a moment on hearing him saying so. Because, by then I knew the depth of knowledge of Prof. Wood, since I deeply read some of his books and publications during the periods of my M. Tech. courses and Ph. D. research. However, in response, I simply replied to Mallick— I would not mind it Sir. I will be glad with whatever you decide to do in this respect.
After a few days, I then left IIT, Kharagpur and resumed my duties as a Lecturer (now equivalent to Assistant Professor) in JEC on August 1, 1975. This is how my journey through research work came to an end. I was happy at that stage basically for two primary reasons—(a) By then, all of my brothers and sisters almost settled down after completion of their education to the levels of their capabilities and desire and (b) I too could submit my Ph.D. thesis within the time, as scheduled. I was indeed, then in a happy state of mind.
It was truly then (August, 1975), I started thinking seriously about myself in respect of the normal needs of life such as my marriage, my financial position, material requirements etc. At that stage, I was a bachelor with a nil bank balance even without a life insurance policy, though, by then I completed 10 years since I became an engineering graduate. This presented a very challenging situation for me. I started then fighting this situation cooly and with courage yielded by my performance in the academic front.
When I look back now, I find a lot of reflections of this incident some of which will be dealt with at the end of 2.1.11 Incident B9 Creating Conflict of Mind (To be dealt with in the next Post of this blog)
5.https://in.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrKBQInFPlnDwIACwS7HAx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNzZzMEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=Images+of+ex-hoods+of+CE+Department+of+IIT%2C+
6.https://in.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=punched+card+image&fr=mcafee&type=E211IN1357G0&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcoinsblog.ws%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F01
7.https://in.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrKF0z8xxloowIARvK7HAx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNzZzMEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=Natural+beauty+of+the+Campus+of+IIT%2C+Madras&fr=
8.https://www.google.com/maps/@27.0635433,94.692729,1845m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQzMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
9. A book entitled ‘A Journey through the Construction Industry’ by Dr. H. K. Barua, May, 2025, Excellar Books(Global Press), Kalkota
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