A Zealot as a Trainer

I had an interesting tenure of four years from 1998 to 2002 in State Forest Service College, Dehradun as a lecturer where young recruits in forest service were trained. In fact, I was already working as Registrar, Kerala Agriculture University, therefore joining as lecturer appeared to be a comedown to my wife and others who were not familiar with either system. My hair had started greying and I appeared to be a fit mentor for teaching and guiding. Maybe, not by knowledge and experience but at least by looks.

I recall clearly my first day in the training college that still has a beautiful building with a row of old and magnificent Ficus benjamina trees standing like guards between the college and the sprawling football field that turns lush green with every rain. I met four faculty colleagues in Shri Arun Singh Rawat’s room and was surprised by a remark passed smilingly by Ms. Archana Sharma once she gave me a look over after a small chat of introduction, “Different shades of brown.” It was only then that I noticed that I was careless enough to wear almost everything brown from top to bottom- frame of the glasses, pant, shirt, shoes and obviously socks too.

I then called on the Principal of the college, Shri Jarnail Singh, in his chamber who welcomed me warmly. As soon as he came to know about my interest in shayari, he smiled and fished out his own recently written book, Lehren, from his drawer and gifted to me. Later I learnt that he was also invited occasionally for mushayara to recite his ghazals in public.

Among the teaching staff we had one permanent member, Shri Nandi, who taught engineering and survey to the trainees. He wore a muffler nearly all the year round and a monkey cap in winter with most of his face covered. He walked with bow legs and a hunch. Seeing him always in his thick glasses with a dead serious demeanor and a perpetual old bearing, I could never imagine how he might had looked in his younger days.  He was a walking encyclopedia not only of all the former principals and faculty members who came on deputation to the college earlier and had left years back. All body ailments that he had ever suffered in his life- even minor flu and stomach upsets- were recorded in his memory indelibly and he used to justify his eccentric precautions citing those mishaps year wise in vivid details. He had lived in the same house near the college for so many years that I used to wonder that he could probably walk from his residence to office with his eyes blindfolded.

         There was a sports officer, Shri Sukumar, who belonged to Tamilnadu but he could speak Hindi just the way a Tamilian can manage to speak the language bringing comic effect unintentionally by failing to distinguish between genders- a nuance that South Indians cannot grapple with even after spending years in North India. He was a fitness freak and worked on the trainees really hard. On the field and off the field he was a very jolly fellow always exhorting the young trainees for putting in all effort in sports activities. I recall his pet dialogue to the trainees on the field during morning exercises, “जिस स्पीड से डाइनिंग टेबल पर चिकन लेग उठातI है, उसी स्पीड से दौड़ में अपना लेग उठाओ। ”(Lift your leg while running with the same enthusiasm and speed that you show while lifting a chicken leg in the dining hall.)

Shri Sukumar had a black Labrador and I could often see it in college in the evening. After the mandatory sports hour marking the culmination of day’s activities for the trainees, Sukumar used to go for cycling while the fat Labrador, Rambo, followed him as a part of its daily exercise. Once he told me that Rambo was an executive dog and when I looked at him questioningly for more details he informed, “When somebody, even a stranger, comes to my house, my dog is least disturbed and never barks but keeps resting the head on its paws in front of the house with closed eyes in a contented way. Rambo demands to be cared and served food regularly- all the necessary attributes of a high ranking executive!”

          After six months of joining the college I was made the Course Director (CD) for a batch of trainees from Andhra Pradesh and J & K. On my first day of interaction I gave them a pep talk welcoming them to Forest Service and retelling them what I had been told during my probation in an address to our batch by Shri T. N Sheshan, Forest Secretary and later Cabinet Secretary and Chief Election Commissioner. Shri Sheshan had told us in his usual boisterous style that he did not join government service for money because he could had earned much more by running a paan shop if that was his priority. I also shared with the trainees that working in forests is a pleasure. To illustrate my point, I talked about a scene in a Hindi movie, Papiha, directed by Sai Paranjpe. The hero of the film, Anant Nag, is accosted by the heroine who asks him, “Howcome you are going to forest on a holiday?”  The hero replies, “Visiting forests is not just my duty. I love being in forests.”

CD’s job was mainly to arrange and coordinate all activities – classroom teaching, hostel affairs, field exercises, educational trips, examinations, swimming and driving lessons, resource persons- for successful training of two- year duration. The relationship between trainees and CD is an interesting one in the sense that the latter has to be approachable at all times for resolving issues and also to maintain discipline. All sorts of official and personal issues were brought to the CD by the young trainees- many of whom had left their home for the first time.

Just after a month from the commencement of the course the three lady trainees in the batch came to my residence one evening. After the usual exchange of pleasantries, I observed that they wanted to tell me something but were not very comfortable. They were exchanging glances and the two of them were prodding the third one with discreet gestures to talk to me openly. I waited patiently like a Zen master for the cat to be out of the bag though I was keenly aware that my wife was lurking in the background, being more curious than I was about the mission of the all-female delegation.

It was only after overcoming the initial hesitation that the third lady revealed that she was pregnant but did not know about it when she had come to join the course. Considering the hectic physical routine of the course it was evident that she would not be able to cope up with the minimum requirement. She asked me innocently whether she should go back to her husband for delivering the baby. In case she did, she wanted to know as to what would happen to her inter-se seniority in the batch.

I asked her whether it was her first pregnancy to which she replied in the affirmation. I advised her that in that case there was absolutely no doubt that she should drop the course temporarily, deliver the baby in her native place and resume the course after a gap with the junior batch. I informed her that her inter-se seniority would be determined according to state rules and normally she would be placed at the bottom of her batch because she would be the last in the batch to complete the course requirement. I advised her that she should not be unduly perturbed regarding her seniority but safe and healthy child should be given the first priority.

This advice seemed to bring a lot of relief to her and all three ladies returned apparently satisfied though I knew that resuming the course later with an infant would not be an easy task either. I looked at her retreating figure sympathetically knowing fully well how difficult it would be for her to balance her career with her training next year. With that encounter I realized once again with greater conviction that providing a level field for career development for women would always prove to be a mirage. Kudos to all those ladies who do well in various organizations despite all their natural handicaps.

For many trainees it was their first job and their enthusiasm to do well was understandable. I had already put in eleven years of service but I was CD for the first time therefore my enthusiasm as a trainer was also sincere and many times overboard. There was a strict code of uniform for the trainees- one set for morning PT, jogging and evening games and another set for attending classes in the college. For the boys the college uniform was white pants, full sleeve shirts and a tie while for ladies it was white salwaar and white top with a white dupaata. The trainees could wear casual clothes only after college hours or during holidays.

In order to familiarize the trainees with basic forestry, I directed them to prepare seed beds with their own hands. I got them a trolley full of soil and spades so that they could make beds for sowing seeds just like a field laborer would do. I procured seeds of local trees from Forest Research Institute nursery for the trainees to sow in the seed beds after pre-treatment.

It was a sight to see them clad in their whites and ties dangling, sweating copiously, while they used the spades to spread the soil. They must had cursed me profusely and called me names under their breath because historically there was no such tradition in the college in previous years for the trainees to soil their hands. They must had presumed that it was sufficient to learn the theoretical knowledge only and pass the examinations. However, as admitted earlier, I wanted to make them practical forest officers in my fresh zeal of the first time CD.

In every batch a special bond develops over a period of time between CD and trainees. Even years later all trainees would remember their CD even if they forget other faculty members because of the constant interaction over the course duration. One day while I was busy taking a class for senior in-service officers who had come for a refresher course, there was a phone call from my wife to the office complaining about her severe abdomen pain with a request to convey the news to me. (There were no mobiles then.) The news spread in the closely knit office very fast and even before I could reach my house, the lady trainees were already there attending to my wife. They had rushed straight from their class to my residence in the campus without my knowledge. When my neighbor’s wife came to inquire about my wife’s welfare she got mighty impressed by the presence of three ladies moving around in white dress and taking care of the lady of the house. However, she mistook them as nursing staff of the campus hospital and started asking about the nature of my wife’s ailment! The comedy of errors, apparently because of the white uniform, went on for some time till the ladies informed her that they were not the nursing staff but forest service trainees of the college.

      After the first month of the training program, I told Sukumar that all the trainees would be hiking to Mussoorie from Rajpur on the following Sunday with packed lunch. The idea was to familiarize them with the local flora, geology, landscape elements and to make them hardy for the field job. I had done this hike a couple of times in school with my classmates but I was not sure whether I remembered the trekking route. As a measure of abundant precaution I took along another ICFRE scientist, Dr. Harish Sharma, a Doonite who claimed he knew the route as the back of his hand.

On the appointed day we all boarded the institute’s bus and got down at Rajpur to begin our trek with a lot of energy and merriment as it was a big relief from the classroom setting for the trainees. Sukumar was his usual jovial self, cutting jokes and keeping things light while the trainees strained to walk up the steep slope stopping in between at numerous locations when I was pointing out few trees and shrubs to them.

There are many narrow and winding bridle paths used by the locals every day to move from Rajpur to different villages, including the famous Jharipani, en-route to Mussoorie. One should normally reach the destination just by sticking to any one route if one keeps ascending the slope. However, that day we made a wrong turn somewhere and got lost. At one point no paths were seen as we were surrounded by thick bushes all around and were stranded on a slope. There was no option but to crawl on our hands and feet to move ahead but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The thorny bushes sometimes caught our clothes and caused small cuts too. I looked at my ‘guide’ but he had no clue about the way!

The initial fun and frolic that we had started with got evaporated soon. The slow crawl on our hands and feet was not only tiring but frustrating too with no clarity when we would hit the right path. A lady trainee got so tired and fed up that she started weeping when she found herself unable to move under the bushes. It was time for me to get worried as CD because it could become a chain reaction for other two ladies too. I had never experienced such a situation during school trips when the same trek appeared like a cakewalk in those days.

Instead of moving the entire group randomly in search of the right path and direction, I asked everyone to stay put while I moved ahead with three young boys for further exploration. Fortunately, we could locate a local villager after half an hour who guided us properly. We came back to the same spot where we had left our group and to everyone’s relief we came out of the thicket with the path up to Mussoorie clearly in sight. We reached Jharipani where we had a tea break and then climbed to Mussoorie without any more misadventure.

After taking lunch at Mussoorie I announced generously that the return hike to Rajpur was optional. The trainees were given a choice to take the public bus from Mussoorie and get down at Rajpur where the institute’s bus would be still waiting for them to take them back to hostel. I wanted to know as to how many trainees would join me and Dr. Harish Sharma who was anyway going to walk back with me. All the trainees, except for one, played safe and opted for a bus ride to Rajpur. Ultimately, only four of the original party trekked back again to Rajpur where we reached by late evening. I mention this fact specifically to make another point.

  When the two-year course ended in 2001, I decided to have another hike with the trainees to Mussoorie. I was not shy to bite the bullet once again despite the last hiking experience. By this time the drill was known to all- carry packed lunch, board the institute bus, start the trek from Rajpur and climb to Mussoorie. Fortunately, there was absolutely no hassle on this occasion even when we were devoid of the company of the expert ‘guide’, Dr. Harish Sharma, this time.

Shri Sukumar on extreme left, Shri Nandi on extreme right. Author third from left.

All the trainees trekked up to Mussoorie and back to Rajpur with hardly any fatigue. There was another significant difference too. All the young trainees, including the ladies, walked much ahead of me though I prided myself on my own fitness owing to constant outdoor life. I felt happy that even If everything else was discounted in the two- year training program, as trainers we were successful in fulfilling at least one requirement specified by Dr. Dietrich Brandis* to Viceroy of India while recruiting young forest officers for Imperial Forest Service for the British government: such officers should be strong in legs. The physical training given by Sukumar moved up the general fitness of the entire batch by many notches and it would stand them in good stead later in life.

Footnotes

Shri Arun Singh Rawat is presently Director General Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE)

Ms. Archana Sharma went to back to her cadre, Himachal Pradesh, on completion of her deputation tenure.

Dietrich Brandis is considered as the father of scientific forestry in India. While recruiting European forest officers in India for Imperial Forest Service, he had written about the essential requirements of the potential candidates in his dispatch to the Viceroy: young men of sound health, good knowledge of surveying and strong in legs. Interestingly, he never mentioned about the knowledge of forestry as mandatory. The probable reason could be that most of the officers were graduates of French National School of Forestry, Nancy, France, and a degree from that institute guaranteed the knowledge of forestry expected from the officers.