(Prof. Dilip Kr Baruah, the 'grand-daddy of quizzing in the Northeast' in a candid conversation with Shalim and Bhrigu.)
Sir lets us into his childhood. He was born in Sipajhar in Darrang district to Swarnalata and Satyanath Baruah. “My father was a government employee and we had to move from place to place due to his transfers”, he says. “Finally, he was posted to Shillong. So, after attending primary school for hardly one month, I was admitted into class 3 at the Shillong Government High School at Maukhar as a private student. I began attending regular classes at the school from class 4 onwards. Mr. Pugh, a retired British officer was the headmaster of the school. He died when I was still at school and I remember vividly that evening when all the students went to the cemetery near Garrison grounds to pay our last respects to Mr. Pugh.
“Some of the teachers I remember from school were Tarun Choudhury who taught us Assamese, Sukhdev Nath, Rajanikanta Sarma who later on joined Cotton Collegiate School, Keteki Ranjan Deb who was very good at Mathematics, and Rev Manners who taught English.
“One incident I remember form my school days was the Refinery Movement started by Dulal Baruah, a government servant. We, the students of the Government High school took out a procession from Maukhar upto the Raj Bhawan. Bihu was another delightful experience. We used to build mejis not of hay but of fallen pine leaves. We also walked all around Bishnupur, Laban and Oakland singing husori. We made it a point to visit Gyanada Kakoti, the Assamese film actor and the then chief minister Bishnu Ram Medhi at his residence at Polo Grounds.
“The environment of Shillong was very good for a growing boy like me. We were spirited and unafraid. With a few Khasi and Bengali friends, we used to roam all over Shillong. We also held matches in the fields nearby. In our team, we had cricketers like Debo Baruah, a medium pacer and Dr Sunil Kr Baruah who is now the curator of Nehru stadium.
Prof. Barua passed his matriculation from Shillong Government School in the year 1957 and joined St Anthony’s College, Shillong as an Intermediate of Arts student. He narrates the interesting tale behind what he calls an ‘uncommon liking’ for St. Anthony’s. “My uncle was in Shillong at that time. He used to take me to the Polo Grounds to watch football matches. I was impressed by the goalkeeper of St Anthony’s, a boy named Anthony. The impression was so strong that when I had become a matriculate, I didn’t consult anybody and straightaway filled up the admission form of St Anthony’s. My father gave his consent and I joined the college. We had nice teachers there. In English, we had Father Kenny and George Gilbert Swell who later became the Deputy speaker, Lok Sabha. Dr R. S. Lyngdoh, who taught History later, became the first speaker of the Meghalaya legislative Assembly. Other teachers included Sunil Chakroverty who taught us political science, the Bhattacharjee brothers who taught logic, D. D. Saikia of economics, Biren Talukdar who took Assamese and so on.
“At that time, we had the Hills and Plains festival. Tribes from the NEFA, Lushai hills and other hills of undivided Assam used to take part in the festival held at Garrison grounds. I also remember attending the session of the Assam Sahitya Sabha presided over by Surjya Kumar Bhuyan. We used to walk a lot those days regardless of the weather. A group of us used to cross the hills to Smit village to watch Nongkrem dance and to upper Shillong to visit the Shillong Peak. My friends included Pitambar Deori, Ramchandra Joshie and others who were with me right from school to college. Peter Marbaniang was another good friend of mine. Those were my sunny days.”
We ask sir about the cultural scene in Shillong at that time.
“Well, I did not notice any cultural conflict. We used to attend all the Khasi festivals. Holi festival used to be observed every year and everyone used to take part in the festivities. At the Cultural Centre at Bishnupur bhaonas were staged regularly. In the Debo Kumar Das Memorial Hall (which still exists in a dilapidated condition), famous dancers like Kalwant Singh, Dilip Chowdhury and Krishnamurti Hazarika used to perform. The Uday Shankar troupe also came over there. Besides, Bhupen Hazarika also performed at this hall. At school, Sukhdev Nath, our teacher used to conduct the Lachit day.There was the Shillong Kala Parishad at Laban. Rudra Baruah was an active member. He performed a lot of programmes at the Debo Kumar Memorial Hall and was an integral member of the cultural scenario of Shillong.
“Durga puja was observed with great festivity. At the Laban Naamghar, we had performances from drummers of Moruwa. There were a lot of puja pandals for example, the puja at Rilbong where Rabindranath Thakur used to live for sometime. Then, there was the Sarbajanin Puja at Riyasamthiah, Bishnupur Nepali Puja, Polo ground puja and a lot more. The major puja pandals still exist. The only problem is that most of us have migrated from Shillong. So, there are not many people to keep the traditions going. In one sense, you can call me a refugee”, he laughs
Prof. Barua joined Cotton College to his graduation in Economics in 1959.
“The principal was Prof. Harish Goswami. Our teachers included Asraf Ali who later on became the DPI, Assam, Ikramuddin Saikia, H. N. Das who later became the Chief Secretary, Ram Kumar Das, Nagen Sarma and Dhiren Sarma. In English, we had Mahendra Bora, Navakanta Barua, the great poet, Basanta Kumar Barua, Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah, Kamaleswar Sarma, Upendranath Sarma and others. I cannot forget Tarinikanta Bhattacharjee of English who was very witty. In Assamese, we had Upen Lahkar, Atul Chandra Hazarika, Ram Mal Thakuria, Hemanta Kumar Sarma. I remember N. N. Acharjee who took history.
“My classmates at college included Madan Prasad Bezbaruah who later joined the IAS, Pradip Mahanta who joined the IPS, Bhuban Baruah, Nirupama Phukan who retired from Guwahati Commerce College, Darpa Bora, Dilip Kakati and Prabhat Ranjan Bhattacharjee who lives in Tripura. He was the registrar of Assam University. Mamoni Raisom Goswami was also with us. There were students from other states of the North-East too, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram etc”.
After Cotton College, sir moved to Delhi University to do his masters in Economics.
“We were taught by a galaxy of teachers there”, he reminisces. “Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagawati (now an international trade expert at Columbia University), H. K. Manmohan Singh, K. N. Raj, Padma Desai and A. N. Agarwal who has authored books on Indian Economy. Delhi University had a healthy practice of inviting guest lecturers. I was privileged to attend classes taken by Joan Robinson, Milton Fredman, Ichimura, I. G. Patel (the first Asian director of the London School Of Economics), and many more.
“We had debates at the Vivekananda Hall of The Delhi School of Economics. Montek Singh Ahluwalia was a good debater of those days. I took part in a few debates and won some prizes too. I still have the book, ‘Society’ by Maciver which I had won as a prize”.
We ask sir about Delhi in the early 60s. “Well, it was as busy as it is now. An amusing incident happened on my first Sunday at DU. I had come out for a walk. I was new and did not know the city very well. So, whenever I turned a corner, I looked back to check. I turned around one corner, then another and then another and then I got lost. To top it, I managed to catch the wrong bus, got off at the next stoppage, changed the bus and when I finally reached my hostel the lunch time was over. I missed my first Sunday lunch.
“I had good friends like Dharam Pal who later on became the Principal of Shivaji College. Ram Kishen Verma was a very good friend too. He even invited me to his marriage in Bahadurgarh, a village near Delhi”.
We ask sir about the other Assamese people based in Delhi at that time.
“There were many of us. I remember accompanying Dr. Hiren Gohain who was then in the faculty of English at K. M. College to a film festival. Bhaben Baruah, Lalit Baruah who later joined the Indian Adsministrative Services, Tabu Taid, Bani Sinha who became the head of IIM, Kharagpur, Darpa Bora, my friend at Cotton College and many others were there. I was quite at home at Delhi and I still feel the same about the city. It is a cleaner and much better organized place now.
“We also used to visit the MPs, like Hem Barua. I also attended the session of the Lok Sabha where my old teacher G. G. Swell made his debut speech, a very impressing one.We had the Assamese Students Association apart from the Assam Association which used to hold picnics, talks and meetings from time to time.
“Another very interesting part of my student life at Delhi was the library work. The Ratan Tata Library of the Delhi School of Economics used to open at 9 AM. We had to be there at 8:30 and join a long queue. But that is not all. Books and articles used to be booked by the hour. Library work was very necessary at that time. We also used to hold coffee house discussions. It was a very stimulating academic experience”.
On November 17, 1966, sir joined Cotton College in the Faculty of Economics.
“I remember walking into the office of Md. Nurul Islam, the Principal with my appointment letter. Rajanikanta Devasharma and Rajanikanta Chakrovorty were also present in the room. The Economics department was on tour at that time. Rajanikanta Devasharma gave me an invaluable piece of advice that I still treasure. He said, “Since the Economics department is on tour, you can use the free time to prepare for your classes.” I immediately began going through books and making notes. I worked so hard that my grandmother, with whom I was staying, remarked, “He is studying so much now, I guess he didn’t study at college at all.”
“We had only four teachers in the Economics department. It was a very hectic schedule. I had to take four to five classes per day at one time. But everything was so well co-ordinated that we did not have any problem. Not a single class was missed.
“I was a class 2 teacher up to 1971 and from then on, in the class 1 service in Assam Education Service. I joined all the events from literary events to cultural events, debating, quizzing etc. Quizzing started in 1966 and has been an unending story ever since. In the early seventies, I along with Gauri Deka of Education department was the Teacher-in-charge of the team sent to Nagaon to take part in the inter-college sports meet. Then, I became the teacher-in-charge of social service and then of debating for a number of years. We had good debaters among our students including Ananda Bhowmick, Krishna Siddhantha, Rupa Phene who is the Managing Director of CRISIL, India, Iftikar Ali Ahmed etc. Among our politicians, we had Ripun Bora, Pradyut Bordoloi, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bhubaneswar Klaita, Bharat Narah, Kirip Chaliha and many more. In 1979, we started the Manik Chandra Baruah Debating Competition. Among quizzers, we had Bishnu Gogoi who was a topper from Assam Engineering College”.
In 1984, Prof. Barua got associated with the Assam Administrative Staff College. “I started taking classes at the after the college hours. In 1989, H. N. Das sir asked me to join the Administrative College and I joined as the Joint Director. In that capacity, I went over to London to the Royal Institute of Public Administration and took training in Management of Training (MoT). In 1992, I rejoined Cotton College but my association with the Administration Staff College still continues. In 2000, I took over as Principal, Cotton College and retired as Principal, Haflong College in 2001”.
After retirement, sir was a member of the 2nd Assam State Finance Commission and State level study group of Administrative Reforms, Government of India which conducted a study on contrasting districts in Assam, Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. “The former Education Commissioner, R. K. Baruah and I were given the responsibility in Assam”, he says. Sir is also in the guest faculty of Guwahati University, Assam Administrative Staff College, and Indian Institute of Bank Management. “In fact, I find that I am now busier than I was before. I like meeting students”, he laughs. “But, I am basically a very lazy person. I have in mind certain things, certain writings related to Economics and general topics”. Sir has authored books for the Higher Secondary level and Degree level books in Assamese. I have also authored ‘Quizzically Yours’, a book on Economics and a book on general studies for competitive examinations. I have a desire to author more books but I keep pushing them down to tomorrow”.
Finally about quizzing, the one event which sir has pioneered in the North-East. “It was one of those programmes at Cotton College. I had with me Prabin Gogoi, Dilip Kakati and Pabindranath Dutta (the younger brother of Birendranath Dutta) who took the initiative. Later, Amarjyoti Choudhury, Robin Kalita, Pratul Baruah and other quiz enthusiasts joined me. At one point of time, I used to conduct three to four quizzes every month. In fact, whenever Amarjyoti and I came out together, people guessed that we were going to hold a quiz. 1n 1984, there was the Doordarshan Quiz. Dr Sangeeta Saikia, the daughter of Bhabendranath Saikia was the scorer.
Sir shares with us his views on quiz, “Many people criticize that quiz gives only fragmentary knowledge. I don’t agree with this view. Quiz is an introduction to knowledge. It opens the doors of knowledge to students. Besides, it prepares them for other things like appearing for interviews, viva examinations etc. Quiz is a very good game in a way because it encourages students to go home and dig out more information by themselves. And nowadays, quiz has branched out to subject-related quizzes. A quizmaster also has a lot to gain from quizzes, especially while framing questions. It requires the patience of a gold miner, the exploration, examination and cross-examination of facts. I myself would not have ventured into so many fields had it not been for quizzing”.
A new breed of quizmasters has emerged in the north east. We ask sir to comment on them. “I can only wish them luck. They are all brilliant. Some of them are doing very good work. I once conducted a quiz at Diphu and met a person named Muruli Das of Dimoria near Khetri in this respect. I think he is deserving of a literary pension. He has authored a lot of books on Karbi culture. But I think they should try and cut a few questions on the art culture, science, painting and classical traditions of India, the North-East and Assam.”
We wind up our conversation with a question on the recent economic crisis aggravated by terrorism. Sir says, “See, I am basically an optimist and I think that one can overcome any problem, be it personal, social or economic. There are ways of overcoming problems. That is why I think the recession will pass. There has been a lot of government intervention in the markets. Terrorism does affect investment by creating fear and uncertainty. Besides, resources are diverted from development to security- related expenditure. But, investors shouldn’t lose faith or panic. This problem will pass.”
With Bhrigu Talukdar
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