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अपने लिए जिए तो क्या जिए…

When in college, Amta Prasad developed keen interests in fields not pertaining to academia. He came into personal touch with great and well known Jai Prakash Narayan of the JP Movement. He was also regarded very highly by the professors of BCE, Patna. He made friends for life time there. Friends… who accompanied him from the college to the crematory.

Since the college fees were Rs 10 higher than his School fees, and his scholarship hadn’t increased, his sisters had to drop out from school. His money could only fund the fees of his brothers. That was quite a setback for him and he started saving every penny. I remember him telling that he would travel from Harding Park to College, on foot. But, his enthusiasm for movies also did not die. When Mughal-e-Azam was released in back in 1960, theatres in Patna had not been equipped to show the Movie. So, when it was to be released finally in 1963, Amta Prasad watched the First Day First Show of it, and he was very proud of the fact. He had to stand in tahe queue a day prior to the opening of Box Office, stay in the queue for the entire night, sleep there. He had spent around 16 hours in that queue, at the 5^th position, to watch that movie (there were more that 100 people behind him). More than anything else this incident talks about his will power and grit.

Well, when it was time to graduate and get the degree of B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering he missed the Gold Medal just by 2 marks. He was not disappointed about this, nor had he ever been crazy about marks. But, getting a Gold Medal would have meant a direct placement at the Fertilizer Factory at Sindri, Bihar…the most coveted job at that time. Thankfully he didn’t get the required marks as the Factory got into ruins in the 1990’s. He had his own destiny. His job hunt started. 1968 was not the time when Indian youth could find jobs and earn livelihood easily. His scholarships stopped. He had no income. And his family was heavily reliant on the money sent by him. He got selected in the Indian Navy, Engineering Corps as Sub-Lieutenant. But, his father was opposed to the idea of him joining the Armed Forces. He had to refrain from joining.

Then came an opportunity that could have changed his destiny and could have written his name in History of India. He cleared the written examination for the post of Junior Research Scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and was called for the interview. By that time 6 months had passed since he had left college and his scholarships had stopped. His only formal trouser had torn near the knee and he had to get stitched (ruffued). Also, his shoes had given way and he wore chappals to the interview. All other candidates who were present there started making a mockery of him, as they were neatly dressed with ties and blazers. He was unperturbed by all this. He was confident about his knowledge, and he knew only that would sail him through. And that’s what happened. The interview panel was completely satisfied by his answers. He actually answered all the questions. None of them even looked at his chappals. He was given the results then and there and he was on cloud 9 after that. But soon his dreams were crumbled under peer family pressure. He was given a No-go by his father as Trombay would be too far off from his homelands Bihar and would cause problems. Back to square one. His struggle to find a job continued till in 1969, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru decided the location of Asia’s biggest steel plant to be at Bokaro. He was the 514^th Engineer to go on payrolls of Bokaro Steel Plant, with a whopping salary of Rs 500 per month (Yes! Indeed Rs 500 was a lot in those times, he was able to buy a Lambretta with his first salary). Soon his friends followed him there.

He gave 36 years of his life altruistically to the plant, right from its construction phase to the phase where the plant was making profits of Rs 700 Crores. In these 36 years he acquired 2 more engineering degrees through correspondence from the college of BIT, Sindri in the disciplines of Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering. He became popular in the entire plants as an encyclopaedia of Mechanical Engineering and Plant Maintenance. He was recognized by the Indian Government for carrying out all of his official work in Hindi (nobody else in the plant wrote all his reports in Hindi and English and could sign in Hindi). He was also dreaded by Hindi and English teachers of the school where his daughters went for schooling, as he would fire the Teachers left and right for teaching wrongly or committing any grammatical mistakes. He was promoted to the ranks of General Manager (Mechanical Maintenance), Coke Ovens and By Product Plant, Bokaro Steel Plant. He was awarded the ‘Metallurgist of The Year-2002’ award by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Kolkata Chapter for his resurrection of Battery Gates of BSL and saving a whopping amount of Rs 5 Crores. He took a Voluntary Retirement from the Services in the year 2005 to rest and lead a retired life. But, that life did not lure him much and soon after, he joined Bhushan Steels as Vice President, Operations in the year 2006. He was handed over the charge of setting up a 1 Million Tonne capacity plant in Orissa. But his ailing health did not allow him to continue and he had to return to base, after which he lead a normal retired life.

As soon as he got the job in SAIL, in 1969 the pride of that small family in the village of Bhagar, started soaring to new heights. There were actually queues outside his house of the people who had come with marriage proposals. But his father was also a very balanced man. He chose a perfect bride for him, Saraswati – who came into the family as an incarnation of Goddess Saraswati. Even though she was the only daughter of a very wealthy Zamindaar she adapted to the small household impeccably and supported the family ever since.

Amta Prasad had the responsibility of getting his 2 sisters married (one had got already married by the time he got his Job) and finishing the education of his 3 kid brothers (the eldest one after him being 15 years younger to him). His own family also had started. He had 2 daughters and a son to look after. But, he always said I have 8 children. He looked after his siblings equally well. It was his inspiration, motivation and guidance that all his ‘kids’ did amazingly well in academia and have now made his family one of the very influential families of Bihar. Amta Prasad used to say that, I am doing a job of an engineer; I do not want any of my kids to do the same kind of job. So, all his kids followed his instructions. His eldest Brother completed his engineering from RIT, Jamshedpur and is now an SDO (Chief Engineer), Irrigation Department, Government of Bihar. His next brother topped the forest examinations and is now, DFO, Research and Development, Government of Bihar. His youngest brother runs a publication house and is an editor of a Competitive Examinations Magazine ‘Spardha’. His eldest daughter cleared the Civil Services Examination was Dy. Collector, Bokaro. His youngest daughter became a fashion designer was the Manager of Textile Section at a very big Export House in Delhi. His son was altogether a different story, and it would be better if we talk of him later.

He was not just an inspiration for his family, but many of the sons of the soil of Tahsil Siswan idolised him. He touched the lives of many. He would give strive for jobs of all the needy. I do not have a count of how many got jobs in the steel plant because of him. He was once almost suspended, for keeping the son of his father’s Man Friday into his BSL allotted quarters and building him a house in the premises. He even impersonated for one of his friends, on his repeated request, urge and need in a Government Examination, but did not let his friend join it, as he thought this would not help him. Amta Prasad instead got him a job through his contacts and on the basis of his friend’s merit. He went to jail when Jaiprakash Narayan gave a call of ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ after Emergency in 1976. He led this campaign in Bokaro.

When his daughter was preparing for the Civil Services examination, he developed keen interest in subjects of History and Geography. Within a time span of 1 year he had mastered India’s Ancient and Medieval History and Indian Geography. He then, started exploring the world of Humanities. And within a short span of time, except for the knowledge of operating a computer he knew almost everything. He started being known as ‘The Complete – Walking and Talking Encyclopaedia’. One of his juniors at the steel plant, who was also one of his favourites, used to seem very frightened in front of him. He later explained that its only the fear of uttering something wrong in front of him and losing the place he has. The amount of respect he generated for himself, everywhere he went was fabulous. He led by example. He never chewed Paan even, so the question of consuming any other form of intoxication never arose. In fact, except for the undying thirst for knowledge and his penchant for perfection, he had no other bad habits or flaws.

He had an amazing ability to correlate Science with Literature, Philosophy and Humanities. He used to explain lessons of Science by quoting Ramayan to his kids. He was so well known for his mastery over languages, that kids of his friends and kids of the neighbourhood would quite often come over to his place for their language assignments, preparation of speeches for debates or quite simply to ask for some good quotes. His letters to the editors of news papers of various publishing houses, were almost a regular feature.

He was also very saintly. He did not believe in Materialistic Pleasures of the world. He invested in them, only for the needs of his family. He would always be seen around in the simplest, yet smartest of attires. He just had a fascination for shoes, probably because he was tormented a lot for them. He would also make sure that his kids get to understand the cost of every single penny. His son, being the youngest of the lot and who although had seen quite a lot of the bad days of the family, had started going astray. He took notice of it and remedied it in a fashion that brought him, well, quite back on track.

…to be continued

P.S.: The next part would be a conclusion.

Filed under: Commemoration, Famous, Great, Inspiration, People Tagged: | Greatness, In loving memory of, Rememberance