Professor M. V. George – a Mentor and a Friend

Professor Manapurathu Verghese George (1928-2019) was among the earliest faculty members of IIT Kanpur, joining the Chemistry Department in 1963, and staying there until he returned to his home state of Kerala in 1988. Professor George never married. But he was the finest father figure and mentor to more students than one can count, including many distinguished alumni, who have retold their stories in this and earlier issues of the Spark.

(L) Getting ready to leave. Prof. MV George and Arvind at IITK. (R) Thomas George and Arvind at Marble Rocks, Jabalpur. Pictures: Thomas George (BT, EE, 1964-69)

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A Conversation with Prof. Hiriyakkanavar Ila

PhD, Chemistry, 1964-68; Professor, Chemistry, 1995-2006

Prof. H Ila (nee' Bhatnagar), Ph.D., FASc, FNA, is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, an INSA-Royal Society visiting scientist, and a Marie Curie Fellow among other distinctions. She has received the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) silver medal (in 2001) and CRSI ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ gold medal (in 2019). Presently she is a Hindustan Lever Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru

Professor Ila was the first woman to get a PhD from IITK, getting her degree in Chemistry in 1968. After academic tenures in Lucknow and Shillong, she returned to Kanpur as a faculty member in 1995 and spent another eleven years on the campus teaching the next generation of students. The Spark team reached out to her to gather her recollections from those early years, and the changes she noticed over time, in the campus.

Spark: Tell us about growing up and your school days. Why did you choose to study Chemistry and come to IIT Kanpur?

I was born in a middle-class educated family from Mathura, UP. My father, the late Ramesh Chandra Bhatnagar (M.Sc., Physics, 1936, Allahabad Univ.) was the first inspiration in my life and sowed the seeds of perseverance and perfectionism in me. Simple living and high thinking was our motto at home.

I was the third sister in a family of five daughters and two sons. In our family, both boys and girls were supposed to be highly educated, and to top the class in every examination. I was encouraged to become a medical doctor. After my high school in 1958 (from the Methodist Girls’ High School, Moradabad, with distinctions) my father was transferred to Gorakhpur where I finished the intermediate in 1960 (from A. D. College), and B.Sc. in 1962, from Gorakhpur University.

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Although we did not need to work very hard to get good grades, my father’s expectations created pressure; sometimes, I felt as if the world would collapse if I stood second in the class!.

In 1962, my father was transferred to Kanpur and I completed my M.Sc. in Chemistry in 1964 from D.A.V. College. Just as I was getting ready to join Allahabad University, the best thing ever, happened in my life. I got admission into the Ph.D. program in Chemistry at I.I.T. Kanpur. A sudden interview call changed everything. Facing stalwarts like Profs. CNR Rao, PT Narasimhan, MV George and MS Muthana, I was really nervous. At first, they were not willing to admit me, since I had not studied Mathematics at the Bachelor’s level. However, I was admitted on Prof. Rao’s suggestion that I be allowed to take an extra ‘Mathematics for Chemists’ course.
And that is how I ended up studying Chemistry at IIT/K.

(Editorial comment: Such was the flexibility at that time, that a competent admissions team could bring in capable students even if the admissions criteria were not exactly met).

Southern Labs, the home of the Chemistry Dept., in Aug 1963. These were among the earliest buildings to be completed, after the workshops, and the first to have proper classrooms. Picture: The Second Batch (1961-66) Golden Jubilee Collection.

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Four Distinguished IITK Professors of Chemistry: (L to R) MV George(Wikipedia), PT Narasimhan (Wikipedia), CNR Rao(Wikipedia) and Animesh Chakravorty(Wikipedia) . All four of them had their labs next to each other in Southern Labs; the first four labs on the left and right, when you entered the building from the library corridor's first floor. Picture: Prof. Irving Rabinowitz, 1964 (from the KIAP collection of Prof. Gio Wiederhold).

Spark: How was the academic culture at IITK. Your thoughts on the freedom to choose classes, the brilliant faculty?

Most of the young faculty at IIT, including Professors Rao, Narasimhan, George, Ranganathan and Chakravorty, were very enthusiastic about building not only our career, but theirs as well, and it is these teachers who created in me a genuine interest and love for Chemistry. The Chemistry faculty was very friendly, allowing students and faculty members to even smoke in class. Graduate seminars were very tough, with a flood of questions, and unless you were well-prepared, they would reduce graduate student speakers to tears

Prof S Ranganathan(Wikipedia) at the Woodward Research Institute in 1965, before joining IITK in 1966

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I used to take a rickshaw from my home to the Rawatpur bus stand, then the 7 AM IIT bus, reach my lab by 7:30 AM. The return trip was the IIT bus at 6.30 PM or sometimes at 8 PM. I never stayed in the (converted type V houses) GH, except for a month, while writing my thesis in 1968. But that was during vacation time, hardly any girls were there.

There were very few women students at that time. Sushma Bhatnagar (now Tewari) (PhD Physics) had joined IITK before me, and was the first girl on campus. There was one young girl in MSc Physics (Indira Kakkar). Kavery Muthana (daughter of Director MS Muthana) was the first BTech student. Dr PK Kelkar’s daughter, Madhura Kelkar was doing her MSc in Physics. Later, Anoop Kichloo joined for PhD in Physics and Taiyaba Siddiqui was a technical assistant in the Chemistry department. Over time, a few more women joined the BTech and PhD program, including Indu Mehrotra, Lakshmi and Lalithambika (Chemistry), and Mani Gargget (Mathematics). Since there were very few girls, they had considerable choice while interacting with male PhD students. Interactions were much like the present day, there were love stories, and there were romances, including relationships between faculty members and students, as well as lots of entertaining incidents.

One thing was very unusual for us. Being from UP, we were, for the first time exposed to PhD. students from other states, especially from ‘south’ India. Travelling to other parts of country was not very common at that time. South Indian students didn’t like the north Indian food in the mess, they were used to ‘rasam, sambhar, idli-dosa’, and sometimes they would go on strike demanding more south-Indian mess food.

Of course some of the south Indian students were very friendly, they would invite me to their homes, where I got to eat, for the first time in my life, ‘dosa, sambhar, and avial’.

Spark: IIT Kanpur received a long line of dignitaries in those days.Prime Ministers, US Ambassadors, Nobel Laureates... Do you have any memories from their visits? How did it feel to be on a campus that was receiving so much national attention?

The first convocation was addressed by President Radhakrishnan in 1965. Mrs. Indira Gandhi visited the IIT campus twice as Prime Minister during our time; we were standing just behind her on her first visit in 1966. Some of us were carrying garlands to welcome her, but at the last minute, we got stopped by security from offering them, which was a big disappointment

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Mrs. Indira Gandhi visits IITK, 1966. Pictures: Sri Gupta (BT, AE, 1962-67)

We were young students, and felt great to be in IITK as all faculty were ’USA returned’. To us, every professor in the Chemistry Dept (Prof CNR, MVG, PTN), was right on the verge of getting the Nobel Prize, and we used to think that we were doing Nobel Prize standard research. The institute was built under the Kanpur Indo-American Program, there were many American faculty, including in Chemistry, and we were getting books, glassware and even chemicals, everything from USA. Getting a post-doc fellowship in USA was pretty easy.

Spark: Tell us about your career. You married a fellow researcher and moved to Shillong, establishing one of the best Chemistry Departments in the country there. Then you returned to IIT Kanpur as a Professor in 1995...

I married Junjappa in 1971, which was another turning point in my life. He too, is an IIT-ian from Kanpur, and was the first post-doctoral researcher in the Chemistry department, working under Prof. M.V. George. Such north-south marriages were not common at that time; it was a conscious decision on my part as a marriage of two professionals. Organic Chemistry has remained the biggest binding force between us throughout our lives. We started our careers as a husband-wife team. Ila-Junjappa is better known in Chemistry circles than Ila or Junjappa. Infact, we have a ‘name reaction’ in organic chemistry, the ’Junjappa-Ila Aromatic Annulation’!

Time passed very quickly. The year 1976–77 brought another turning point in our life when we decided to join North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. My husband first went to Shillong as the founding Head of Department. It was then a bare forest with no research or science culture. After three to four years of hard work, we built one of the best Chemistry departments of the country with a state-of-the-art laboratory, library and instrumentation facilities. Those were the most productive and challenging research years (1980–1990) with the publication of several breakthrough papers in Heterocyclic Chemistry. Despite several geographical disadvantages of Shillong, its scenic beauty and people enriched our lives.

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After spending more than 18 years in Shillong (1977–1995), I returned to IIT Kanpur, my alma mater, as Professor, spending my last eleven wonderful professional years there. A few awards and recognitions came my way, though late in life and after many disappointments. However, at the end of the day, what matters most is whether we enjoyed our journey or not, and my answer is yes. I enjoyed every bit of my life, my passion for research and teaching Organic Chemistry, ‘our husband-wife research team’ our daughter, our friends, my travels abroad and above all, hundreds of our students, who enriched our life.

House 4070, IITK, 1995-2006. Standing at the doorway is Ila’s daughter Deepali Junjappa, who is now an accomplished script writer for movies, serials and web series.,

Spark: How had IIT Kanpur changed from when you had been there as a student? The academic content, facilities, environment, students?>

Prof PK Ghosh was the last faculty member in Chemistry, who was there in the department from when I left IITK (1969) to my return in late 1995. He was HOD, appointed me, and retired after a couple of years. I am very thankful to him. All the other faculty (from 1969) had already retired. I got one of the research labs of Prof George (the other one was being used by Prof RN. Mukherjee). The attendant, Mr. Banarasi Lal was still there from my earlier days. He was a very interesting fellow, as he used to copy Prof George in his dress, speech and mannerisms. Later, he sadly passed away by the time I left.

The new young faculty when I joined at the end of 1995, were also highly qualified. The IITK Chemistry dept was the most famous department in the country and abroad with so many Bhatnagar Awards. After joining IITK in late 1995, I became more exposed and famous and came into the limelight, was accepted in several national committees, and invited to many international conferences. (In NEHU Shillong, we were isolated, no one was visiting us, nor were we travelling to the rest of the country).

Some of the young faculty at IITK, were brilliant, and it was really great working with them. Even today, many established chemists, directors (IISERS etc.) have some connection with IIT Kanpur.

Spark: Do you stay in contact with the faculty and staff from your IIT Kanpur days? Are you still interacting with Professor CNR Rao?

Oh, yes! Being from Kanpur, I am very nostalgic about the IITK campus. I started my research career there in 1964 and retired from there as well (at the end of 2006), although I still continued my research career in JNCASR. I visit IITK at least once a year. Last year, there was a ‘Women in Science Conference’ in the Chemistry department and I was felicitated as ‘the first woman PhD’ from IIT Kanpur.

Although most of the faculty is much younger, we frequently meet in conferences and symposia in India. Profs VK Singh, Javed Iqbal, N Sathyamurthy, V Chandrashekar, TK Chandrasekhar, JN Moorthy, Manas Ghorai, RN Mukherjee, S Sarkar, these people have been very close to me.

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Being felicitated by Director Indranil Manna at the First IITK Women Alumni Convention in 2015. Also visible on the very left in this picture is Dr. Sushma Tewari (PhD Physics), who was the first woman student on campus.

With Dr. Indumati Rao and Bharat Ratna Prof. CNR Rao, JNCASR, Bengaluru, 2013

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Of course, I am still in close contact with Prof CNR Rao and his wife Dr Indumati Rao. Dr. Rao is now 90 years old. He is still very nostalgic about his IITK years (1963-1978). He was the founder of The Jawahar Lal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research (JNCASR Bangalore), where I am an honorary professor since 2010. He was the first president of JNCASR, established on the 100th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru (1989). It is a ‘State of the Art’ institute engaged in very high quality research, and known for its beautiful gardens.

Prof. CNR Rao gave me another opportunity in JNCASR as honorary professor in the New Chemistry Unit (Chemistry Department), gave me a small research lab, 7 PhD students, and supported my research financially. I am very grateful to him for reviving my academic life, and I have not disappointed him. I have worked very hard here, with many research papers. He believed in me. I feel myself blessed to be in this institute, to be in association with him. I feel life has been ‘great’ to me.

Spark: Tell us about your learnings from IITK. Values you learnt there that have stayed with you forever. Your advice to IIT Kanpur students, especially the girls?

I think IIT Kanpur was a unique institute of that time. Other IITs existed (Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras), but none of them were as famous as IITK, especially the Chemistry Dept. I was fortunate to be in the first batch of IITK, where Profs CNR Rao, MV George, PT Narsimhan, and S Rangnathan were my mentors. They taught us to maintain a high standard both in quality of research as well as teaching, doing everything with perfection, maintaining high quality in every endeavor, and at the same time enjoying it. They taught us that research can be very enjoyable. The IITK campus, labs, buildings, the informal relationship between faculty and students, everything will remain in my memory throughout my life.

Advice: Usually in every conference, we end up discussing ‘STEM’, and ‘Women in Science’. We still lag behind. All women’s’ decisions regarding their career depends first on their parents, their siblings, husbands and later, on children. I feel we need many more progressive Indian parents who will allow their daughters to choose their career and do whatever they want. I was very lucky to have a progressive father as well as a progressive husband. Girls, today, should learn to think independently about what they want to do in life and pursue it. I know many young bright women researchers who have given up their careers and live in the glory of their husbands’ achievements.

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A Conversation with Arundhati G Sankar

Arundhati Badrinath attended classes in the Electrical Engineering PhD program at IIT Kanpur from 1965 through 1967 before transferring to the University of Michigan. At U of Michigan, she graduated with a Masters instead of a PhD, supporting family members financially with a job instead of completing the PhD. While at Michigan, she met her future husband N Gowri Sankar. They both worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in Massachusetts. After retiring, they have settled in Wilmington, DE, close to their sons’ family.

Arundhati’s story highlights the adventurous spirit of the Women of IITK who took on the challenges to live on a campus without any designated accommodations. These were the years before the need for a ‘Girls Hostel’ had been conceptualized. The members of the Spark had an interesting conversation with her a few months ago. The transcript of this discussion follows.

Spark: Tell us about yourself. You joined IITK for a PHD in EE. How did you get here?

My undergraduate degree is from Osmania University, Hyderabad. I graduated in 1963, and was the first girl to go to engineering college in Osmania University. After I graduated, Professor Nair, who was the head of the department at Osmania told me, ‘You should go to IISc to do your masters’. I went to IISc, from 1963 to 1965. We were 10 students in our class, six boys and four girls. Professors TRV (TR Viswanathan) and HNB (HN Mahabala) were senior to us at IISc. (By the time we joined IISc, they had already gone to Canada to do their PhD).

As students, we all wanted to go to America. Among the four of us girls, one got admitted to Harvard. One got married to a person who was working in US and came over as a housewife. That left Lakshmi (Prof. Lakshmi Viswanathan, EE Faculty, 1965-78) and me. Lakshmi applied to IITK. She got an assistant lecturer's position and joined in September 1965. I went to back to Osmania University, as a lecturer.

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Lakshmi and I were corresponding. She said, ‘why are you sticking out there? I am bored here, and you are bored there. Why don't you come here? You can also join the PhD program and we'll stay together. And we will have fun’.

‘Okay’, I said, ‘That sounds like a good idea’, so I quit my job at Osmania after just a few months, and I went to Kanpur. I joined in ‘65 December, for the PhD program in Electrical Engineering.

Spark: There was no GH in those days, where did you stay?>

At IITK there was no place to stay. No hostel for girls. Nothing! There was only the guest house, which we now call the Visitors Hostel (VH).

Lakshmi was staying in one of the rooms in the VH as a faculty member. For few days, we stayed there together, I as her friend and she as faculty. Then Lakshmi moved into an apartment, and I stayed with her till she became Mrs. TR Viswanathan, in late 1966. About the same time, in 1966, for the first initial few girls, one of the professor’s quarters was converted into a Girls Hostel. We had a cook. All of us girls stayed in that place. The proper GH came much later

The IITK VH in the mid 1960s. Picture: The Third Batch (1962-67), 35-year Reunion Presentation

Spark: What was life like in those days? Who were you interacting with?

Lakshmi was a faculty member and I was a student and my plan was to pursue PhD.

At that time Lakshmi and I were young women. Other women of our age were married to faculty members. Young bachelors were either faculty (like TRV and HNB, who came to teach at IITK), or students pursuing PhDs

During the daytime, we used to attend the lectures of Mahabala and TRV and say, “My god! What great teachers they are!”

In the evening, everyone would come down to the guest house to socialize. With so many American faculty and staff living on campus, alcohol would always be flowing freely. Lakshmi and I were brought up in a conservative middle-class family. We were told those who drink were not good people and we should not associate with them. It took me a long time to adjust to this beer drinking culture.

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Dr. Mahabala was a great party person. He was a pure vegetarian and never touched a drop of alcohol.But he would make sure everybody was having a good time. He would serve everybody without ever touching anything himself.

Later, after we got an apartment, we were living happily. We had our own gang. We never went to the boys’ hostel or anything. But all the male graduate students from south India and us used to hang out together. Me and Lakshmi were always invited to the professors’ house parties. Not because we were party people. We were invited because we could help them in the kitchen. These professors' wives were about our age or a few years older than us. They needed help. We could speak their language and easily mingle with them. So, we would get invited to help. Often we got upset because it was lot of work and it was not a ‘party’ for us.

The guests would be sitting there and having beer and drinking, and eating all the snacks. And we had to be the semi hostesses. We never got the beer, we were only serving the food.

Spark: Do you remember any of the other girls on the campus?>

Niru Biswas was an undergraduate.She is now in Canada. She was in the 1971 graduating batch. There were a few girls in engineering. I don't remember their names.Dr. Muthana's daughter was also there, she was the first undergrad student but she was not staying at the hostel. She was staying with her parents.

The director's (Dr. PK Kelkar) daughter Madhura Kelkar was also there. She was a PhD student in Physics. She is currently in New Orleans with her husband Sudhir Gopinath.

All the American professors also lived on campus. We were quite free with all of these people. Their kids were younger and Prof. Smullin's daughter was our age and she used to come to visit. And at that time, she would ask me and Lakshmi to go with her to Lucknow, they would get the car and we would go off to Lucknow. And, you know, we had a special status there.

Spark: So you started on the PhD. And then somewhere along the line, Prof. A W Burks seems to have come along...

He was one of the professors there. He was teaching Automata Theory. We all took the course; we all liked it and he liked us. When he was about to leave, he said he wanted to give me a scholarship to come to The University of Michigan. It was a clean fellowship. I didn't have to work. I got $300 a month with tuition paid, it was good money at that time

That was that. I quit my PhD program at IIT Kanpur in 67 December, and came to the University of Michigan.

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Picture shared by Professors H V Sahasrabuddhe and T L Viswanathan

Spark: Tell us about your background. How did you think of going all the way to north India and away from home? Was your family okay with all that?

I was a rebel from the day I was born. I did not want to fit into any role model. Absolutely refused to, even from the time I remember, eight years, or nine years. My mother wanted me to be a doctor or a nurse. Florence Nightingale was her goddess. We had lots of doctors in my family.

But, I didn't want to be a nurse. I was good at math and I was not too good at all those big words, medical words, you know, biological words and all that, Math was much easier for me.

My father said, ‘All I can give you is education. Grab as much as you can and never depend on a man.’ My father also said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ I told him that I wanted to do engineering. Everybody was saying I shouldn't be doing engineering. And, I turned to my father and I said, “Everybody's saying I can't do engineering. I want to do engineering. What do you think?” He said ‘You can do anything you want.’
That was it.

I did what I wanted. My little bit of advice to girls today: do whatever you feel like doing and don't follow the norms. If your gut says something, go for it. Question every norm, and be a good human being. That's very important. The world today is very confusing. It used to be a lot simpler. Too many choices now!

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Starting Out in the Girls’ Hostel

Roli Garg Wendorf (BT, EE, 1971-76, MT, EE, 1979)

When I joined IIT Kanpur in 1971, I thought I was going to be the only woman in a class with 200 boys, a scary prospect! That day, in the Girls’ Hostel mess, someone told me that there was one other girl, Sandhya Deo, as well. I could hardly believe my luck. Somehow it made all the difference to be two instead of one. There was someone to talk to and share with in class.

Mine was the first B.Tech. batch of women to move directly to the brand new Girls’ Hostel, which had been occupied for just 6 months at that point. The hostel had two wings, with a total capacity of 72. In 1971, there were around 30 women living there, all in one wing. The second wing stayed empty for several more years. Eight of us were B.Tech. students in all five years combined (it was a five year program back then). We also had M.Tech. students, two-year M.Sc. students, Ph.D students, including in the social sciences, Central School teachers, and even some women faculty members who preferred to stay in the hostel. All of us had single rooms.

There were many “didis” to support and help when needed, such as when I was up all night with a terrible tooth ache. The rest of the campus environment was not always as supportive. It was good to be able to go back to the hostel and relax when the day was done.I had the good fortune to visit GH again in 2016 when I was on campus for our batch’s 40th reunion. It was fun to spend time with the residents over breakfast one morning and trade stories. The hostel was much larger and one of two, and a third one was under construction. The number of women had increased to 8%-10% of the batch, as opposed to less than 1% in our time. However, it was interesting and surprising how much we could relate to each other’s stories and experiences even though the world had changed so much in other ways.

The days spent at the IIT Kanpur and Girls’ Hostel were a very special time in my life, where I learned a lot and grew a lot. It set me up well to thrive in the future.

About Roli Garg Wendorf:

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Catching Up on GH Memories

Pushpita Mohanty (MSc, Chemistry, 1976-78), Aparna Dar (MSc, Math, 1975-80) and Amrita Tripathi Sheikh (MSc/PhD, Chemistry, 1976-84) outside Aparna’s office in the FB, IITK, Dec 2019.

GH Reunion in Delhi, October 2017. Seated (from left): Vineeta Gupta (BT EE 76-81), Renu Khanna (PhD Phil 75-80), Prabha Sharma (Faculty Math), Rita Pandey (PhD Economics), Anshu Gupta (PhD Physics 87), Geeta Katju (MT EE 78-81). Standing (from left): Anjali Joshi (BT EE 76-81), Nivedita Haran (PhD Phil 77-80 completed in IITD), Basabi Bhaumik (MT/PhD EE 73-78), Ratnamala Chatterjee (PhD Physics 80-85), Amrita Tripathi (MSc/PhD Chem 76-84), Shyama Rath (MSc Physics 86-88), Alika Khare (PhD Physics 88), Anita Tripathy (PhD HSS). Pictures: Amrita Tripathi Sheikh.

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The Online Rural Education Initiative,

Launched by Dr. Ranjit Singh’s Rozi Shiksha Kendra

Vox Populi

An often pondered question by an IITK resident is the direct and indirect influence of the institute on its immediate surroundings. As a part of IITK’s outreach programme and with an aim to positively impact members of the society living in the neighbourhoods surrounding the campus, Rozi Shiksha Kendra (RSK) was established as an institute project to reach out to the nearby villages and contribute towards the employability of rural youth. The Online Rural Education Initiative (OREI) initiative by RSK aims to provide high-quality education in schools in rural areas.

RSK: The Background

UBA meets RSK: COVID-19 as catalyst

Meanwhile, over the past few years at IITK, Prof. Sandeep Sangal, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was leading the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) initiative of the Ministry of Education, GOI, wherein IITK adopted five villages around it and worked on the educational upliftment of school-going children. However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the in-person mode of education, which was when RSK came up with its innovative educational model. In Prof. Sangal’s words, “The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rethink of UBA’s earlier offline teaching approach. Coincidentally, at the same time, we started discussions on RSK.”

RSK came into being in November 2021 with dual objectives: i) to ensure every child’s right to free, high-quality education and ii) to equip youth with the skills needed for dignified livelihoods.

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The OREI Model of Education

The Online Rural Education Initiative (OREI) is a method of teaching via smart classrooms, enabling IITK student volunteers to teach on a smart board and interact via a live camera feed with the school students. Initiated by RSK, the programme, in the words of Mrs. Rita Singh, Project Executive Officer, RSK, is “to ensure high-quality education for everyone – rich or poor, far or near“.For the programme, RSK onboarded two partner schools, one each in Bithoor and Lucknow, and with the aid of IITK tutors, started the initiative.

The Divisional Commissioner inaugurating OREI at Ram Janki Inter College, Bithoor

Currently, each school has two allotted periods daily, during which RSK volunteers teach the students online. The students in classes 9th and 10th are taught mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry, following the NCERT curriculum. Students from IITK volunteer for 2 classes a week and the contribution by PhD candidates can also be counted towards their required teaching duties. OREI today functions with around 30 student volunteers, numerous staff, and some experienced teachers, providing a model to bring high educational quality to schools in rural India.

RSK, in collaboration with Shiksha Sopan, an NGO founded by Prof. HC Verma, a former faculty member at the Department of Physics, IITK, has also developed a series of low-cost scientific experiments that can be easily conducted with minimal resources. Mrs. Rashika Awasthi, a research analyst at RSK, informed us, “We have developed 80 experiments in physics, chemistry and biology with detailed instruction manuals in English and Hindi, suited for live demonstrations in OREI classes”. Such experiments help students understand the concepts much better.

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Dr. HC Verma examining scientific experiments developed by OREI

Prof. Aditya Kelkar (Department of Physics, IIT Kanpur) demonstrating cryogenics to visiting students from Govt High School, Baikunthpur

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Early Success

The students and schools have responded positively to the OREI initiative, leading RSK to increase the frequency of online classes in the schools. While the program benefits students by helping in their learning process, it also provides a medium for IITK students to contribute towards societal development. According to the project in-charge, Mrs. Singh, “Through this programme girls have benefitted immensely, as otherwise typically they are denied access to tutors and coaching. So we are also helping bridge the gender gap.”>

The Road Ahead

In January 2024, the Government of Uttar Pradesh entered into a MoU with IITK to scale up OREI. On this, Prof. Sangal explains, “We have plans to scale up to 10 more schools in addition to the existing two via other partner institutions that are implementing the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), who can provide much-needed offline volunteer support, such as in-person tutorials.” After the enthusiastic response from the students in the current schools, RSK will start tutorials for Class XI students in the science subjects, starting April 1, to prepare the students for the prestigious JEE examinations.

The end goal of OREI, as Mrs. Rita Singh explains, is “to create our very own Khan academy while also providing much-needed live interaction via a tech-enabled and volunteer-driven programme.” She adds, “IITK is the perfect launchpad for this initiative, given its strong volunteering culture, best resource persons for pedagogy and curriculum design, and an invaluable alumni network. It provides an excellent opportunity for students studying at IITK to contribute to nation-building and understand rural society.”

Design By: Vardaan Vig
Written By: Soumyadeep Datta, Ishaan Jain, Utkarsh Agrawal
Originally published: March, 2024

https://voxiitk.com/revolutionizing-rural-education-the-orei-initiative-by-dr-ranjit-singh-rozi-shiksha-kendra-rsk/

Vox Populi is the student media body of IIT Kanpur. We aim to be the voice of the campus community and act as a bridge between faculty, students, alumni, and other stakeholders of IIT Kanpur.

A Vox Populi graphic from 2016. Members of the Spark teams of the 1970s and 1980s might recall the green Olivetti typewriter, which was used to cut the stencils for many cyclostyled issues.

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Campus Architecture

L-20

The largest of the lecture halls with a capacity of 600 students, L-20 opened for classes in 2016. With incoming undergraduate batch sizes of a little over 1,200, classes are split into morning and afternoon sessions. It can be a tight fit at full attendance, with some additional chairs available on the sides

L-20 from the Pandal Ground; the old stage is visible on the left.
Picture: Krishnendu Paul (PhD, Earth Sciences)

A night view of L-20 from the Library Fountains, with Southern Labs on the left.
Picture: Animesh Singh (BT, CE, 2019-23)

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L-20: Interior views. Top: Jiya Yadav (BT, EE, 2019-23); Bottom: Amit Meena (BT, EE, 2021-25)

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The Residence Halls

For the alumni who remember the count up to Hall V, Hall XIV opened in 2023 as a residence hall for Masters students. While the earlier additions (H7-H11) continued in the style of the original Halls, the newer buildings are six-story structures, capable of accommodating up to 700 students. Here are images of the ‘new’ halls, shared by members of the Facebook group This Bit of That IITK.

Hall 9 at sunset, Aman Kumar Singh (BT/MT, CE, 2020-25)

Hall 13 Reflections after the rain, Amit Meena (BT, EE, 2021-25).
Final year BT/BS students live in H-9. H-13 is the home for first year undergrads.

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(L): Hall 10 in the evening, Amit Meena (BT, EE, 2021-25) (R): Hall 14, Aman Kumar Singh (BT/MT, CE, 2020-25).In the current setup, Masters’ and PhD students are living in H-10 and H-11, after spending their first year in H-14.The original PhD hall, H-4 was recently converted to a GH.

A view of Hall 10 from Hall 11 (in the foreground), Shashank Chaudhary (M Design, 2018-20)

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The Academic Area

With Lecture Halls counting up to 20 and a profusion of new buildings, the original academic area is largely saturated. Here are some images from the newer and earlier constructions, clicked around the different nooks and corners.

(L): Acad Area Gate 1, the main entrance in front of the FB, Mohammad Saad (BS-MS, Physics, 2019-24);
(R): Access Ramp to the upper walkway for students with special needs, Amit Meena (BT, EE, 2021-25).

A different perspective on the Library fountains Ansh Jain (BT, CE, 2022-26)

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(L): Around the curve in the Tutorial Block; (R): The view from the foyer of L-19
Pictures: Mohammad Saad (BS-MS, Physics, 2019-24).

The Tutorial Block came up in 1993. It has 22 classrooms, each seating about 50 students, and one larger room for 80. Earlier batches might recall the four rooms on the second floor of Western Lab that served this purpose.

The Diamond Jubilee Academic Centre is the largest building inside the Academic Area. It is home to the Innovation Centre, the Design Dept, several labs, and the TA Workshops. It also includes three lecture rooms, two drawing halls and a computer labs run by the CSE department. Picture: Ansh Jain (2022-26).

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Meanwhile, in L-7…

(In the MUGGA cap is a recognizable 10-pointer from 1977-82). Credit: Raman Bhatia (BT, ME, 1977-82)

Cover Pictures:

Front: Glowing in the mid-day Sun, the Visitors Hostel clicked by Mohammad Saad, April 2024
Back: Renovations underway at the L-5 staircase. Picture: Anshul Roy (BT, BSBE, 2020).

Cover design by Harshita, Outreach Cell, IITK

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