While I was busy with my studies in Bombay, a big change was coming in India. Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel had created new states out of the old native kingdoms, but the existing provinces that the British had created to serve their business purposes had been left untouched (other than being made states from provinces).  Many states had within their boundaries people that spoke multiple languages while some groups speaking the same language were divided among three or four different states.  For example, prior to Independence, the Kanada speaking people where split between the British provinces of Bombay and Madras and the Native Kingdoms of Mysore and Hyderabad.  Even after Mr. Patel began the process of Unification of India, the only things that changed initially where the names and the majority of these types of problems persisted, despite consolidation of many Native Kingdoms into larger states.  So to continue the example, after Independence, the Kanada speaking people were now divided among the states of Bombay, Madras, Mysore and Hyderabad.  A movement that sought to reorganize the states based upon language boundaries began to take hold in 1953.  In response to this growing sentiment, the new government created the “State Reorganization Commission”.  Based upon the commission’s report with language boundaries in mind, new states were created and the old were abolished.  Andhra Pradesh was the first state created in 1955 and slowly other new states emerged.  The last two would be the re-drawn Gujarat State and the new Maharashtra State in 1959.

            I never thought any of this would affect me personally.  However, by the time I passed second year science in June of 1955, the Bombay State government had already begun working on the lingual division.  One of the results was that beginning in 1955, due to limited space, all native speaking Marathi students were admitted into Engineering and Medical Colleges that would be in the soon to be Maharashtra State.  Likewise, native Gujarati speakers were admitted into Engineering and Medical colleges in what would become a part of Gujarat State.  Bombay Engineering College and Medical College would only admit permanent residents of Bombay and language was not a consideration as Bombay was a cosmopolitan area and people spoke multiple languages.  There was one common application form for the eight government engineering colleges (as it was for medical as well); four colleges were in the Marathi speaking area, two in the Gujarati area and two in Bombay city proper that had yet to be determined which state they would be in.  As a native Gujarati speaker (and non-resident of Bombay), I could only be considered for the two in Gujarat, Ahmedabad’s Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering and Lukhdhirji Engineering College in Morvi, Saurashtra (Saurasthra would later become a part of Gujarat).  There were many more students with better grades than me and I was rejected by both.

            Gujarat had two more engineering colleges, one in Baroda and other in Vidyanagar (near Anand), but they were private colleges and one had to apply to each of them separately.  I had to travel to each college to fill out an application and give a short interview, which I did.  The travel and lodging expenses to do so was a financial hardship for my father.  Baroda had a private university, established by an endowment from the late Maharaja Sayajirao Gakikwad, MS Baroda University.  The engineering college, Kalabhavan Engineering College, gave preferences to its own university students, so I could not get admission there either.  At Birla Engineering College in Vidyanagar, a part of Gujarat University, I was put on the waiting list as they too gave preference to their university students for admission.  Within two weeks, I and four other students were told that we would receive conditional admission to Birla Engineering College.  The condition was that we had to study for one year in the associate degree course and pass with a minimum of 60 (First Class) in each class.  If we did so, the following year we would be enrolled in the regular degree course.  We accepted this condition and soon learned that this was their common practice with students from the region that did not receive initial admission.  In this way each year four to five students on the engineering track would be admitted to the associate degree course.

            While I was going though this admission process in the summer of 1955, I was rethinking my decision to pursue engineering and thinking about my other options in life.  There was shortage of pilots in India and I had thought about joining the Air Force.  Even a casual mention of this idea upset my parents so much that I had to drop the idea.  Both of my parents were afraid that flying a plane was very dangerous and that I would be sure to die soon if I became a pilot.  They were so much upset and my mom cried so much that I said good-bye to that dream.  In fact, my father was so much upset that he went to Ramesh bhai and asked him to straighten me out.  Ramesh bhai did come to me and asked me not to upset my family in this way.  Even though the “conditional admission” meant an additional year of study and financial hardship, my parents readily accepted it.  This time around, my father paid for all my school expenses.  Father’s brother-in-law, Keshavlal Fua, invited father to come to Bombay, live with him and work for him in his business.  Fua recognized that my father had a lot of business experience and offered to help him get set up in his own business after a few years of working for him.  He paid him enough so that he could afford to send me to school.  After about two or three years the two of them had a falling out as it became clear that Fua had no intention of helping my father start his own business, he was too valuable to him as an employee.  Father went to Manu Kaka and stayed with him and got a job as an accountant at the Jayanti Metal Plant.

            I was among the last people to get admission, so when I arrived at the university campus in June of 1955; there was no vacancy in the hostel (dorm).  The college and university had both expanded their student capacity but had fallen behind in building the dormitories to accommodate them.  Bipin, my cousin from Vejalpur, had far better grades than I and got gotten admission to the engineering college and also the dormitory.  Dorms rooms were designed for two students per room, but due to shortage three students were assigned to each room.  Until I could find a place of my own, I stayed as Bipin’s guest in Building 28, the fourth member of the room.  Soon I found a few other students like me looking for private accommodations.  Among them were Kishor Maniar and Shirish Desai, both of them from Surat.  They soon found a place about four miles from campus in a village name Karamsad  (the birth place of Sardar Patel.)  I also met two others I new from Kapadvanj, Mahendra Doshi  (who would later marry Santa Foi’s daughter, Sarla) and Ramesh Zaveri of Surat whose mother was from Kapadvanj.  As a child he would visit his mama’s house in Dalalvada every summer and play with us.  Mahendra was in Commerce College and Ramesh was in Science College but neither had a place in the dorm.  Together the three of us went to Karamsad to find a place but were unable to find any housing.  Karamsad was a very dirty village with no sewage or water supply systems (later on we engineering students would plan and design these systems for this village).  On our way back to campus we saw a small house in the middle of some farms close to the campus.  We saw that it was empty and a farmer told us that it belong to a Brahmin widow from Karamsad.  We immediately went back to the village and finally were able to contact the lady and ask if we could rent the house.

            Her first response was to ask what cast and religion we belonged to.  Upon learning that we were Jains, she was willing to discuss it with us.  She wanted to be sure her tenants were vegetarians and also not sudra.  The rent was fixed at sixty rupees per month plus electricity.  The house was small, but large enough for our needs.  Downstairs was a room about 12’ x 20’ with a covered porch in front. There was also a kitchen about 8’ x 8’, a bathroom with just a faucet about 5’ x 5’ and a toilet about 3’ x 3’.  Each of these three rooms had a separate entrance from the covered porch.  An outdoor stairway led to the upper floor that had a 12’x 20’ room above the downstairs main room and a terrace above the kitchen, bath and porch.  The three of us occupied the upper floor and we soon found three other students to share the lower room.  The six of us all shared the kitchen, bath and toilet.  We had at last found a place for our first year.  Next we had to arrange for furniture and we were each on our own.  Birla was forty-five miles from Kapadvanj and I would take the train from Kapadvanj to Anand (with a changeover in Nadiad) and then a bus from Anand to Vidyanagar (about 5 miles).  The entire journey took about three hours.  In this way I brought a mattress, a folding chair and a folding table from Kapadvanj.  I also got a cot from dada in Anghadi, which I brought back on the train from Anghadi to Anand.  I had to assemble the cot myself which was no easy feat!  The four legs screw to the four beams to create the frame and then the pati (a heavy cotton belt of 40’ – 50’) is wrapped around the beams in a very peculiar fashion to create the platform (or box spring type surface) upon which you put the mattress.   I learned this trick of the pati from Fakirchand, one of dada’s servants.

            The course work for our conditional admission was eight subjects: (1) Physics Review, (2) Chemistry Review, (3) Mathematics Review, (4) Surveying and Mapmaking, (5) Engineering Drawings, (6) Construction Materials, (7) Principals of Electricity and (8) Dynamics.  There was also a workshop course (to learn, casting, forging, smithy, carpentry and machining).  Traditionally, the associate degree program admitted students directly from technical high schools after their SSC Exam or students from regular high schools with high grades in science and math immediately following their SSC Exam.  Thus, the five conditional admissions all got credit for the first three subjects since we had two years of college study already completed.  Surveying and Mapmaking and Engineering Drawings are applications of mathematics and Principals of Electricity and Dynamics are advanced and applied physics.  Only Construction Materials was brand new to me, but I found it interesting.  In addition to my studies, I started playing badminton, table tennis and learned to play tennis.  The university also had an outdoor swimming pool and I started learning swimming.  Within a few months I found company to play bridge and every evening we would go for a walk.  The year went by very fast.  We ate at the college mess (dinning hall).  The food was good and cost between 30 to 35 rupees a month.  There were thirteen meals per week, seven lunches and six dinners.  Sunday’s lunch would be a feast or party with farsans and sweets.  The other twelve meals were standard Gujarati food; rotli, vegetables, beans (kathol), dal and rice for lunch and bhakari, vegetables, dal and yogurt for dinner.  We had to manage on our own for breakfast and Sunday dinner.

I also enrolled in the N.C.C. (National Cadet Corps) engineering core.  This is a program similar to R.O.T.C. in America.  Traditionally in India only Kshatriya join the army.  Others would not even think of it.  So if an outsider invaded and defeated the Kshatriyas the rest of the population mostly surrendered to the conquerers.  Only after the Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb’s harassment towards all non-Muslims, other people started to join the armed struggle to protect their religion and beliefs.  During the British rule the army, navy and air force consisted of Sikhs, Muslims, Hindu Kshatriya, some Brahmins and a few Sudras (mostly Marathas).  The native kingdoms also had their own armies.  During the second World War due to the Independence movement most people refused to join the British Army, but armies of native kingdoms did.  Also Mr. Jinnha (founder of Pakistan) took this opportunity to encourage Muslims to join the army.  In the end, the British were able to raise an army of about three million from India and they fought against the Germans in North Africa and Italy and against Japan in Southeast Asia.  A large portion of the army (almost 40%) was Muslim while they made up only about 25% of the population as a whole.  Most of them went to Pakistan after partition.  The remainder of the army was mostly Marathas, Kshatriyas and Sikhs, the rest of India had hardly any contribution. 

The new government decided to eliminate the imbalance and wanted to have people of all states, castes and religions be a part of the national defense forces.  They established the National Cadet Corps in every college in India to familiarize and encourage young people with a career in the army. I personally thought this was very good idea and joined the N.C.C.  The NCC provided all uniforms and paid for expenses related to training.  Each year, we had to go to an army camp near Pune for two weeks in December for actual army field training.  We stayed in tents and had to wake up each morning at 5am.  December is the coldest month in India and Pune is up in the hills so it was quite cold.  We were given as much coffee and tea as we wanted and were issued a large metal stein to drink from.  We would drink as much as we wanted and then wash our faces with the remaining tea to both wash ourselves and stay warm.  Upon joining you had to commit to two years in the program.  If you went on to complete a third year, you would qualify to join the army school of officers training (in the engineering corps).  However, looking at our course work at the start of the third year of the program, I decided to drop out in order to focus on my studies.  Later on the Auxiliary Cadet Corps was introduced in some high schools.  I do not know the present status of either corps.

The only unusual event of the year had to do with my roommate Mr. Pandya.  He came from a village about fifteen miles from the campus and had done his science classes at the same University.   Coming from a very orthodox Brahmin family from rural Gujarat, he had been engaged while in his final year of high school and had married while in his second year of Science College.  Every Saturday afternoon he would leave the campus and go home to his family.  He was too ashamed to let any one know about his marital status.  We were told his parents were old and sick and he had to go home to take care of family affairs.  He was also very studious and never took part in any sports or games.  Mr. Pandya was also very religious and would get up early every morning to do puja and prayer.  Towards the end of year (April or May) we had to submit some project drawings and design documents as part of our course work.  One day Mr. Pandya was in the studio to finish his drawings when a visitor came to our room to see him.  We were having afternoon tea and invited him to join us.  He seemed to be in hurry to see Mr. Pandya and upon inquiry told us that he was Mr. Pandya’s salo (brother-in-law) and that Mrs. Pandya was at the Anand hospital because their son was sick and they had to rush him to hospital.  We went and got him from the studio and sent him on his way to hospital.  Once back from the hospital, he felt very odd and all of our friends and classmates had a hearty laugh at his embarrassment.  We didn’t understand why he had hidden it.

Besides the monthly food fees, the tuition and dorm fees were reasonable at 160 rupees per semester.  Thus, for the ten months of the school year food came to about 400 rupees and fees came to 320 rupees add about 80 rupees a year for transportation and recreation (mostly movies) for a total of 800 rupees per year, which was a hefty sum at the time.  The real financial burden was the books.  Almost all the engineering books came from the USA (McGraw-Hill) or the UK (Macmillin and Sons) and so the price was in dollars or pounds and each book would cost from 100 to 150 rupees each.  Thus eight or nine textbooks would cost more than all the rest of the college expense combined.  Slide rulers (all of which came from Germany) cost from 100 to 200 rupees.  I bought the cheapest one for 105 rupees.  I still have this souvenir (worth three months of my food bill).  Most of us would search for used books and grab them up even if they were in bad shape.  The credit of reducing this financial burden went to two people, our principal, S. B. Junnarkar and a small book publisher, Charotar Book Depot of Anand.  Junnarkar wrote “Theory of Structures” in three parts, one for each year, but no Indian publisher dared to publish it.  They were afraid that it was too much of a financial gamble to try and compete with the foreign publishers.  Finally, Mr. Ramanbhai Patel owner of Charotar Book Depot agreed to take the risk and publish it in July of 1957.  It was an instant success at 30 rupees.  A seasoned and brilliant professor, Junnarkar wrote the book in simple English and in an easy to understand format.  Pretty soon professors from Anand and Baroda also started writing engineering textbooks all of which were published by Charotar Book Depot.  In a few years time, professors from all engineering colleges in India would write their own text books and many publishers would be willing to publish it.  Charotar Book Depot became one of the biggest publishers of technical books in India.  By 1962/63 it was easy to get any technical book at very reasonable price.

In June of 1957 we started the second year of the engineering program.  We now had to decide on a specialty.  I chose civil engineering based on the subjects I liked most, Map Making, Surveying and Structural Theory.  This year my roommates were Ambalal Patel (civil) and Narendra Shah (mechanical), both of whom I knew from the first year classes.  Mahendra and Pandya (both in civil) were in next room, another friend Ramesh Desai was in the third room and finally Kishor Maniar, Shirish Desai and Kanti Patel were in the room next to that.  (Building 19).  Both of my roommates were from Bombay and came from rich families.  They could not even make a cup of tea and so both decided to have breakfast in the cafeteria.  As that was not something that I  could afford to do, I joined Kishor and his roommates for breakfast in their room.  They had a kerosene stove and we made tea and had dry nasta that we brought from home.  Occasionally, we would purchase bread or pastry from  vendors that would come to the dorm.

                                                                                          

By this time, except for Bombay State (present day Gujarat and Maharashtra) and Punjab, the rest of India had been reorganized on the basis of linguist states.  There were many political movements regarding the state issue, socialism, communism, and many other causes in both remaining states (often overlapping making true the old proverb, “If there are two Indians, there are three opinions”), some involving violence.  At our university the state government removed the founder Mr. Bhailalbhai Patel (President of the Choratar Education Society and the four colleges, Engineering, Arts, Commerce and Science that he founded) since he was opposed to the ruling Indian National Congress party.  He was a very popular man and this led to big demonstrations on the campus.  At the same time Mrs. Indira Gandhi (at the time a minister in the Delhi cabinet) came to Anand for an election rally.  The opposition parties and also people who were agitating for a separate Gujarat came together and cordoned off the area staging a boycott against her rally and had the local businesses and schools stage a hartal (strike) against her.  When those trying to attend the rally clashed with the opposition things went out of control with some fighting.  The State Police was harsh and many people were beaten badly.  Since some of the local commuter students were involved the police came to the campus the next day and arrested some of them.  Thus the campus demonstrations regarding Mr. Patel got mixed up with the political rally.  Many of us, myself included, got involved in the movement for a separate Gujarat.  This excitement and agitation went on for a month or so.  In the next election in Gujarat, for the first time the ruling congress party lost many seats and multiple candidates from the opposition parties were elected.  In the course of the next two years, this sentiment will lead to the separate Gujarat and Maharasthra. 

By the time Diwali came around, things were quiet and it was time to concentrate again on studies.  Geology, Steel Design and Concrete Design were the new subjects in addition to the advanced study of the previous year’s subjects.  Except for the morning hour for sports and after dinner evening walk, we did nothing but study and slept for only a few hours each night.  Time went quickly in this way and we appeared in the final exams.  There was another big change; our campus (the four colleges founded by Mr. Patel), which was a part of Gujarat University, in April/May of 1958, became a separate university called Sardar Patel University.  I got average Second Class marks and was happy that the year was over. 

In engineering college the summer vacation was only one month, mid-May to mid-June.  My father had already moved to Bombay at this time and was working for his brother-in-law, Keshavlal, Dhiraj foi’s husband.  He never said anything to me as per his habit, but he told his good friend, Ramniklal Vakil (Raminik kaka), that I had become a communist.  In his thinking, anyone that was non-religious, opposed to the old cast system, taking part in demonstrations against the government or openly opposed to the treatment of sudras had to be a communist.  I was all of those things and thus had to be a communist.  Ramnik kaka was father’s friend from his school days and one of the few who remained a friend through the good and bad times.  He was a purchasing agent for a big textile house in Bombay, had lived in East Africa for a long time and was finally back in Bombay.  He had lost touch with the community in Kapadvanj and had asked father for help in the upcoming wedding of his daughter.  Since my father had just moved to new job he could not take time off and instead told Ramnik kaka that I would help.  Once again, as per his practice, he had not told me any of this.  Anyway, I wound up spending my vacation helping Ramnik kaka in the wedding of his daughter.  By now most of my school friends were involved in their family business or had gone to Bombay for jobs.  There were very few like me in college and we were spread out.  I felt like a stranger in my own hometown.  I went back to campus as soon as the wedding was over.

In June of 1958, I began the third and very critical year.  This final year had the most in depth and the most amount of courses (as if the previous two years were easy).  We were told by all the professors to study very hard.  At that time in all the universities in India, if you got third class average marks you were considered to have passed the year.  This was not true for engineering.  In engineering you had to have second class average marks.  So if you got third class in one subject you had to get first class in another to get the necessary second class average.  Many engineering students failed to do so and had to repeat the year.  My second year roommate Patel and some other friends including Kishor and Kanti did not make it.  So, in the third year Shirish and I became roommates and another friend Raman Thakkar (mechanical) was the third.  (Building 28)  Course work was really heavy and included, (1) Advance Structural Engineering, (2) Advance Steel Design, (3) Advance Concrete Design, (4) Health Engineering Water Supply, (5) Health Engineering Sewage Treatments, (6) Dams, Irrigation and Flood Control, (7) Transportation Engineering Rail Road Engineering, (8) Transportation Engineering Highways and Bridges, (9) Transportation Engineering Ports, Harbors and Airports, (10) Advance Surveying and Map Making, (11) Town Planning, (12) Fundaments of Economics and its Application in Engineering and (13) Construction Technology.  One had to get a minimum third class in each of the 13 subjects and also get an average of second class overall. 

When the last oral exam was over, I felt like a great burden was over and I said to myself, no more exams in my life!  I was so very tired that until the results of exam came (about three weeks or so), I did nothing but rest and sleep.  In early June of 1959 the results were declared in the newspaper under our student ID number and I had passed.  This method of distributing college grades was common practice and was also the same for SSC Exam results.  As soon as the results were declared, I started looking for a job.