My Sixty Years as an IITian: Experiences and Lessons

Description

I have been an IITian for more than six decades; starting as an undergraduate student of four-year B.Tech (Hons.) programme through JEE at IIT Kharagpur in Mechanical Engineering graduating in 1966. I did M.Tech. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research in 1968 from the same Institute which enabled me to get a faculty position as Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT Delhi starting from 09th August 1968 with now more than 57 years of association with IIT Delhi; as even now I teach at the same Department in the position of Honorary Professor.During this journey in the IIT system; perhaps I have the distinction of remaining anchored at IIT Delhi throughout and held almost all academic and leadership roles till I became the Founder Director of IIT Roorkee on 16th September 2001; when the oldest technical University of Roorkee became the newest IIT Roorkee. In being so; I became the first alumnus of IIT Kharagpur to have become the Director of any IIT. I was lucky to have eventually become Chairman, Board of Governors (BOG) of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad in August 2020 with additional charge of Chairman, BOG of IIT Mandi for nearly three years.Many of my faculty colleagues and former research scholars as well as students suggested to me that I should write my experiences during this unique journey in the IIT system covering the entire chain from an undergraduate student to the Chairman, BOG. It is particularly important to recognize that given my modest background by birth in a poor family of a farmer in a village; I did not expect the Nature to be so kind on me – particularly when I focused on academic excellence with conscience. In this journey, life was never so smooth as one would expect in all such journeys. Here in this book I have attempted to record all major experiences and important milestones of my life’s journey. Such a narration implicitly carries with it; the lessons one learns in life. The end goal of writing this book is to inspire younger generations particularly those having a very modest family background that it may not necessarily be a major constraint in achieving success in life—except that one has to put in much more the effort and one must have patiencein life. It further confirms my faith that hard work never goes waste.If we are sincere in our efforts and do not aspire to achieve successthrough short-cuts; Nature will eventually create situations when weget our due sooner or later. This is one such lesson this book conveysthrough my life’s experiences in this IIT journey.