I grew up in a small town, Darbhanga in Bihar. I Studied in a not so well known primary school, Kathalwadi Diwana Takiya Primary School, and then in the Raj High School and the C M College – both institutions reasonably well known in that region.
I am what Shekhar Gupta calls the HMT, or the Hindi Medium Types and quite proud of it. I had even prepared to write my B SC (Physics Hons) examination answer papers in Hindi. But Professor B N Basu, a senior professor, talked me out of it (literally with folded hands!) since the Department expected me to hold a rank in the University examination and he did not want this to get jeopardised due my insistence on writing the answers in Hindi! I did concede, and incidentally secured the First Rank. But that left a mark perhaps on me and explains my subsequent style of writing in Hindi – satire, science fiction and even making cross words in Hindi.
I did strongly preserve my familiarity with Marathi, my mother-tongue. In our family, we remained regular readers of newspaper Loksatta, the daily newspaper and three Magazines every month. Still, Hindi remained a strong channel of expression and whenever an application had to be written to the Principal in Hindi, friends used to look for me to draft it.
Bihar saw deterioration in the Education sector in late sixties and early 70s. This was a ‘Jigar Ke Tukde’ phase in Education – a phrase popularised by then Chief Minister Mahamaya Prasad Singh (Vidyarthi Hamaare Jigar ke Tukde Hain). Ironically the phase was marked by rampant copying in the examination, falling educational standards, delayed academic calendar, political instability and eventually the JP Agitation. Our graduation examination in 1973 stood out for the strict invigilation carried out under the CRPF cover, but was also a signal that higher education was best pursued outside the state. I was lucky to join IIT Bombay for M Sc in Physics.
Physics had always been a fascination since school days. I even declined to join IIT in 1971 since I did not get the new 5-year M Sc Physics course at IIT Kanpur. Today not joining IITs after cracking the JEE is a sacrilege. But in 1974 I found four other friends who had done something similar – not joining the engineering undergraduate course because they did not get Physics or Chemistry. I am glad that the basic sciences are again back in reckoning.
Moving from Darbhanga to IIT Bombay was quite a transition! It changed my life in more ways than one in six very eventful years. My move from Physics, (after two years into Ph D) to M Tech in Environmental Science and Engineering, my writings in Hindi, my getting into activism, Hostel elections, participation in an agitation in the Institute, getting nearly thrown out of IIT, opting to write the UPSC examination and finally getting into the Indian Administrative Service have been very dramatic and can perhaps be narrated into readable details at some stage. I defended my M Tech dissertation, picked up my suitcase and a hold-all from the examination hall and left straight for Mussourie for the training in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in August 1980. Some friends snidely remark that I came back 35 years later to IIT to join as a full time Professor with that same suitcase! This is another rather dramatic story that can be recounted some other time.
Nearly a couple of decades later, I did my Masters in Rural Development (1991-92) from University of East Anglia at Norwich, UK and then a Ph D in Gender! My doctoral dissertation 'Sex ratio Imbalances in the Indian Population - a disaggregated analysis' at the School of Development Studies was later published as a book 'Sex ratio pattern in the Indian Population - a fresh exploration' by SAGE (2000). My inter-disciplinary research has broken new grounds in the analysis of the masculinity of the sex ratios in India. This work uses Statistical and GIS techniques, identifies areas and social groups among which the girl child is at risk. My publications have luckily been highly acknowledged nationally and internationally (including by scholars like Amartya Sen, John Dreze, Barbara Harris and Veena Mazumdar). The story of my getting into this research and coming in touch with Prof Amartya Sen (and Jene Dreze) is also somewhat dramatic and will be recounted separately.
In a career spanning over thity-five years, I have served the Central and the State Government of Odisha in several capacities. My first posting at Jajpur, a very ‘tricky’ sub-division (as the general impression goes) still remains a fascinating memory, and so does my stint as the Founder Chief Executive of OREDA (Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency) and the posting as the District Magistrate, Dhenkanal. As Director Industries, I had a dramatic standoff with the legendary Chief Minister Shri Biju Patnaik – a story to be recounted sometimes soon. I also held posts as Vice Chair of an Urban Development Authority.
My first brush with social sector came as Secretary Women and Child Development department. This completely changed me as an administrator. The child malnutrition bug that did bite me during my sting in 1997-99, has persisted till date and got strengthened through my deputation with UNICEF Kolkata as a Consultant (Child Health and Nutrition) and back again as Secretary Women and Child Development in Odisha. My work in Odisha on a campaign to eliminate malnutrition, scaling up the positive deviance methodology, using colour coded maps and GIS in social sector planning stood me in good stead as a researcher and now as an academician.
My working in Government of India involved two stints in the Cabinet Secretariat, first as JS and then as Secretary coordination (till my retirement and then the Ghar Vapsi to IIT Bombay), Director General Shipping in Mumbai, AS and FA in Agriculture, Director General Defence Acquisition and Secretary Renewable Energy. Each of these were filled with their own drama – each worth recounting in due course, and, some parts that would never be recounted of course.
My research interest areas include Child malnutrition, Renewable Energy and Energy Policy, Gender, Rural development and technology scale up, Use of Mapping Techniques in social Sector planning and Public Policy. I am now an Emeritus Fellow at CTARA and continue to guide Ph D students, M Tech projects and teach a course or two. I now plan to get back to my creative writing – much of it satirical.
I also write fiction and satire in the forms of both poetry and prose. My book of satires 'Mitti keraaston kaa desh' and its expanded edition 'Tahan Tahan Bhrashtrachaar' (Rajkamal) have come out in Hindi and as 'Zopi Gelaa Kumbhakarna' rendered in Maraathi.
So much for now. For more entertaining details my blog could help.