Forming Inquisitive Minds: Professor Alak Kumar Buragohain SUBHALAKSHMI GOGOI Once a teacher, always a teacher. The description sits perfectly on the Vice–Chancellor (VC) of Dibrugarh University (DU), Prof Alak Kumar Buragohain. In fact, he revels in it. The former Registrar and Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Tezpur University would have it no other way and is decided that the last years of his career will be devoted to teaching. He quibbles over being called an administrator yet he is very clear about how he would like DU to shape up into. Even as he puts his best foot forward as the VC, he continues to work on two funded projects at Tezpur University. In a freewheeling conversation, Prof Buragohain talked about the education system, the challenges in teaching and in being the VC with Subhalakshmi Gogoi.
FEASTING ON BOOKS The bespectacled Prof Alak Kumar Buragohain believes in destiny. He says that he set out to pursue Humanities and his growing up years seemed to have been leading him to it. But it was not to be. Born to Pratima Gohain in 1956 at the Red Cross Hospital in Laban, the young boy turned out to be a voracious reader. His father, late Basanta Kumar Gohain, who was the Registrar in the State Health Services, was the person instrumental in forming his reading habit. Whenever he visited Guwahati, he would return with entire series of books from Lawyers Bookstall there. His eldest son avidly read through them. The schoolboy started frequenting the library at Shillong. Again, it was his father who had him registered there as a reader. The library went a long way in shaping his intellectual orientation. “I used to visit the library thrice a week. It was a bit far from our home but near my father’s office. I would walk there and return home with my father. I read all the books of Thomas Hardy. The early influence remains and writers like Hardy and Somerset Maugham continue to be among my favorites. The librarian used to sometimes wait outside to tell me when I was walking by that the books I was looking for were available. Perhaps because the books in the library were mostly on Humanities, I saw myself pursuing English literature and appear for the civil services,” reminisces the tall and dapper gentleman. His father made him read through Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India to show him how Indians wrote in English. The books helped in other ways. Schooling was at Shillong Vidyalaya, which was the only Assamese–medium school in Shillong. The institution had a good track record with students taking positions in board exams. The young boy’s reading habit helped him master English along with his mother tongue and catch up with his peers in his later life. He professes contentment over being able to handle both Assamese and English with proficiency. He also mentioned there are other fallouts of reading books. “Books equip the readers for life. They teach us how to handle its complexities,” the academician notes, even as he shows the two books, On Hinduism by Wendy Doniger and Transducing the Genome by Gary Zweiger, he is currently reading. It is a re–reading, in fact, of the second. FATE PLAYING A HAND The eldest of four siblings was mentally prepared to continue his higher education from JB College, Jorhat, where the family was contemplating of shifting to. Basanta Kumar Gohain originally hailed from the place. Due to certain circumstances, the by–then retired Registrar was planning to move back to his native town. However, the son had a change of heart. People close to the family said that the life sciences were the emerging subjects. Looking back to these years, Prof Alak Kumar Buragohain sees the stroke of destiny in the unprecedented changes that happened. The move to Jorhat did not happen and his college education was completed from St Anthony’s College in Shillong. “While submitting my admission form, the clerk noticed that I had not marked any subject to major in and remarked about it. He said that with my looks, I should be studying flowers and wrote down Botany. That is how I came to study the subject. That is why I say I believe in destiny.” Looking back, the former Registrar of Tezpur University has no regrets over how his career shaped up but he does remark that he would have done better in the Humanities. “I am where I am due to my perseverance and engagement with the subject.” The college student may have come to the Sciences, almost by default, but he did excellently in his subject. After topping his class in NEHU, he decided to apply to the Department of Molecular Biology at Kamaraj University at the prompting of one of his favourite teachers, Prof George Michael. He was among the select few, 15 to be precise, to gain admission at the institute. Prof Buragohain qualified for admission into Delhi University as well but chose to go to Madurai. But the young man, bred and brought up in the cool climes of Shillong, fell sick and was forced to return home after two and a half months. In the meantime, the admission period for Delhi University was already over. Thankfully, Gauhati University (GU) still had to start their admission process and that is how the ‘organically connected to Shillong’ boy came to Guwahati. FLYING TO FOREIGN SHORES After passing out from GU, the post graduate in Botany joined Handique Girls College. Soon, the young lecturer’s search for a research guide started but the conversations he had with some of the professors he approached left him disheartened. He simply did not like the manner in which the PhD programs were conceptualized. But he managed to connect with Late Dr Pratul Goswami of the Department of Biochemistry in Gauhati Medical College. The researcher was making some progress in his work when the chance to go abroad came in 1989. “I have to thank my wife Rumi for it. I was sick and in hospital. She brought the newspaper with the advertisement to my sickbed and insisted that I apply immediately. Had it not been for her, I would have still been in Handique Girls College. I got the government scholarship and thus went to England to do my PhD in plant virology at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine under University of London.” Prof Buragohain married Rumi Buragohain, who is a teacher at Maharishi Vidya Mandir, in 1987. He was the father of a six–month old son, Anurag, when he went to England. The period was truly life–transforming. It gave him the professional training to go to the next level and also familiarized him with an educational system designed to meet the needs of students.“I was impressed by the human resource management in England. It was very professional and the colleges were rated. When a student applies for a subject, he is counselled and if found to have an aptitude for some other subject directed towards it. The counsellors make the necessary introductions and connect him to the right places.” The VC explains the manner in which there is continuous filtration at various levels after high school in England so that only the best finally go to college. The others are counselled and put to vocational course according to their talents. “The dovetailing is very good and meaningful there.” The educational system in India leaves the VC expecting for much more. According to him, it still has a colonial hangover. “All the universities that were set up during the British rule served the needs of colonial rulers. The Centre controlled everything. When Independence happened, the government ordered the opening of more universities but the creation of avenues to absorb the qualified people did not happen. India needs 800 more universities but apart from the necessary infrastructure, we also need the faculties to head them. The centre still holds the reins. The system has not been properly structured. India is too big to be controlled in that manner. It has taken us a long time to embrace the ethos of a free nation. There have been changes but more needs to be done.” The thrust on merit was apparent at Imperial College, where research was cutting edge. Senior faculties remained lecturers at times while meritorious younger people went on to become professors early. “My supervisor was young but very stringent. We used to call him Bob. His motto was ‘make sure’. Suppose I was working on an experiment for six months and had come to some good results. I would go to him to tell him about it excitedly but he would listen and then ask me to do it all over again. He insisted that I had to be absolutely sure of the result. He was very meticulous. The training during PhD was superb and it was on a daily basis. I try to pass on these traits to the students who work under me.” While there, the Assamese researcher was allowed to take classes and received eight pounds for an hour as remuneration, a substantial amount for him. His interactions with the students, who were from different parts of the world, made him realize that those back at home were equally good. WORKING WITH YOUNG MINDS After earning his doctorate, Prof Buragohain returned home to rejoin Handique Girls’ College. But soon after, he joined Gauhati University. A year and half later, he came to Tezpur University to head the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. He had brief stints at Tocklai Tea Research Centre and Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology also. The academician was working as Registrar as well as heading his department at Tezpur University when he was appointed as the VC of DU. Prof Buragohain understands the challenges that go with his present job. For him, a university is not just brick and mortar. It requires hundreds of years for an institution to evolve to become a centre of excellence. And of course, tons of money. According to the VC, colleges should be given more autonomy. But they should be put through the roller coaster road of evolutionary process, provided with man, material and fund and nourished before being assessed and declared universities when they meet the desired criteria. Since the academician has quite a lot to say on centralised nature of education system, he has tried to address it after assuming his present post. “North Lakhimpur College is now an autonomous college. It will be able to develop the syllabi according to their strength of faculty. They will set the examination papers. But the college will remain administratively affiliated to DU. The University will give the degree.” The need to be globally competitive urges his decision. He sees the awareness about the same propelling the government’s present policy to encourage private institutions. Prof Buragohain, however, insists that quality must not be compromised. On his present role, the VC refuses to identify himself as an administrator, preferring to view his responsibility to be ‘giving academic guidance.’ He believes his job is to have a vision and the ability to carry along the students and faculty to translate it into reality with the support of the administration. He also knows the challenges involved. “Faculties can be conceited. They have a different kind of attitude. They think they are always right. But those in governance must have the capability to handle any situation where they are wrong and must be made to understand it. Being a teacher, I know how the minds of faculties work. That helps me carry out my work as VC.” Prof Buragohain feels a person in his position needs to have love and respect for the people or else there can be no love for the institution. He lays great emphasis on empathy. “I listen to people and try to see beyond the obvious. When I came, the employees had numerous complaints about the sweepers not doing their job properly. I asked the worst troublemaker to be assigned to me. I took him under my wings and he is now the best sweeper. The point I am trying to make is that it was so necessary to understand the sweepers’ perception of cleanliness. We need to see the other point of view and then work from there.” While Prof Buragohain calls himself a misfit because of the radical ideas he has, he is carrying forward his plans to create the correct ambience in the university besides undertaking the academic drill. Very conscious that the society is a stakeholder in the university, he launched the Associate Village program recently at Mohpuwalimora Gaon under which extension work is being undertaken to contribute towards the development of the village and improve the quality of life of the people by the Equal Opportunity Cell and the recently formed Dibrugarh University Research Students Association. The VC is confident that students of DU will learn about social responsibility from their work here. At present, 25 youths of surrounding villages are being trained by the Department of Physical Training to become security personnel. “At present, a security agency is providing us the guards in the campus. Once these boys are fully trained, they will be hired on contractual basis and thus find employment.” The academician plans to put the departments cluster–wise in schools so that the operating system becomes more consultative and participatory. Guiding forward the university with élan he may be, but Prof Buragohain makes no bones about what he enjoys most – teaching. This is the reason that, on most weekends, he heads towards Tezpur University where a DS Kothari fellow is pursuing post doctorate under him. ACKNOWLEDGING FAMILY’S SACRIFICE Prof Buragohain is quick to acknowledge the unstinting family support he has received. He regrets not giving his sons more time. “My family has sacrificed a lot. My older son was six months old when I left for England. When I returned, he refused to accept me.” Anurag has just completed his graduation. The younger, Avinash, is appearing for his higher secondary. The self–confessed ‘teacher–through–and–through’ plans to spend the five years before retirement doing what he enjoys most – teaching. He is raring to do what he does best. For him, as a teacher, he is not only supposed to be the master of his subject, but also ‘enable, encourage students to raise critical questions and solve problems creatively. A teacher must prepare his students to negotiate through the multiple perspectives of world.’ In other words, the engagement with students thrills him. Prof Buragohain adds, “The role of teachers is much more than teaching. They are supposed to discover their students’ potential. Therein lies their relevance which modern technology cannot fulfil.” http://www.sentinelassam.com/sunday/melange_cover_story.php?sec=7&subsec=0&id=1959&dtP=2014-04-06&ppr=2#1959 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ সমাজৰ কাৰণে ভাল কাম কৰাজনৰ পৰিচয় ৰাইজৰ আগত দাঙি ধৰিব লাগে আৰু ভাল খবৰবোৰ যিমান পাৰি ৰাইজৰ মাজত বিলাব লাগে। ---- বুলজিৎ বুঢ়াগোহাঁই _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
