Exploring Phd Problem and Employment: My Unfolding Voyage 51

I was in a hurry to complete identifying a topic for my dissertation and identifying a suitble job. But along with some exploration in films and a bit of romance. The Naxalite problem was growing, the two fronth governments with CPM's Jyoti Basu was creating further mess with their inexperence with administration. Imposition of President Rule in early 1970 and the attempt of Congress to come back to power could only further complicate the chaos in the State and saw the beginning of the fast deteriration of academic envirnment and academic life. At least for a potential new job seeker, academics had lost its charm if one could get an alternative employment. I wanted to complete the process of idntification of the Phd problem for dissertation at the earliest and get  commercial job and continue my research outside the campus.

But I had also to satisfy my inquisitiveness about Cinema. I had gone to see films in theaters three or four times in my entire school life: one film was on ramayana in Hindi, Lalu Bhulu in Bengali and For Whom the Bell Tolls in English. During my college and University days, I had gone to see films for another four or five times. I wanted to know what is there in the films, what attract different people to see films and how can I learn anything from films. I had very little time to do that for I knew once I join a commercial firm or become a teacher, I would have little time for cinema. Like the way I read novels, detective books and short stories in the past through rapid reading techniques of my own (often I would read 6 to 7 short stories n a day or two big novels in a day: I would never read any story or novel spread over more than 36 hours), I planned for my seeing films. With about 15 days of general holidays and 104 Saturdays and Sundays, I had with me roughly 120 potential days of seeing films. Besides, I could arrange for another 10 days in a year from the week days. With an average 1.2 shows per day for 130 days, I could target seeing atleast 150 films in 1970 (on a number ofdays I saw two fils a day on two closeby theaters: an early morning or a matinee show followed by an evening or night show). I achieved my target. The cost of tickets, snacks and travelling would have amounted roughly to less than Rs 400 during the full year for 150 films.
I had ruled out seeing English films for I wanted know more about my country and countrymen and the behavior. I also wanted to see as many films as possible in Bengali starred by at least one of the following: actress Suchitra Sen or actor Uttam Kumar including those that were produced before I was born/ before 1970. I wanted to see as many films in Hindi as possible. I wanted to know especially if I could find any taste for the great fashion among intellectuals ot pseudo intellectuals in West Bengal of not going to Hindi films. Unfortunately, I did not find any reason to suspect that these Hindi films could anyway adversely the quality of whatever little intellect I possesed. I also wanted to know if there was somethinng great in the so-called intellectual / off-beat/ alternative / real-life films produced some of the renouned directors. Unfortunately, I found most of these films based on poor intellectual quality of the script writers, renouned directors and editors: these films were based more on imagination rather than reality as compared to the other entertainment films. I also wanted to practice seeing films in a manner that I can enjoy any film as I saw it in my own way rather than the way Director might have had planned: this was rather easy as it was possible give relief to my eyes in the dark hall for scenes that did not wish to enjoy at anytime and let others enjoy. I also wanted to ensure that films to do not keep me thinking about them once I am back home from the Cinema.

Going to all these films however did not always give enough enjoyment. Except for the old Suchitra-Uttam starrers or some 8/9 classics of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and others: total 50 or so in number), I needed to get some company for  seeing films. Of the rest, about 80% were Hindi films, both old and new releases and 20%Bengali films, I had company. I had roughly four catsgories of film-going  company: one particular schoolmate who did not find another friend who would give him company, a group of 6-8 friends in the locality and members of our Kishore Sangha Club formed during our adoloscent period, my research student/ scholar friends and dadas, and finally a girl who seemed to be falling in love with me. Nobody knew about the affair with this girl till we agreed to end the five/ six month period affair when she disclosed that to a few common friends. Romance ended before it could blossom: she must have found my mind's addiction to freedom much stronger than my heart's ability to lose itself in the mysticism of love. The romanticism in me had to wait for it expressions in apprpriate environment later: but my mind had become still stonger than my weak heart.

Searching for job and Phd problem continued in the midst of Cinema and experiements in romance. The methodology of searching jobs was rather simple since I was interested in a job that is based in Kolkata. There weren't many such opportunities that were attractive enough. I did get offers in teaching in some colleges but ultimately declined them because of the distaste of the academic environment at that time. By simply writing to their chiefs, I lured an multinational chemical company and a foreign bank to give me a chance to get me interviewed though they were not looking for any person of my type at that time. They did not find me of any use. However I had interesting interviews as useful experience. In one of the interviews, I was asked a very innovative question " If there were two commodities milk and cigeratte, and smoking two cigarettes caused the same amount of negative satisfaction as would a cup of milk would give positive satisfaction, how would the map of indifference curves look like?" I still think about why micro-economics text books confine drawing indifference curves maps only in the positive quadrant on the graph paper. I also sat for an examinatuion in a small town in the adjacent state of Bihar and faced a drab selection interview in Delhi to get an otherwise attractive job in a public sector fertilizer company. But decided not to join because I had to go out of Kolkata if I had to serve that company. But I could suspect by that time that it was possible to get some interviewers get interested in you through the selection interviews without bluffing and with keen observation of what they are looking for as individuals or as a group. Interviewers are seldom a cohesive, integrated group and Chairman of the interviewer groups have different personalities. I would test my hypothesis in future again and again.

The search for Phd problem however demanded a different methodology. The objectives of  and constraints to the choice as also as a broad criterion of choice should be clear to one's mind: the preferences and comfort of the guide who would approve, the time and energy you can spend in reading books and identifying a set of problems to choose from, one's owm capability to deal with the problem in terms using data collection, data processing, mathematical modelling, the ease with which the compulsory chapter on literature review can be completed, the interest that one has in believing that there was in fact this problem that gives you great satisfaction on solving it and the alternative ways of looking at the problem, and the time and effort you would like to spend in future to increase your capabilities in solving the problem that you happen to choose. For me it was clear that I could not afford to spend much time on searching problems and that I could not spend time on acquiring fresh mathematical and statistical tools beyond what I had come to acquire by then. I first read some Phd thesis  of those who had completed their doctorate degrees in the past. I also read the phd dissertation based books like Choice of Techniques by Amartya Sen and  the one by Sukhomoy Chakraboty. All these made me clear as to what kind and quality of Phd dissertation that I could draft with my own capabilities. I read paper in economic jounals - mostly the concluding sections to get clues to finding problems. I read many issues of Engineering economist to find if I could find something there. But there were so many topics and so many problems: it was difficult to assess the relative worth of all those problems for me to make a decision. I thought to myself what interest me: my mind told me any problem that has an application in real life to test. Two areas appeared to me as most interesting and possibly within my capabilities: one, Cost Benefit Analysis and second unemployment and economic growth in India. The problem was the first related to micro-economics and the second to macro-economics. I thought to myself: probably these could be combined in to a problem. But I had to test the preferences of my guide. He encouraged me to write small notes/ papers on what ever I would read and thought that I could handle. He suggested that I could try to get interested in the possibility of a cost benefit analysis of a likely petro-chemicals complex in Haldia in West Bengal. I did study sme material on this and wrote a note but did not consider it as satisfactorily meeting my criteria/ objectivers/ constraints of choosing a problem. I wrote notes on unemployment, on pollution and the like. My guide went through these notes and encouraged me to read more and write more. At some point, I decided that the time has come to discard many of the areas. I finally decided that I will work on Social Cost Benefit Analysis and how creation of employment could be a part of such analysis. I was not sure that I could develop this into a full dissertation over the years: nor was my guide appeared that optimistic. But he was reasonable and agreed to end the search further and told me to write out a the dissertation proposal that had to submitted to the Institute for registration as asertation candidate. This was in the last quarter of 1970.

Earlier in April/ May 1970, I had happen to be attracted by a small insertion in the job vacancies page of the English daily: the single column 6/7 line classified advertisement sought applications from postgraduate economists giving a post box number. Fie months later when I had nearly forgotten about having responded to that advertisement, I received a letter from a Calcutt-based nationalized bank advising me to appear for interview. There were  five/ six gentlement sitting around a table opposite me to interview me. This session went for about half an hour. It seemed to me that the interviwers were impressed with the interactions with me and seemed not to have met such a candidate as I was for a long time. Towards the end, one of the persons (whom I later came to know was a Professor of Psychology) who asked me someting about econometrics and then something on small sample testing of hypothesis. All other interviewers seemed to be impressed by my answers but did not appear to understand what really the questions were or the appropriateness of the answers. One of my answers were evidently wrong on the choice of probability distribution. The Professor  in response to my answer asked another question and then I corrected my answer to the previous question with a smile, as if nothing bad had happened.
Within 7 days I received the appointment letter. This was in late October/ early November, 1970: It was just around this time that my inquiry into wi films and my romantic experiement came to an end. I went and discussed the job offer with my Guide. In three days, we finalized the Phd dissertation proposal abstract and submitted my application for registration of Phd to the Institute. In another 15 days, I got the approval of my Guide and exercised the clause in terms of which I could work elsewhere while continuing my Phd dissertation work at the Institute. By December 1970, I was off the Institute's campus. All four problems: cinema, romance, searching for Phd problem and searching for employment ended nearly simulstaneously,
All four tasks were well done as they ended well along with the end of the year 1970.

Exploratory Research: My Unfolding Voyage 50

The year 1970 proved to be the most diversified exploratory research activity in my life. I had to explore potential job opportunities and their attractiveness, the potential research topics for my Phd dissertation that would require approval of my Guide, explore potential romance opportunity in an academic environment, explore the fun that films, in particular Hindi films provided to the Indian masses, the potential of brilliant minds around to help one build some intellectual capabilities, and so on.
At the end, the year tuned out to be both eventful and successful.

We were four students in the Phd program: two were my former University classmates with quantative specialization ( both obtaied the Phds, joined as lecturers and became full professors in two universities in the State) and an electrical engineer from Jadavpur University with a few months industrial experience. It was great to have an electrical engineer as a co-reseacher in economics: are opportunity in those days. He was a Sen and I found out that his family origin could be traced back to a village in what is now known as Bangladesh, a village where my mother's family could be traced back. So, I started calling him Mama (maternal uncle), though he was of my age. My affection towards him spread over the campus: soon he would become popular as Mama among all students, officials and even researchers and Professors. We shared the same professor as our Phd guide, the then head of the Economic Research Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute. Mama was however required to take regular course in Economics along with first year M.Stat students. Mama was a very smart, intelligent, mathematics-strong and generous guy. He enjoyed gossip and intellectul debates. He did not continue with research for long. He was innovative: designed and built an electrical muri(puffed rice)-making machine and set up his own business within a few years. He probably did not like to be employed: he became an entrepreneur. After 1973-74, I met him once. In 2003, I searched his muri-factory out with a rough idea of its probable location with a radius of 2 kilometers and then taking clues about his residence met him, his wife and son (the latter two for the first time).

Four of us had to take courses in statistics (though three of us had already done such courses lready during our undergrdute and postgrduate economics programs, the Institute insisted we learn statistics again there: we hardly learnt anything new and passed the qualifiers). We also had lessons on Non-linear programming and advanced international economics. There was no problem in our fulfilling the course requirements in the first three semesters.

We were paid Rs. 250 a month as stipend. Research scholars used to get Rs 400 per month but apart from doing reserch, they had to take classes/ titorials for B.Stst students.  Though we were not scholars as yet, we were enjoying the same library and office facilities as the research scholars. Some people at the Institute did not find the idea of the new breed of research students with no obligations. First, someone had objected to the monthly stipend of Rs 250 per month being high for people without any obligations to teach or work on projects. The professors who were instrumental in introducng the course however did not review their decision in this regard. Second, the Library Assistants raised objections. One day they stopped us from getting into the protected area of book-selves (only research scholars and teacher had access to these areas but students did not). The assistants pointed out that we were students while we said we were research students. On the same ground they reduced our entitlement to borrow books and periodicals both for overnight reference and longer period study. I wrote a letter to the Dean of Studies: all four of us signed. Our library facilities were restored, After these events, the people who did not like us, stopped doing mischief. And, we found a special treatment from the administrative and library staff.

Three of us were alloted a single oblong-shaped south-open room with three desks with drawers and six chairs for use. Mama shared a room elsewhere with research scholars. In our Economic Research Unit (ERU), Diponkar-da, Pradip-da (who stood first in the MA Economics examinations the year before I obtained my degree from the same University of Calcutta) and Nirmal-da (an M.Stat of two year vintage from the Institute) were the research scholars. They were kind of our guide to the Insitute environment as also close, affectionate elder brothers. They would spend lot of time with us. They would accompany us to wayside tea stalls/ restaurants for a drink or snacks. Often, we would all go for lunch to the Insitute's canteen (some kind of Cafetaria) which sold food at subsidised prices. Sometimes, we would roam about along the pathways inside the sprawling campus with lot of trees and plants, especially around the Director, Prof Mahalonobis's residence-cum-office. Occasionally, we would cross over to Institute's guest house and Hostel campus where Mama used to stay (students/ research scholars) could get virtually free accomodation: many  of us with residence within the City or nearby suburbs, prefered to commute to the Institute. We were on the top floor of the main building (a new building came up a few years later where most of the departments shifted): we would sometimes go to the huge terrance to enjoy an overview of the surrounding area and the cool breeze. Besides, Mama and I used to waste lot of their time over cups of tea debating developments in the country and economic topics of common interest. The three research scholar 'dadas' had lot of hard work to do: take classes/ tutorials, work on research projects and work on their own Phd dissertations. Yet, they never showed any displeasure with our disturbancs and wasting their time.

They completed their Phd in due course. Pradip-da and Diponkar-da stayed back in the Institute as teachers and became full professors later: they retired recently. They had always been very affectionate to me. Padip-da would always show initial reluctance to open up into  discussion but then slowly help me understand what he knew about a subject. Dipankor-da was our gateway to application of econometrics and to getting data punched for processing by the Institute's Honeywel computer where he had access to. Nirmal-da had leftist leanings: purchased and read Arrow's Social Choce and Individal Values before giftong the book to me with great affection. He would soon join the A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies in Patna, got interested in societal issues, moved to South and later to Pune toas Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research by which time he became a specilist ecology / environment economist. I met him once in 2004-5 after we lost touch in the early 1970s. My contact with Pradip-da and Diponkar would remain strong until the early 1980 after which we would meet after intervals of several years.

At least once a month, Ramprasad-da, who stood second in the MA Examination with Pradip-da as the First and was then a Research Scholar at the Presidency College Research Centre, would visit us. He was a very well-read person already at that time. IU would look forward to his visits to listen to him and participate in the discussions he would have with all of us. He would tell us about his readings and assessment of the interesting controversies and debates among great economists (Schumpeter, Hicks, Joan Robinson, Keynes, Hayek, Kalechi, Kaldor,  Hicks, Friedman, Samuelson, Solow, Sraffa, and the like), among school of economists ( Classical, Neo-classical, Kenesian, Post Keynesian, Austrian, New Classical, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Chicago). He had picked up from close association of our Calcutta University and Prsidency College Professors many entertaining anecdotes about foreign economists as well as Indian economists like Amartya Sen, Sukhamoy Chakrabarty, Jagadish Bhagavatii and Mrinal Dutta Chowdhury, besides our own teachers like Satyendra Nath Sen, Bhabotosh Dutta, Amlan Dutta, Alok Ghosh, Rakhal Dutta, Tapas Majumder, Dipak Majumdar, Mihir Rakshit and others.
Not that I understood all that Rmprasad-da discussed: but I was amazed with his capability to acquire so much knowledge about various issues in economics and the profile of so many economists. His interest in subjects other than economics was also quite remarkable. These four 'dada' research scholars proved to be a great resource to me for my intellectul expanse and my own preparatory thoughts regarding my probable dissertation. I was indeed fortunate to have the association of these four young brilliant minds at this critical phase of diversified exploration along my unfolding voyage.