Excellence at its best in Manipur University – As I saw

Jarnail Singh *

Manipur University at Canchipur in March 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Excellence in any field is difficult to achieve. One has to work hard, burn midnight oil and perhaps should have natural talent. During my days as Administrator of Manipur University (MU) I found two cases of excellence which thrilled me so much that even today, when I remember, I feel elated with satisfaction that individuals can excel even under very ordinary circumstances. I am narrating these cases.

One morning when I was in my office in MU, a faculty member from Manipur Institute of Technology (MIT) met me. She was in tears and had difficulty speaking. She complained that the holding of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) meeting for her promotion had been delayed whereas cases of her colleagues had been already considered.

She wanted to be treated on a similar footing. I asked the Registrar to examine her case. I felt bad to see a senior faculty member in tears. Some actions or non-actions of MU must have hurt her so much that she was so unhappy with MU administration.

Concepts par excellence

Within a month, a CAS meeting was held for her and three experts from IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), Visitor’s nominee, Dean and Principal of MIT were present in the meeting to assess her suitability for promotion to Associate Professor.

Three experts asked questions, one by one, for about 45 minutes about Soil Mechanics and Civil Engineering. I was struck by the clarity she had about her subject. She explained on the board, with sketches, the mechanics of movement of soil and earth under pressure, during dry and wet conditions and related issues.

Her modest manners were hiding her brilliance. ‘She should be aggressive in her job and take advantage of her brilliance,’ so I thought. In the interview I could relate her answers to the damages to the athletic track of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi in October 2010 due to rains before the Commonwealth Games where I was Chief Executive Officer of the Organising Committee of CWG.

After the interview, I requested experts for their opinions. They all said that she was exceptionally brilliant and that rarely they had seen in the past a person so clear headed as she was about her subject. They advised me to suggest to her to get consultancy work for MIT from places as far as Delhi as her knowledge of the subject was exceptional.

I conveyed the appreciation of experts to her later and congratulated her. As was suggested by experts, I advised the Principal MIT to prepare a proposal to set up a laboratory in MIT for consultancy work. That faculty member is Dr Konsam Rambha Devi. She had performed so brilliantly and flawlessly in the interview that I rate it my only interview where the interviewee left experts stunned.

On the contrary, I had also experience of chairing some CAS interviews in MU where the experts, in one case even the concerned Head of Department, had to advise the interviewees again and again to come to the point, answer questions and not skirt.

Best handwriting I have ever seen

Second excellence which I saw in MU was the handwriting, the type of which I have never seen. One day, about a dozen students, who had just passed the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) met me. They gave me a handwritten application for engaging them as apprentices in the MU Library to get practical experience as well as help the MU library in opening for longer hours.

When I saw the application, I kept looking at it for quite some time. I had never seen such beautiful handwriting during my 40 years of public service. Each alphabet of the application was written as if it was printed. On my asking, students informed me that it was written by Ningombam Iroshini, the girl student who had topped in MLIS that year.

My own handwriting is very good and I have been proud of it. During my PMO days (1996-2004), where often I used to convey Prime Minister’s orders to different Ministries on their files, a few times the Secretaries of Ministries had complimented me about my handwriting and notings which I had made on their files.

Later on, when I was at Harvard University in 1988-89, a German couple had complimented me about my handwriting about which their daughter had told them. But the handwriting of Ningombam Iroshini was much better than that of mine.

I advised her to take advantage of her beautiful handwriting and build a career based on that. But she expressed her interest in a teaching job in MU after doing PhD. A few times in meetings at MU, I mentioned the excellent handwriting of Iroshini.

Both these cases of excellence I have mentioned in my book – ‘Manipur University – Restoring Normalcy’.