A fleet of MiG and Sukhoi 30 fighter jets ready to take off for night sorties at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Midnapore. IAF fighter pilots claimed night sorties were most difficult to carry out and were aimed to test the competence of fighter pilots. Picture by Sayantan Ghosh

Jadavpur University once had to survive on grants from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s primary education department. The institution, which got university status on December 24, 1956, had started its journey more than a hundred years ago as Bengal Technical Institute on a 100-bigha plot of Calcutta Corporation.

Initially it was leased out. When Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das became mayor of Calcutta, the land was gifted to the institute. The Bengal Technical Institute was founded by Sir Taraknath Palit in 1906, one year after the Partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon. It used to offer training in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. The first construction came up with a princely endowment of Rs 13 lakh from Rashbehari Ghosh.

After some time, the institution stopped getting funds regularly from the government. In 1927 it applied for a recurring grant of Rs 30,000, to be issued whenever required. The corporation came to its rescue.

The primary education committee of Calcutta Corporation, after inspecting the institution, recommended the grant. The then mayor Jatindramohan Sengupta visited the campus of the Bengal Technical Institute on January 23, 1927, along with several councillors, aldermen and officers of the corporation. They were received by Sir P.C. Ray, president of the National Council of Education, Bengal, Hirendranath Dutta, the secretary to the council, and J.C. Mukherjee, the acting chief executive officer of the institute.

Deadly tracks

A security officer at the Kalighat Metro station was about to take a lunch break. Before he left for the nearby “hotel” he instructed his juniors in a matter-of-fact way: “Suicide hole amake deke eno. Tomra to jano ami kothai bhat khai (Call me if there is a suicide. You know where to find me).”

Death be not proud. With so many suicides taking place on the Metro tracks of late, officials look at you as just a job.

(Contributed by Deepankar Ganguly and Chandreyee Ghose)