NV Joshi - Session 04, 2020-01-12

(00:00:32) Interest in programming, programming languages and location of CTSJoshi talks about how his interest in programming developed after joining for his PhD degree and taking a course taught by C Ramakrishnan. He mentions the programming languages that were being used at the time. He also says where CTS was located initially before it moved to being opposite the Mathematics Department.

(00:04:35) Formation of CES Joshi sheds light on the circumstances around which CES was formed, such as the feeling that separate centres for conservation and atmospheric science would enable these subjects to grow more and also allow for the involvement of students. He describes how the proposal for CES was accepted and those who were involved. There was no “transition” as such for Joshi from CTS to CES, but there was a formal interview. He speaks about those associated with CES in the early days and the work they were involved with.

(00:15:31) Joining the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) and reasons for not taking on PhD students Joshi talks about the circumstances that arose which led to his formally joining CES in 1987. These included BK Mishra leaving his post, Madhav Gadgil keen for him to join CES and Joshi himself thinking that joining CES would be better for him than staying on at CTS in terms of the nature of work and interaction with others. Joshi also shares that the post was reserved for a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe candidate, but when no such candidate applied, Joshi was able to stay on. He speaks a bit about the other candidate who applied and those who were on the interview panel. He says his reasons for not taking on a PhD student all these years are having to take responsibility for how they fared as well as their appointment later on, and not having worked independently on a topic that would be regarded as a “PhD topic” by the rest of the world.

(00:23:22) Working style preferences, people at CES in the initial years and libraries He goes on to speak about how and why it was that over the years his work has been mostly collaborative and about his preference to do work himself rather than explain it to others. Joshi mentions others who were at CES when he joined-Raman Sukumar, S. Narendra Prasad, Raghavendra Gadagkar, and NH Ravindranath and the first students- RJ Ranjit Daniels, Arun Venkatraman and K. Chandrashekara. He speaks a bit about some of their backgrounds and work they were involved with. He also speaks about the libraries at CTS and CES. [Archivist’s note: at the time spoken about by the interviewee, it was called the ‘Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)’, but the index term uses the current authority record name ‘Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)’]

(00:30:46) How Ranjit Daniels joined CES and Joshi’s three trips abroad Joshi narrates an interaction between Daniels and Joshi’s brother that played a role in Daniels joining CES. Joshi shares about the three times he went abroad. Twice it was to attend conferences- once on mathematical modelling at University of California, Berkeley and another time on social insects in Munich, Germany. The third time he went to Barro Colorado Island in Panama. He did not have any interest in stepping out of IISc, much less the country, stating that whatever he wanted was available on the IISc campus. [Archivist’s note: David DW Daniels is Ranjit Daniels’ father whom the interviewee mentions in the interview; name obtained from interviewee post interview]

(00:38:49) Interaction with others, accommodation and food and conferences attended in India Joshi’s frequency of interaction with others came down once he moved out of the hostel into his own accommodation in 1985. Joshi talks about the different hostels he stayed at and the categories of houses he stayed in over the years in IISc. He also speaks about how he managed his different meals, calling it a “very comfortable life”. He cites his preference for reading over listening and talking with others as the reason for not attending conferences as such, even those in India. Thanks to the visitor programmes that both CTS and CES had, he was able to meet people at IISc itself.

(00:50:13) Conferences/workshops on modern biology at Mahabaleshwar Joshi attributes attending conferences/workshops on modern biology at Mahabaleshwar as the reason for his developing an interest in ecology and conservation. He speaks about others who attended them as well. He goes on to talk about conferences being held in five-star hotels if international scientists are attending on one hand, and “field workers” not caring about the kind of accommodation or transportation on the other hand.

(00:56:57) Field trips, programming and the computer centre and options for food Joshi speaks about having a good experience when he went to visit Barro Colorado Island and also mentions another field trip to the Nilgiris that he had been a part of. Because of a lack of pressure to perform at CTS, Joshi feels he got carried away with working on programming tasks which indirectly helped the work, but did not require a scientist as such. He says that although the computer centre is active till today and there are possible reasons why others would want to go there, he personally does not have a need to go there. He recalls it being poorly managed and unfriendly until his fellow student, N Balakrishnan, set things up in a user-friendly manner. He discusses the various places on campus where food and rations were available. [Archivist's note: N Pattabiraman is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as the colleague/fellow student doing some work on the alternate structure of DNA; name obtained from interviewee post interview]

(01:05:21) Reflections inside IISc of what was happening outside Speaking about the reflections on campus with respect to goings-on outside, Joshi recollects there being no reactions as such with respect to the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. He shares that as far as he was aware, the student council would hold collection drives sporadically- when any major disaster struck- and if some others were aware of what was going on outside, it was because they were in touch with people there. As an example, he cites the Biswases being aware of things when they were engaged in teaching municipal school students.

(01:09:20) Some formalities, salary and teaching Probations, evaluations and promotions at IISc are what Joshi discusses next. He shares details about salary, being a teaching assistant while being a programmer and courses he was involved with. For instance, he taught a course on mathematical modelling biology, later renamed as population theory.

(01:15:00) Resolving the challenges of the computer centre and rules blindly followed on campus Joshi was part of the sending of an anonymous letter to the Chairmen of all departments regarding the manner in which everyone was affected by the way the computer centre was working. This was taken seriously and things were smoothed out. He talks about rules being followed blindly at times, even when the formality made no sense. For example, when it came to the various courses that were compulsory for different students. He also cites episodes of a reimbursement for his eye surgery and a fine for a pending mess bill in this regard.

(01:22:45) Agitations and protests on campus; family members associated with academics Enhancement of the fellowship amount and the pension [interviewee addition post interview: 'pension' refers to the small amount of financial support that IISc provided to the PhD students who had completed six years and were yet to submit the thesis and were thus ineligible for being awarded the regular fellowship of IISc] was an agitation that Joshi was involved with. He also speaks about some protests on campus in the early 1980s when Prince Charles visited. These were to do with the fact that the Director of IISc, Satish Dhawan, who would hardly spend time in the campus was suddenly spending time there and the students were unhappy about the manner in which Indians going to Britain were being treated those days. Joshi lists multiple family members and the teaching and related academic activities that they were involved with. He agrees to speak more about his time at CES and the collaborations he was involved with in the next session. [Archivist’s note: RN Apte is the interviewee’s mother’s mother’s father whom he mentions in the interview as being one of the founders of the Indian Mathematical Association; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist’s note: Madhusudan Gokhale is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as his father’s sister’s husband who was the principal of a teachers’ training college; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist’s note: Vibhavari Gokhale is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as his father’s sister who was a teacher in a school; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist’s note: Purushottam K Kelkar is the cousin the interviewee mentions in the interview as founder director of IIT Kanpur; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist’s note: interviewee’s father, not referred to by his name in the interview; name obtained from previous interview session] [Archivist’s note: interviewee’s father’s name: Vasudeo Kashinath Joshi; not referred to by his name in the interview; name obtained from previous interview session] [Archivist’s note: interviewee’s brother’s name: Yateendra Joshi; not referred to by his name in the interview; name obtained from previous interview session] [Archivist’s note: Govind Hari Kelkar is the interviewee’s mother’s father who is mentioned in the interview as the founder principal of the law college; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist’s note: Gajanan Kashinath Joshi is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as the uncle in a bank who started his career as a teacher in a school; name obtained from interviewee post interview] [Archivist's note: Shakuntala Kelkar is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as his mother’s sister who was a professor of botany; name obtained from interviewee post-interview] [Archivist's note: Shridhar Kelkar is the cousin the interviewee mentions in the interview as having a PhD degree in education; name obtained from interviewee post-interview] [Archivist’s note: interviewee’s mother’s name: Pradnya Vasudeo Joshi; not referred to by her name in the interview; previously known as Sudha Govind Kelkar; names obtained from previous interview session] [Archivist's note: IG Madanshetty is the person the interviewee mentions in the interview as his aunt's husband, who was a professor of chemistry in Hubli; name obtained from interviewee post-interview]