In Conversation with Dr. Ajit Mozoomdar New Delhi, 2012-2013 (Interview conducted in parts)
| Author | S.N. Sinha |
| Published date | 01 January 2016 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120160109 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DOCUMENT!
IN CONVERSATION
WITH
DR.
AJIT
MOZOOMDAR
NEW DELHI, 2012-2013 (Interview conducted in parts)
S.N.SINHA
SNS: Sir, it
is
difficult for me to explain to myself how I am meeting
you for the first time in
2011
when I have been eager to meet
you for so many years. Sir, this meeting is with the objective
of
having some interactive sessions with you, like the ones I have
had with three
of
our colleagues, Shri R.C. Sinha, Shri Saran
Singh, and Shri L. Dayal.
We
could begin straightaway from
your university days as a student.
AM: Thank you very much, Sinha. Well it is tempting to dwell a little
on the exciting period
but
I would better allow this excitement
to flow through our interactive session which, I am afraid would
require to be supplemented by one or more meetings.
Your visit rekindles many memories
of
my
personal and
professional association with Bihar which I had left virtually
in 1958 on
my
posting as Jute Commissioner, Ministry
of
Commerce, Government oflndia, Calcutta. However, Bihar has
been my birth place and my father Dr.
P.K.
Mozoomdar retired
as
Director
of
Public Health, Bihar. This post, I may add, used
to be held by Army officers
of
the Indian Medical Cotps. During
the Second World War
Anny
officers holding such posts were
drafted for war duties and my father, not an IMS officer, held
this assignment.
About my University education I had
my
post-graduate studies in
Mathematics at Patna Science College, Patna. However, before
we move further I would also like to know a little about you,
particularly about your current engagements.
SNS: I have continued to pursue
my
1980-bom dream to develop
Koshi region, in the field
of
coconut-palm plantation, as the
Kochi
of
North India. As Area Development Commissioner-
cum-Chairman, Command Area Development Agency, Saharsa,
. I had undertaken this experiment in a non-traditional area which
turned out to be a great success story. A monograph entitled, The
Trees
of
Heaven Fruit in a Forbidden Land, an attempt to tell
DOCUMENT
1 /
119
the story
of
implementation
of
small-scale programme is nearing
completion.
I also edited
my
poems in Hindi written over decades and two
anthologies, namely, Aathwan Din ( 1997) and Dasam Ras ( 1999)
were published by Ms Radhakrishna Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., Delhi.
For the last four years I have been engaged in research work on
the life and times
of
Mahesh Narayan (1859-1907), the father
of
journalism in Bihar and, more importantly, the maker
of
modem province
of
Bihar along with
Dr.
Sachchidanand Sinha.
Simultaneously, I have been working on the life and times
of
Braja Kishore Prasad ( 1877-1946), one
of
the closest associates
of
Gandhiji in the Champaran Movement
of
1917, one whom
Gandhiji had called the soul
of
public service in Bihar and one
whose daughter Prabhawatiji, married to Jayaprakash Narayan
(J.P.) was the 'adopted' daughter ofKasturba and Gandhiji and
Sabarmati Ashram itself. I have also been enjoying this project
of
interactive sessions with some former civil servants.
AM:
You
should have better continued with your research work on
Mahesh Narayan and Braja Kishore Prasad. I had heard about
the latter so much during the six months
of
my district training at
Darbhanga where he had been an eminent lawyer. That is far more
important. Diverting your time and attention to discussions with
us could have perhaps waited. I would advise you to complete
the research work on Braja Kishore Prasad and Mahesh Narayan.
SNS: The two projects are well underway, Sir. A long
paper
on
Mahesh Narayan and another on Braja Kishore Prasad have
been presented at an International Seminar on Hundred Years
of
Creation
of
Modem Province
of
Bihar, 2012, focusing
on
Dr.
Rajendra Prasad and his contemporary freedom fighters
of
Bihar
organised jointly
by
the Rajendra Bhawan Trust, New Delhi, and
Jamia Milia Osmania, New Delhi. This project too has its own
significance, as you would appreciate. Indeed, I have already
missed, among others, recording the interviews with two other
eminent officers
of
Bihar cadre, Shri
P.P.
Agrawal, ICS, and
Shri
P.S.
Appu, IAS. I had a very interesting session with Shri
Agrawal, more so,
as
he himself while shaking hands at his door-
steps had reminded me that we were meeting after 35 years. A
Cambridge Wrangler,
as
you know and according to Mr. Appu,
a confirmed dissenter in the service, Shri Agrawal, however, had
begun and concluded the session with the rider that nothing
of
this should be published. And before I could meet for the second
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