NAAC Visit Gorakhpur

 On 28th April, 2019, in  Gorakhpur for a NAAC visit. I never felt it was a Sunday, for the whole College was there ready for the NAAC Visit. The Chandrakanti Ramawati Devi Arya Mahila PG College is one of the first Degree College in the region established for women in 1990. It has a strong Fine Arts, Home Science B. Ed and M. Ed programmes. Every one we met, faculty, students, Alumni spoke with a lot of emotion and feelings  about their founder Ram Raksha Pandey who is refereed to as Guruji and passed away recently  in January of 2019 at the age of 84. He was a teacher in an  Intermediate College which was a coeducational College but felt the need to have a college for girls and started  this College with seven girls in his home in a room. Soon with his  meagre resources he was able to have  two small rooms and the College started in   1990 and  kept adding to it and  today it has grown by leaps and bonds. Guruji came from a very humble family and saw his first slippers when he was doing his graduation for it was a luxury. Though not a Tata, Birla, Adani or Ambani he could dream big and create this institution for girls. He did his MA and Ph. D in Sanskrit along with teaching and he girls. He has influenced all the students and was personally involved with them on a  day to day basis. The alumni also spoke about him in glowing terms. He seems to have touched many lives. Though I have never met this gentleman and never knew any thing  about him, I could sense his presence in the campus and the strong impact he has had on so many lives and the motivation he has provided to the girls to become independent, think of themselves and grow up  as individuals with strong personality. In the daily assembly that they have he was present regularly and came occasionally only towards his last day's when he was sick. He would narrate an incident that was reported in that days paper and ask the girls to explain where it occurred and what were the other details. He wanted the girls to be update with world affairs. He comes across as one very sensitive to gender issues. Listening to many of them talking about him with incidents in their lives    and the sense of loss that they feel now left a lump in my throat many a  times. I am glad that the College is planning to convert his room into a museum with his belongings and they want to have his statue installed in the college. It is a very noble gesture and one really worth implementing. In my parting remarks I told the College to publish the life story of Guruji and bring out his biography. They have promised that I will get the first copy. The College also has a Fashion design department and in the evening in the cultural programme they showed us a fashion show where the girls wore and did a cat walk with  dresses designed by them. The dresses were very much Indian in design and style. I could never imagine a fashion show in Gorakhpur of all the places. Day one was very interesting though very tiring from morning, seven to eight at night and then after a quick dinner another round of meetings and writings till eleven thirty at night. I loved the dress of the B. Ed and MEd girls who all wear saress and looked liked Air hostesses, for they wore their sarees so neatly and beautifully, tucked and pinned so professionally. A great experience.