Abstract: When I was requested to write an article on “My Memories of B.H.U.” for the forthcoming December issue of the journal “The Pharma Review”, I was thrilled to undertake a journey through the memory lane of my wonderful days of B.Pharm. and M Pharm. from 1950-54 in the Department of Pharmaceutics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. This memorable four and a half years of stay in the University not only taught me Pharmacy, but also equipped me to live a life of my own outside the protective umbrella of my little home, down South at Nagercoil, 18 kilometers from Kanyakumari. In those days, travel from home to the University was itself a great experience bus ride, train travel with changes from meter gauge to broad gauge at Madras (presently Chennai), change of trains at Itarsi (as there were no direct train connections) and finally the interesting Tonga ride from Varanasi station to the University. Even though it takes nearly five days to reach Varanasi from Nagercoil, the tedium of the journey was never felt as there were a large number of students from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, studying in this prestigious University B.H.U. The location of the Department of Pharmaceutics was at one end of the University, a full 3 kilometers from the main entrance. Pharmaceutics was a Department of the College of Technology, which also included other Departments like Glass and Ceramics, Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and headed by a dynamic Principal Dr. Gopal Tripathi a Chemical Engineer by profession. In B.H.U. students of the professional courses were all hostel residents and each College has its own Hostel the Morvi Hostel for the College of Technology. However, I and a few classmates were allotted the Shyama Charan De Hostel - again the last in the row of Hostels, nearest to the Department of Pharmaceutics. The two dozen students who joined the first year B.Pharm. course in 1950 got reduced to a dozen and half within a week because of the strict military like discipline in the Department and heavy workload in studies.
From day one, we were initiated into the various aspects of this science, beginning with a warm welcome from our very pleasant and genial father-like Head of the Department Prof. N. K. Basu. We had an array of very capable and knowledgeable faculty members, with a few of them famous for their volatile temper, but very devoted to their work teaching and moulding us into good professional students for the future. They all loved us like their own children and thus elicited a lot of respect and regard from all of us. Besides we had a few research scholars, doing their Ph.D. (including the famous Prof. Harkishan Singh), who were always very helpful in times of need. The new hostel environment, knowledge of my Hindi being nil leading to funny situations, the July weather very unkind with incessant rains, burdened with heavy humidity, adjusting to the new food habit and a very tight work schedule made me feel very home-sick for a few months. Moreover, being the only fondled child of my parents and away from home for the first time, it became a pretty difficult task to adjust to hostel life. Luckily the University had a long Dusshera vacation in October and this gave me the opportunity to rush home for a much awaited holiday. Soon, the situation changed for the better with studies becoming interesting and deep friendship blossoming with classmates and hostel inmates.
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