Madam Vice-Chancellor: A son remembers

After this education, she returned to Patiala, where she started teaching just before Partition. Her younger sisters, Gurdev Kaur and Amarjit Kaur, too received higher education, with the former retiring as Director Regional Institute of English, Chandigarh.

Like many teachers of the time, she was particularly invested in the students, even to the extent of sponsoring the fees of some of them in case the need arose at a particular time. I remember walking in Sector 17 with my mother and seeing a woman with a grandchild in her arms. Seeing the gaze drop, I muttered: “Mama, your student.” When they came near each other, my mother called her by her name and enquired about her younger sister and brother. This reminds me of another incident.

While in school, during my painfully precious phase, I once asked her: “Mama, these girls get married soon after graduating; what is the benefit of teaching them?” The answer came when she became Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1975. Many of her former students wanted their daughters to take professional courses and pursue higher education.

She gained fame as an administrator but remained a teacher at heart. Her appointment to Punjabi University was hailed since she was the first woman Vice-Chancellor in north India. Later, in 1980, she became the first woman Chairperson of the Staff Selection Commission, Delhi. She was responsible for a number of initiatives and reforms as she performed both these roles, and she liked the positive response that she got for them.

Students, however, were always where her heart was. Many said she was a role model for them. She was always connected to them, and they were students for life. After she retired and started living in Chandigarh, we would organise a birthday tea for her.

Her old colleagues and students were among the invitees, many of whom had been both! How they would greet their Ma’am and the affection they would get would be as if the intervening decades had just melted away! She had a way of connecting with people that spanned time and their age effortlessly.

Inderjit Kaur Sandhu was our mother. However, Ravi and I learnt early in our lives that she was also the mother to all the girls, especially those in hostels, and that was just the beginning of her extended family. We so expected to celebrate her 100th birthday today, but Covid took her away just two years shy of the milestone.

As we look back, we celebrate her life, legacy, and the women holding high offices now, including those who are Vice-Chancellors in universities in Delhi, Chandigarh and Ayodhya, among other places.