Nostalgia: ‘We used to pay more attention to girls than classes’

As Poonawala recalled their performance in exams,Pawar spontaneously made a sign of V indicating that he used to pass in second class. “We used to pay more attention to women and passed most of our time at the Fergusson College canteen. I was,however,lucky to be successful,” he said.

Pawar too,in his speech,recalled some memorable events from his college days. “In 1958,when we were in college,the social and political situation was different. We used to attend the lectures of Communist leader S A Dange and go to the Peoples’ Publication House near Alka Talkies to read literature on communism,” he said.

He said,“We were so impressed with the idea of a class-less society that we didn’t bother to pass in any particular class in the college and always preferred third class in the exams. One of our colleagues Balkrishna Agarwal,who was studious and used to get first class,was chief secretary of Maharashtra when I was chief minister. He had once told me that there was no point in studying so much.”