Dr. CL Patel

admission in Vidyanagar's V P Science College. He used to
come to the college either by bus or on cycle or on foot.
N M Shah, a wrangler, was the principal at that time. He was
highly strict and expected discipline from the students. Even
students were scared of him. Chhotubhai says : “N M Shah
used to live in the house where the present Director of CDC
stays now. There was a public toilet between his house and
the college. As soon as N M Shah came out of his house,
students would rush to the toilet to avoid being noticed by
him. I was also one of them.” However, Chhotubhai has great
respect for N M Shah. He also remembers the lecturers of the
college with fond sentiments : “Dr. P C Vaidya and C M Shah
used to teach us mathematics. Chemistry was taught by
Mankad saheb. The present Secretary of Charutar Vidya
Mandal Dr. R P Patel used to be a demonstrator of Physics.
Prabhu and R A Dave were our English teachers.”
“Dave saheb used to teach English so interestingly that
you would never feel like leaving the class…”, Chhotubhai
narrated a wonderful incident while remembering this :
“Once there was a lecture by Dave sir. I took out a pencil from
my friend's pocket. So Dave sir said, 'Somebody has stolen
something from somebody's pocket. Stealing is also an art.'
I was so embarrassed that I placed back the pencil in my
friend's pocket right away.”
Amidst such wonderful experiences, Chhotubhai finished
his first year of college. He wanted to go to the USA at that
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