Thousand Moon: Shri Surya Prakash Rao Mutharaju
Contributed By: Pam Rao Mallinar
Shri Surya Prakash
Rao Mutharaju (85), my father hails from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. He is the
sixth and the only surviving one of seven children his parents had. Coming from
very modest beginnings in Andhra he strived to get better education and a
successful career. He lived and worked most of his life in New Delhi in the Air
Force headquarters but moved back to his roots in Nellore when he retired in
1989. During his stint at the Air Force he became a leader in the Directorate
of Flight Safety, undertaking some pioneering work and publishing several books
and papers related to human factors in flight safety.
On a recent
visit to Nellore I came upon this old room thermometer hanging on one of the
walls and we began talking about its origins. To my surprise I discovered that
the instrument was from a chemistry lab in Delhi University from the 1940s. Dad
used to study in Hindu College back then and frequented the labs in the main
university building – the same labs that I went to in the 1980s when I studied
at Delhi University. Of course the University was a very different place in the
1940s when my father was there in the midst of huge changes in our nation -
attaining independence and the partition. Initially he was enrolled in a
college called ‘Anglo Arabic College’ near Lodi Colony, Delhi which got shut
down during the partition and he had to very quickly transfer to Hindu College.
Interestingly he recalls just walking in to meet the Principal of Hindu College,
Mr. N.V. Thadani who simply asked him to walk into the Registrar’s office and
get transferred. No formalities, no paper work needed!
Here is his
story in his own words:
Early childhood in jungles and
villages of Andhra
My earliest
memories date back to the early 1930s to our stay at Bellary Cantonment, now in
Karnataka where my father was posted as the station master in the erstwhile MSM
Railway (Madras and Southern Maratha Railway). We used to live in a house
provided by the Railways just adjacent to the Cantonment station platform.
There were very few trains passing through that station and what I remember
most are the military specials arriving there frequently. The earliest sounds I
remember were also the refrains from the bugles coming from the military camp
situated a short distance from the Railway station.
There was
also a small airfield where my father used to take me to watch small trainer
aircraft take off and land. Fascinated though I was by the small flying
airplanes I never imagined that one day I would be associated with the Indian
Air Force for more than two decades as an aviation psychologist.
One of my
most vivid memories is from the time my father was transferred to a small
station called Bogada in the thickness of Nallamalla forest. We lived almost
out of contact with civilization for two years. There was nobody living there
except our family and a porter. We used to travel around in the train engines
and sometimes helped shovel coal into the fire in the engines and operated the
levers at the station based on my father’s instructions. Dacoits and wild
animals were present in the forest and my father owned a shotgun that he fired
in the air when we heard the animals close by. I happened to visit that area a few years back
after almost seventy years to find that much of the forest disappeared leaving
behind bushes and some clusters of trees. I particularly remember a bridge high
above a valley which was some distance away from the Railway station. We used
to roam around in the forest fearlessly though we could occasionally hear
tigers and other animals howling in the distance.
Town life and commencement of
education
After the
mandatory two year tenure in the jungle my father was rewarded with a posting
to Markapur Road Station which was about 5 km away from Markapur town. I was
sent to school for the first time here at the age of eight. My elder sister and
I used to travel to the school in our own bullock cart. After a year at this
school I was sent away to our native place Nellore where my two elder brothers
were already studying in V.R. High school which had produced many illustrious
alumni. It took me some time to get adjusted to the big town life having lived
in small villages and jungles so far. I studied in V.R. High school and V.R.
College from 1937 to 1945. It was during this time that my father passed away
leaving behind a wife and a large family of young kids.
Beginning new life in Delhi
After
passing my high school in Nellore, around 1945 I moved to Delhi where my
brothers were employed in the Army Headquarters. It was again a big challenge for
me to get adjusted to a big city life after having lived in small towns and
villages in the south. It took me about a year to learn to speak Hindi and get
used to the life there. It was only after a couple of years that I found myself
a small circle of friends in the University where I was doing my bachelors in
Chemistry. I used to cycle down to the University which was in North Delhi at a
distance of nearly 10 miles from the government housing in South Delhi where we
lived as a joint family with my brothers and their families. It was a hard life
especially in the cold winters of Delhi when we did not have any woolen clothes
to keep warm. There were shortages of almost all items necessary for a decent
living as it was war time (WW II). Things began to ease a little bit after the
war and we were about to become an independent nation, when the riots that took
place in Delhi leading up to and following the partition threw life out of gear
again. It was a traumatic period for those who were uprooted from their homes
in Punjab and Delhi. The old Delhi culture gradually began to disappear. We had
to learn to adjust to a totally different culture.
After
getting my degree in Chemistry from Delhi University I tried for a few jobs
here and there until I was selected as a clerk in the accounts department in an
office. Finding that job not to my liking I resigned and joined the newly
formed Defense Services Administration as a lab assistant. Along with the job I
wanted to improve my qualifications and so did my Masters in Psychology from
Punjab University by attending evening classes.
Career and Achievements
My education
enabled me to shift to a totally different branch of the Defense services. I
began to work with an eminent Psychologist who had done his PhD from Cambridge
in Applied Psychology. While working with him I gradually began to specialize
in Aviation Psychology and later moved to Air Headquarters as a Senior
Scientific Officer where my job was to study the causes and prevention of
aircraft accidents involving human factors. It was a subject which I found very
interesting and I can say I was the only person who specialized in this field
of aviation psychology at that time. During the nearly two and a half decades
of work there I succeeded in stressing the importance of human factors in the
prevention of accidents which were earlier dubbed under the omnibus category of
‘Pilot Error’. This brought about a gradual change in the attitude of the
authorities towards the pilots who were involved in accidents due to their acts
of commission and omission. There was a better understanding of the reasons for
these errors and more stress began to be paid in their prevention and less on
punitive action.
I am glad that
my work was recognized by my superiors and I was awarded a Commendation by the
Chief of Air Staff a few years before my retirement. After retirement I am now
living happily with my wife in a small apartment in my home town, Nellore. My
two daughters are living abroad with their families and visit us occasionally.
