Over Time, Without Design

Mary Clubwala Jadhav, Founder, Madras School of Social Work

My time at the Madras School of Social Work marked a turning point in my life. The path that led me there was neither planned nor particularly purposeful. In the final semester of my master’s degree in Economics in 1978, a few of us—rebellious backbenchers more in spirit than in consequence—decided to attempt the Union Public Service Commission’s civil services preliminary examination, newly introduced that year as a screening stage. For my part, the attempt went no further than submitting the application.

It was therefore with some surprise that I found myself among the nearly six thousand candidates who had qualified, out of well over a lakh applicants. That outcome placed before me choices for which I was neither fully prepared nor particularly settled.

Those were the days when even an Economics postgraduate often found himself in clerical or sales roles in the private sector, unless he pursued bank or government service. College teaching, though conventional, offered limited openings. Professional qualifications were the practical alternative, but the chartered routes—CA, ICWA, or ACS—did not appeal to me. Law seemed a more serious possibility, and I applied, while keeping the civil services in view.

By then, the examination required two optional subjects. I chose Economics and, more tentatively, Sociology. The Madras School of Social Work entered my life in that context. Its library offered enough for me to begin reading Sociology on my own, and I joined the postgraduate programme in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations while awaiting the law admission results. I did not go to a coaching centre; I prepared on my own, relying on reading and instinct, perhaps with more confidence than preparation.

It was there that I met Achuthan. At the time, there was nothing to distinguish that meeting from many others. In due course, he secured admission to law and, by the second year, left the School to pursue it fully. I remained.

Looking back, I see that my staying on was shaped by more than circumstance. The institution offered an atmosphere of seriousness and disciplined engagement with the realities of work and society. It asked for attention rather than ambition, and offered, in return, a way of thinking that stayed.

In the event, I did not clear the civil services examination. I had done well in Sociology and in several other papers, including the languages and general knowledge. It was Economics—the subject I approached with the greatest confidence—that proved my undoing. Yet what seemed then a disappointment was, in retrospect, a redirection. Professor Nair recognised in me an aptitude for research and drew me into that world as a Research Associate. What I had entered almost by accident had, by then, begun quietly to assume the shape of vocation.