METAMORPHOSIS OF A STUDENT

 Dr Mahesh Chandra Agrawal MVSc, Ph.D. was born on 26th April 1944 at Firozabad, U.P. and had a brilliant academic career receiving University Gold Medals being first in order of merit in BVSc & A.H. (1967) , and MVSc [1974], JNKVV. He got ICAR Senior Fellowship (1974] for Ph.D. (1978] and several other national awards. In January 1995, he was awarded ICAR National Fellow which happened first in Parasitology in India and first in JNKVV. He has worked on Stephanofilariasis, Sarcocystosis and Schistosomiasis and his work has extensively been referred. He has published review on Stephanofilarial dermatitis in India, Parasitology in India since independence, on Schistosoma incognitum, S. spindale, nasal schistosomiasis, beside contributing chapters on schistosomiasis and fluke Epidemiology. He is the Fellow of National Academy of Veterinary Science India since 1997. Presently he is the Professor and Head, Department of Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science &A.H., Jabalpur.

There is a proverb "Triya Charittram, Purushashya Bhagyam , Daivo na Janami, kuto manusyah" ( No one can claim to understand fully the character of a woman; neither one has seen the fate of a man) . When I look to my past, the proverb appears immensely true .No one in my family would have imagined that one day I will be a scientist . Born in a business family in a small town (Firozabad- now a district) of Uttar Pradesh, and being the eldest son, my father insisted on my joining the family business which was of glass bangles- for which the town is famous. Least interested to join that monotonous life, I prayed to allow me for higher studies and was supported by my mother . This was the first turning point in my life which made me a Parasitologist instead of a businessman. After graduation in 1967 from Jabalpur Veterinary College, I joined as Vety Asstt Surgeon in ‘Amethi’ tahseel of Uttar Pradesh. Soon my colleagues came to know of my being a university gold medalist and Looking to my introvert nature they rather forced me to go back to veterinary college . Realizing the field realities , I rejoined the veterinary college of Jabalpur in Jan, 1968 in the department of Physiology as a demonstrator. At that time, Parasitology was not in my mind like any other veterinarian of that time. This was the time when Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya ,of which the college became a constituent unit, was taking shape under the first vice chancellor Dr. J.H. Patel while Dean Faculty was Dr. R.L.Kaushal.

 Under the leadership of Dr Kaushal , a drive was made to attract talented teachers to join the college as University Professors. This was the period when Dr. S.K Ranjan (Nutrition) ,Dr. D.P. Mukherjee, Dr. PN Bhatt (Animal breeding), Dr. A. Ahmad (Pharmacology), Dr. B.S. Malik (Microbiology) joined the veterinary faculty as professors in different departments. It was during this time we came to know that one eminent scientist who had been conferred with the Rafi Ahmad Kidwai award of ICAR is coming from IVRI to join as Professor and Head of Parasitology( that time Dr HL Shah,State Professor was in USA & pursuing his Ph.D). And he was our guru Dr. S.C. Dutt who joined JNKVV services in Nov. 1969. The faculty was allowing demonstrators to join MVSc as in service candidate but only after completing five years of the service. However, that rule was relaxed to two years hence I became eligible to join MVSc as in-service candidate in 1970. During this ensuing period , I was shifted from Physiology to Medicine department. Obviously my first choice for MVSc was Medicine , second Pharmacology and third - Animal Breeding and Genetics. But I was given admission in Parasitology which proved to be the second turning point but was difficult to predict. There is a story why I was admitted in Parasitology although I had not opted it under any choice. At that time, the V.V. had a rule to hold MVSc courses only in those subjects where a minimum of four students had applied else the course will not run during that year. Since there were less than four students for Medicine and Pharmacology, the courses could not be started. Incidentally, two students applied for Parasitology hence two more were pooled to run the course and one of the gathered students was me. Initially, I was not inclined to join Parasitology. For this reason, I met Dr R.L.Kaushal and requested him to consider my case for Medicine. Like a good administrator, he asked me to wait for next year when the subject may have a minimum of four students but without any assurance.

 However, he suggested that being a brilliant student I should join Parasitology since now the department is headed by an eminent scientist. He gave me suggestion to meet Professor S.C Dutt and thereafter I may decide according to my wish. This was the first meeting with my Guru Dr S.C.Dutt. I narrated my interest in Medicine and none to Parasitology. I frankly told him that I had neither interest nor skill to mug up all the measurements of eggs, worms or to remember a long list of zoological names of the parasites, its intermediate hosts etc . I admit that my Professor was having immense convincing power and great knowledge of the subject. In this meeting, I was convinced that Parasitology is not mugging up morphological measurements or zoological names of the parasites, rather it is a new world of small animals and that I may remain in the department of Medicine even after completing MVSc in Parasitology, if I desired. Therefore, I decided to join MVSc in Parasitology. Admittedly I was not able to recognize my guru at that time. I can only say 'tab maya bas phirahu bhulane, ta te mai nahi prabhu pahachane' . Interestingly, two candidates left the course after some time and only two of us , Dr S.G. Nikhale a veterinarian from veterinary diagnostic laboratory, Maharashtra, and me remained to continue the subject.

By and by ,we started accumulating knowledge on the subject. Our Professor was taking great pains in teaching us the subject. Actually he generated great interest in the subject and we were fascinated to see new structures under the microscope. How a drop of methylene blue or other dye stains the cercaria to unravel the activity of its flame cells or movement of digestive tract of a nematode or movement of buccal cavity of a hook worm or spicules of the males. All these events were fascinating and we forgot that we have to mug up these characters; rather we memorized them without any effort. First time, we were introduced with what is called 'zoological key'. To our delight there was no need of mugging up morphological measurements or all the characters of a parasite. There is a key which unlocks the mystery of a parasite's identification by excluding one by one the characters of a genus or of a species and one can ultimately identify the parasite even up-to species level; so it is the key which opens the mystery of identity of a creature hence it is called the zoological key. Earlier, we were studying all the characters of the parasite. Now studying all but by excluding one by one we could place the parasite in its order, or super family, family, genus and finally to its species level.

When Dr Dutt started teaching us cestodes, it was not the mature tapeworm alone which was of concern; in-fact this was the only stage we were aware of and had seen but mostly under preserved conditions. We have seen hydatid cysts in the laboratory but not beyond that. Now, our professor took us to the slaughter house and we not only saw the cysticercus but brought to the laboratory to see the live one under a compound microscope. The intermediate host for poultry cestodes are insects including ants. Therefore, we went to the place where poultry faeces were dumped and searched out insects to dissect them in the laboratory for recovering cysticercoids. Every biology student reads about Fasciola hepatica and its life cycle starting from high school to higher classes .We have studied in more details about the parasite in our graduate classes. These were preserved specimens, stained slides and shells of the snails to which we were exposed in our BVSc classes. Dr Dutt took us around Jabalpur and showed water pools, ponds and there we saw a living snail, moving with the help of its foot. The fresh water snails, present in the water sources, were brought to the laboratory where we were told about their chief characters for identification. Thus we knew a soccer like snail is Indoplanorbis exustus, conical snail with more wide opening and pointed apex will be Lymnaea auricularia while narrow opening and blunt apex will be of Lymnaea luteola . We were trained to examine these snails for confirming trematode infections within them. The cercariae will come out according to their time and will change into metacercariae after some time ; if not, this is suggestive of involvement of a second intermediate host. We learnt to examine a large number of snails for trematode infections including their dissection for observing developing larval stages of the trematodes(whenever I now visit any place or see any water source even from a distance ,my first reaction is to know whether the ecological conditions are favorable for fresh water snails) .

Dr Dutt had enough experience on Stephanofilariasis ( prior coming to Jabalpur, he was Helminthologist of all India coordinated project on stephanofilarial dermatitis) and his visits to the local dairies and slaughter houses convinced him that though hump sore was absent in the area, ear sore was existing in buffaloes at Jabalpur . We collected the ears of buffaloes from slaughter houses and learnt how to recover Stephanofilaria worms or their larval stages from the skin, see the microfilariae and also learnt to calculate the area of the skin to estimate concentration of the worms per square cm of the skin. Another fascinating technique was the camera lucida drawings , its importance , how it works and what precautions should be taken during such studies . I may say that Dr Dutt taught us all the techniques which were prevalent at that time in Parasitology and these helped us greatly in studying the subject at later stage of our career. Dr Dutt was a visionary and visualized the future problems of Helminthology. He was well aware that the old field of studying morphology of the parasite will not go a long way. Instead this will be replaced soon by the work on histopathology, immunology, chemotherapy and diagnosis. Therefore, he wanted that we should equip our self with the latest knowledge and techniques. I take pride in saying that his vision paid me maximum dividends in my professional life.

 I remember that my seniors and contemporary scientists found themselves in an odd position when their old morphological works became difficult to be published in reputed journals hence they lost interest in further research. On the other hand , my training encouraged me to learn new techniques and to explore new fields depending on the facilities available in the institute. Perhaps , this is the reason, why I was able to continue my research work since 30 years though the main topic generally remained schistosomes and schistosomiasis. During that period (about 1970) Dr Dutt had submitted a research scheme to ICAR on immunity on schistosomiasis (this came in operation since 1973 and continued in the department even after leaving of Dr Dutt to ICAR, New Delhi in Nov 1974) . Obviously, he was interested in carrying out some preliminary work on immunity on the schistosomes hence he suggested anyone student may take up this problem. Another problem in his mind was that of ear-sore. But he insisted that both students should learn all the techniques and develop general knowledge on the subject. For this reason, both, me and Dr Nikhale learnt how to examine snails for schistosome cercariae, their counting, infecting mice and recovering blood flukes from them. Sacrifice of a mouse and recovering the blood flukes (and for immunological work, we have to collect and count all the blood flukes present in the animal) was a time consuming process. I still remember that a whole day's labor would result in the examination of just 2-3 mice ; really it was a tedious job. I used to think why there is not a simple method by which we can examine the animals within hours instead of wasting the whole day. This laziness of mine later resulted in the development of a perfusion technique which was further simplified by replacing the automatic pipe ting machine with a vertical water pump commonly used in the desert water coolers (the common opinion appears true that most of the inventions have been made by the lazy persons and for the lazy men).

 However, I was an in-service candidate who was allowed to bear only half load of the courses. Therefore, there was still some time in beginning of my research work while that of Dr Nikhale was to start in July 1971. Therefore, Dr Nikhale was given the work of investigating immunity against Schistosoma incognitum in albino mice which was the first of its kind in India (unfortunately, papers could not be published from the thesis; perhaps since Dr Dutt left Jabalpur while Dr Nikhale joined back his field services with little interest in publications). Since Dr Nikhale had taken up the work on schistosome immunity, I took up the work on ear-sore in buffaloes. But it was not a single aspect of ear sore which I had to tackle. Tackling of one aspect might have been sufficient for MVSc degree but that would neither train me in all aspects of Parasitology nor would provide a holistic view of the problem. Therefore, I was given almost all the possible aspects of the problem. This included epidemiology of ear-sore in buffaloes at Jabalpur, vectors for ear-sore, assessing animal husbandry practices which may change prevalence of the infection, morphology of the nematodes including their larval stages, microfilariae, gross and histopathology of the infection, checking whether cattle are harboring the parasite and if not, the possible reasons for the same, and chemotherapy of the malady -both in vitro and in vivo using differential applications. Handling all these aspects not only trained me in almost all disciplines of parasitology under able guidance of Dr Dutt but also threw new light on the problem.

 I take pride in saying that this work had not only resulted in publication of 8 research papers , quite a good number for MVSc level, but later I was able to publish a review paper on stephanofilarial dermatitis in India in Veterinary Research Communications published by Elsevier, Netherland. This review paper ,mine first and that too in an international journal (published in co-authorship of Prof H.L. Shah) is a testimony how Dr Dutt taught us to analyze problems and to focus on problems of importance. Generally, thesis writing is a tedious job, specially for a MVSc student who is completely inexperienced in writing any research material and fails to understand why his written material is rejected by his guide. This is the testing time and some bitterness may develop between guide and student. However, my teacher was having very good understanding for the fresher. He explained how a long sentence may be cut short without changing its meaning and that research writing did not depend on vague answers -rather it needs specific data, references to support one's views. The greatest quality of Professor Dutt was of encouraging a student’s writing. He did not believe in dictating the subject matter but corrected what the students have written. I do remember that my writing did not see unnecessary cuts which developed confidence in me in writing a research paper. Due to his pleasant nature, deep and thorough knowledge, more cordial relations developed during this period. This was because of his training that I could submit the research papers from my MVSc thesis to him or to the scientific journals even without much help since he left the college just after my MVSc thesis.

Our teacher always encouraged us to think on new ideas and the way to solve a scientific problem .He insisted that we should do the work by ourselves. At Jabalpur, he had started working on amphistomes and collecting the parasites from different sources (ultimately, this with addition of more work at PAU culminated in to a monograph on Paramphistomes and Paramphistomiasis in domestic ruminants in India, published by PAU, Ludhiana in 1980) and realized the need to develop a simple method for studying miracidium development within the amphistome egg. He explained us the problem and probable solutions and encouraged me to culture the amphistome eggs under different conditions. Under his guidance, we were able to recover miracidia from the amphistome eggs kept on a filter paper soaked in diluted formalin-and this resulted in publication of a short research note. Likewise, while teaching, he told us how to keep the fresh water snails in the laboratory and need of changing the water daily or so .But the method was cumbersome and causing mortality. To solve the problem, we have to prepare a biologically balanced aquarium which will recycle the snails' faeces and will also supply oxygen to the snails. I still remember he provided me with a research paper on the topic after discussing the problem and its possible solutions. Under his able guidance, I was able to make a biologically balanced aquarium using local aquatic weeds and oligochaetes (again this resulted in to publication of a short research note).

Dr Dutt left the college and sometime in 1975 he visited the college with some other scientists. He showed that aquarium to the fellow scientists and told that it was prepared by me .This was his greatness to give credit to his students ignoring his guidance -in fact without which nothing was possible. These two examples are sufficient to tell how he inculcated the skill to visualize the problem in a holistic view and the possible ways to solve the problem. This is the most wanting thing without which all the research degrees remain cosmetic ones and scholars fail to recognize the problems or the ways of solving them . There is no doubt that Dr Dutt established the Parasitology department at Jabalpur in real sense and was instrumental in starting experimental work in Helminthology- which gave a strong hold to the department and brought name and fame not only in India but outside India as well. In fact, these were the basic techniques which are very special for schistosomiasis, that were made familiar to staff of the department and because of these techniques the work was continued. With passage of time, the techniques were further refined and more and more knowledge was gathered on schistosomiasis. Thus we were able to further improve the techniques of maintaining the snails in the laboratory, infecting them in large number, infecting all sorts of the animals with schistosome cercariae, and development of a perfusion technique which is amicable to all sizes of the animals. We were able to demonstrate in contrast to earlier observations, that albino mice do pass eggs of S. incognitum in faeces which may be seen by acid- ether method after 43 days of the infection and afterwards. Again, in contrast to earlier observations, guinea-pig proved a good host for developing and maintaining S.spindale in the laboratory and existence of nasal schistosomiasis in buffaloes and cross bred cattle at Jabalpur was established. The life of our teacher was totally devoted to the science and he was not involved in politics at all. However, it will be wrong to assume that he could not assess the prevailing conditions of the college. He tried to upgrade the department and was instrumental in bringing many good microscopes including phase contrast and stereoscopic microscopes. He started Ph.D. in the department from 1972. He was not a complaining personality .

However, I guess that my teacher had understood that the university lacked the infrastructure needed for research; perhaps it also lacked what we call research culture. And since Dr Dutt had much to explore in the field of science, he preferred to quit the university but without any complain. When we think about our teachers, there are only a few who influence a student and only one who metamorphoses the student .This is a term which we are explaining to our students in Entomology classes mentioning that metamorphosis is of two types. One is incomplete where the creature under goes the change without changing itself completely. The other one is complete metamorphosis where the two creatures -one going under metamorphosis and the other emerging are all together different creatures- both morphologically as well as physiologically. Its literary meaning I had understood then but the deep meaning I understand today. What Dr Dutt had done almost three decades ago and in a short span of time was a complete metamorphosis of mine. What so ever I could achieve in my life is because of his teachings. And when we realize this fact, we are bound to accept the real place of Guru in one's life- his real importance. I am proud of My Guru- late Professor S. C. Dutt.