Mugdha Karnik, the firebrand head of the Centre of Extra Mural Studies, retires this month after directing and enabling her team to liven up our understanding of the historic past and the future in the night skies
Mugdha Karnik. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Lined up on the windowsills around the staffroom are rocks in various shapes and sizes. We ask Mugdha Karnik which is the most unusual of them all."All rocks are unusual,"she says, gazing dotingly at them. Right behind where she sits is a quartzite, with its crystals beautifully arranged in a dewy cluster. There are a green-hued amazonite and a swirling chalcedony keeping it company, and on her table is a rock that shimmers with a deep pink.
A garnet in the rough, she tells us. In the right light, the glint of these rocks could convert the staffroom into a retro discotheque."I have many more at home,"says the director of the Centre for Extra Mural Studies (CEMS) at the University of Mumbai, Kalina."People know how I love to collect rocks, and they present me with specimens they find. This one here was given to me by my driver,"she says, pointing to a rock with the subdued glow of amber crystals,"I prefer rough stones over polished diamonds."
"Researching the geology of Mumbai and the Konkan is so important,"says Karnik, the first director of the CEMS, which was set up in 1976.
She is set to retire this month end, having served here for nearly 26 years. The CEMS has, over the years, under Karnik's leadership and her able team, found itself at the fore of major archaeological news in the city, right from The Salsette Exploration Project to its annual exhibition of rocks and fossils that draws huge numbers.
"Extra mural studies was a fancy British term for courses that were beyond the scope of the curriculum,"says Karnik. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the CEMS conducted courses for the University of Mumbai's rural outposts across Maharashtra. A whole array of programmes on astronomy, dramatics and computer studies was taught at these rural camps, with Karnik fine-tuning the audience they catered to. In 2003, these rural camps came to a close.
"At that time, however, a student wrote to us asking why we weren't doing something similar right in Mumbai,"she tells us. Then came some advice from MT Gabhe, the then principal of KJ Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce, that one of the ways that the centre could be self-sufficient, would be to start its own courses. That's how, CEMS got recognised as a centre in 2007, and today conducts certificate courses on archaeology, numismatics, astronomy, gardening and forts, among others. The centre also formally supports the department of archaeology's postgraduate course, initiated last year, but is yet to find infrastructure and financial aid from the University.
"I don't teach any of the courses. But, I know what to teach, who should teach, and who shouldn't. I am like a great sieve over here,"says Karnik. On her desk are little knick-knacks, such as the bust of the Harappan priest from Mohenjo-daro and a Harappan seal. These souvenirs, sculpted by artists, are part of the India Study Centre Trust (INSTUCEN), a non-profit organisation co-initiated by Karnik. The INSTUCEN regularly partners with the CEMS and Sathaye College's Centre for Archaeology for the Salsette explorations, leading to major discoveries of hero stones and Middle Stone Age tools in the city.
Extra-mural studies, as a way of life, are suitable for the polymath in all of us, the sides to us that extend into hobbies and extra-curricular studies. Karnik, therefore, has herself studied all the courses offered by the centre."As a child, I had so many questions, but didn't know whom to ask. For instance, I had this collection of rocks that grew too large for the house. My mother would dispose of them, only to find me with a new collection again,"says the director, who grew up in Khotachiwadi.
She goes on to tell us that students of science need to know more about the humanities and vice-versa."At the age of 14, I realised I was a rationalist. I had a distaste for all those officials who used to check their kundalis. My interest in science grew, and I remember this time during my masters in Social Science, when the professor quizzed us about quantum mechanics. No one in my class had even heard of it, except me,: she says.
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins is on her list therefore. It's next in the line of her six Marathi translations, which include Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and JRR Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings. The latter came about after her daughter encountered a poor translation of Tolkien's The Hobbit, encouraging her to translate the trilogy."I greatly enjoyed The Lord of the Rings. If you are interested in archaeology and astronomy, then you will love the series — the caves, the forests! But, I love the series most for Tolkein's language,"says Karnik, who started off her career as a writer with Navshakti, a Marathi daily, in the late 1980s.
It was while working here that she met her future husband, Dhananjay Karnik."I had asked my editor permission for leave for my MA exams. He denied it, thinking I would cower down, but I quit that job. Dhananjay quit along with me. We were young and in love,"she laughs."Later, however, we decided not to take jobs in the same publication. We needed to earn our bread and butter, right?"After her retirement, Karnik says she will carry on as much work as she can with INSTUCEN and translation.
She is currently pursuing a doctorate in translation studies with the department of English and also hopes to set up a Western Ghats Centre to study the natural and historical wealth of the area. She will continue travelling, she says, visiting places of geological interest, as she has in the past. As Karnik finishes introducing her rocks to us, she looks out of the window and says,"I will miss this centre. Especially the big tamarind tree over here."
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