2 First Few Days in REC

Even though  I joined REC  without much difficulty, I had   my own problems to face  in the beginning. The place was totally unfamiliar, the people around equally unknown, new colleagues and new set of students hailing from different parts of India. From the beginning,  admission to  RECs  were  divided  50 -50 between the state and from outside. In fact, REC  or even NIT  is a small cross section of the country with representatives  from most of the  states and even union territories.

The first problem was of course accommodation. Even though the college  had adequate  accommodation for students on five hostels, named A, B, C , D, E   members of faculty   did not have  number of residential quarters. Getting a house or a room for rent outside the campus was out of question as there were very few buildings available. Even if available, one with adequate toilets and sanitary facilities were almost non-existent. So, junior faculty from outside Calicut had to stay in one of the hostels, Fortunately almost all of the   junior faculty members except those coming from their homes daily were  in a way forced to be  resident wardens in the hostels. For some of us in need of accommodation this was a blessing as we could stay in the hostel free of rent and take food from the  hostel mess by paying  usual charges like the students. Among the five hostels, in 1969, only four were completed. D hostel   was just a  mess hall as the  building was  not completed. I was posted as resident warden  of D  mess and  was allowed to stay in the nearby E  hostel, in a corner room on the first floor of the hostel. As  no room with attached bath was available, the only problem was  to share  the  common bath room and toilet facilities with the students. As E hostel  inmates were the senior most among the students, it was  not difficult  to share  these facilities as I was just one or two years  elder to most of them. Further, as resident warden  of D Mess,  this was convenient to me as  I had  no duty  to monitor the students  except checking the accounts of the  mess bill prepared by the steward at the end of every  month.

Another   problem was the lack of staff room in the department. At that time, there were only two buildings, one the main building MB  which had the administrative offices and the departments of Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Humanities and the other departmental building DB which   housed all the three  departments of Civil, Electrical and Mechanical  engineering. The Civil  Engg department was located in the middle of DB and the  other two at the two extreme  ends of the building.  In all these departments, not enough rooms were available for  teaching staff to sit and naturally the  juniors  were those who could not find a place to sit. Most of us had only laboratory classes except me who was given a theory subject on request and in view of my one year prior  teaching experience. Therefore, it was difficult to find a place to sit whenever we  did  not have a laboratory class.

 Fortunately, the first lecture hall on the ground floor of DB near the Electrical Department was used as  the Staff Club as there  was no separate building for the staff club. Some magazines like TIME, Newsweek and other newspapers were available for reading there. Some of us used to sit there  whenever we did not have any laboratory class. Occasionally a few of us started playing chess etc  in the staff club. Two will play and others  may simply watch others.

One of these days,  our Head of the Department Prof.P.K.Charlu  called some of us and asked  why you people are  playing chess and other games during the working time. In fact, the fact was one day, the Head  of the Civil Department  came to the staff club when two of his  staff members were playing chess and some of us were watching them play. He promptly reported the matter to our Head telling  that junior faculty from EED were playing chess in the staff club during working hours. We told the truth to our Head and being the first time, he only warned us and did not take any disciplinary action. This professor was known to be a little weird in his dealings, we came to know later. Once when students  did not come to his class, he  lectured  in  the empty class room without a single student and next day when the students  came to his class , he said that a few topics were already discussed  in the  earlier class. On another occasion, he invited some of his colleagues for a ride  in his own car to the city and next day gave  a bill for the cost of petrol for the ride  on the previous day equally shared among the passengers.  Some people were telling that he is a bit abnormal in his behaviour occasionally. (I hope his soul will forgive me as he is no longer alive now) 

(to be continued)