22 Tribute to my Senior teachers at REC

When  I joined in REC  Calicut in 1969,  our Head  of the Department  was Prof.P.K.Charlu and  Dr.P.S.Srinivasan was the second in command. Both were from Tamil Nadu but totally different in demeanour. Many people were of the opinion that Prof.Charlu was too casual in his approach to departmental administration, but I have my own first-hand experience of how he can do things very seriously if required. He was staying in the Calicut city in a rented house and was travelling  to the  campus and back by college  bus. So, he was very particular to complete all official work   by  4.35 PM,  the time at which the college  bus leaves the campus. Before he leaves the office, his peon will take his bag to the college bus and keep it on his regular seat. This will make sure that bus will not leave without him. Even if he was presiding over the departmental meeting or hostel committee meeting as Chief Warden discussing important matters, as soon as he sees the watch indicating  430, he used to stop the meeting abruptly telling that the meeting will resume  next day or ask someone else to continue  the meeting on his behalf. 

Dr. P.S.Sreenivasan(PSS) was   mostly  taking care  of the  academic  administration in the department. He was very systematic in all matters. He will invariably take his theory class during the first hour starting at   8 o’clock itself. He will go back to his quarters and take a cup of coffee and come back and concentrate on the administrative work. He was one of the best teachers in the college. He will write almost everything on the  black board in beautiful handwriting and explain things  in a simple way so that even the  worst student in the class will understand what he teaches. He will record all details about his students in the attendance register and he used to keep these for years together. Even if a student asks for a testimonial from him for higher studies or a job, he will make it precisely based on the records available with him. We used to ask the students to send a brief biodata for such recommendations, but Dr.PSS never asked for it. He used to give a special prize for students to are present in all the classes he has taken without even an hour absent. The only complaint about him was he was too much bothered about the legal aspects of all things, probably a legacy he got from his father who was an advocate.  I was a member of the Council of Wardens when Dr.PSS  was the  Chief Warden and  I used to   prepare  draft  notices and memos  to be circulated in the hostel. He was rarely satisfied with our first draft, or even second draft and in our exasperation, once or twice, I requested him to dictate the  matter instead  of working on my draft. It was my earliest lessons in drafting official documents and I am happy to  state  that towards  the end of our term, he used to accept  my draft with little  modification. For a long time, Dr.PSS  was the only person with PhD  in our department , having done his PhD  from USSR after  taking a break from REC.  He was one of the earliest to join the department but as  he was  not granted leave  for higher studies, he resigned and left for  higher studies in USSR. Later he returned to the same institution after his PhD as he loved the institution so much. He was the first person to initiate some research and development work in the department with his thyristor-controlled fan regulators, solid state starters for induction motors along with some other colleagues. Naturally, he became the second professor in the department after Prof.Charlu, in spite of some undercurrents that could have  deprived him of this  legitimate  claim. After  his retirement, he joined a famous university in Thanjavur and jokingly someone remarked he was  the  youngest among the  professors there ! On the  personal front, his daughter and  my daughter were  class mates till pre degree. His daughter   graduated in medicine from Calicut  Medical College whereas  my daughter joined engineering in REC  itself.

Among the teachers from Kerala, I was closest to Sri.P.K.Bharathan and without doubt I am  ready to state that he was my  guru(mentor) in the department. He had taken his masters from I.I.T. Kharagpur in Control Systems and I was also keen  to pusue my higher studies  in   Control Systems. He was also a very good teacher very much liked by all his students. Our friendship still remains active even today, several years after retirement. He was an excellent   singer and no staff student get together will pass  without Bharathan Sir singing a song. It could be the farewell party to the final students   or the Annual day of the staff club. He was the only senior staff member who was kind enough to come to Guruvayoor  for my wedding and bless us. Remember, this was just a few months after my joining the college. He got married  a few months later and had four  super smart boys as children, all of them really  good professional with the eldest  practicing as a doctor  in UK. We had one of his sons as our own student in the department who is an  IT expert now. While I was doing my M.Tech in I.I.T.Madras, Bharathan Sir  was  doing his PhD in the same department . Along with Prof.A Achyuthan Sir of Mechanical Department,Sri. V.George and myself sat as pillion riders  on their motor  bikes to go to Mount road to see some  movies in Safire theatre.

Among other seniors in the department were  M/s .C.S.Sankaran, S.Thiruvengadam, Thomas Joseph,  P. P.Gervadis, V K Damodaran,  K V S Bhat , I K Kurien , M N Neelakantan , H Ganesh and F Gajendran. Mr. K .V.S .Bhat had returned after his higher studies in the East West University in Hawaii and left the college early  to  seek his fortune elsewhere. Similarly  C.S.Sankaran in whose staff room I got a place to sit after a few months roaming about without a seat in the department also left REC to join the Ministry of Labour & Training, Government of India  as Assistant Director. He is now back in Thrissur in his family home continuing his poetic efforts and occasionally publishing it in face book. I .K.Kurien   was the Secretary Staff Association when  our  promotion was cancelled. After several confrontations with  the Principal,  he also left  REC  to    join a cement factory. Sri.Thomas Joseph Sir left for an assignment in Nigeria and did not return to REC. Similarlt Sri. H Ganesh also left for better pastures in a research and development  organisation  ( KELTRON/ ERDC,if I remember correct) in Thiruvananthapuram.  Sri. V.K.Damodaran Sir had several assignments in Thiruvananthapuram  in State  Institute of Languages  first and then  in Electrical Inspectorate and finally decided to resign from REC and joined Kerala Government as Secretary  Science & Technology and later Director  in Energy Management centre. He still continues his  efforts very actively through  the professional societies like Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as a Senior  Life Member. Another person was Sri.F.Gajendran   who had several peculiarities and was always the target of fun  in our departmental meeting as he used  to take any number of sweets offered to him by others. In the department, he was the  person always talking about research and has  guided a few  of my  colleagues  for PhD  in Calicut  University  for PhD. When  the Headship  in the department was rotated among the professors every three years, he alone refused  to take  up the responsibility. Later when I was the Head  of the Department, I had a bitter experience  with him as  he  was about  to hit  me  in anger. As Head, I was collecting all the publications  by the  members of the department for keeping it in a file. In spite of my personal requests, he refused  to give copies of his publications. When I repeatedly asked him, one day he was about to hit me and I had  to run away as he was much  stronger than me, as his name  itself implies. (king of elephants)   

M N Neelakantan was just leaving for higher studies in Australia when I joined the college and he returned after three years with his PhD. He continued to contribute to the development of the department and was the heart and soul of the Computer Science course when it was started and later became the Head of the Department of Computer Science when it was formed. No one can forget his commendable efforts in the development of the computer labs and computer centre as common facility of the college.  He belonged to a family of traditional priests (Namboodiris)  of the  Sun temple in Kaduthuruthy near  Kottayam .   He used  to do   special pooja for Adithya once in a week, even when he was in Australia.  After retirement, he was living in Bangalore with his two sons and working in M S Ramaiah Institute, Our dear MNN succumbed to a massive heart attack while he was having his annual ayurvedic treatment in Kerala .

Prof S.Thiruvengadam, hailing from Tamil Nadu,  was  also my  mentor   in many ways especially in professional society activities  like IEEE  where  he introduced me. He made me the Counsellor for IEEE Computer Society chapter when it was formed in the early 80s when he was the Student Branch Counsellor of IEEE. After retirement he joined a self financing college in Shri Perumbudur. He hails  originally from Pondicherry and he was  very good in French language and was an accredited translator from French to English. He used to teach French to some of  us, teachers and students. He lives in Chennai now and we are still in contact. He took  the trouble  of coming all the way to  Alapuzha to bless  my daughter and her husband on their wedding day. Sir  is even now active in face  book  with useful posts on Mathematics.

Among the  younger persons  in the department, I can never  forget   Sri. Y.Venkataramani (YV) who was just one year senior to me and we became friends in the  first of the three  sequential summer schools in I.I.T Madras(while  I attended  the school from TKMCE). He was the person most helpful to me in pursuing my higher studies  for M Tech and PhD. He was such a close friend who encouraged me to apply for admission for PhD when there was just one vacancy and naturally he was the person eligible for the same.  He   was kind enough even to personally type copies of my certificates for sending applications for higher studies abroad. We travelled together in the same train Jayanthi Janatha  in the same  sleeper compartment with our respective families up to  Jhansi. YV and family  broke the journey at Jhansi to go to I.I.T.Kanpur and we  proceeded to  Delhi  to join  I.I.T.Delhi.  For a long time, he was the only person in the Electrical Engg department with specialisation in Electronics Engineering. YV, as he was popularly known, was instrumental in setting up the Electronics laboratories in Electrical Engineering department and later in Electronics & Communication Department when it was formed a few years after starting the B Tech programme in Electronics Engineering. He was sometimes called Encyclopedia  Venkataramanica  because  of his profound  General knowledge. He was invariably the best quizmaster in the campus. His son, another child prodigy of our campus has done his MBA  in  one of the  best universities(Wharton)  in USA and is  with Boston Group now . YV also took early retirement and joined an engineering college in Trichy under his family trust. After helping them as Principal and later as Adviser, he is also spending his retired life in Pondicherry.

 I can never forget the personal guidance from all of these colleagues particularly Bharathan Sir,  Thiruvengadam sir, Neelakantan Sir and my dear  YV. 

Among the above, Prof  Charlu, Prof Srinivasan,Prof  Neelakantan and Sri Gajendran are  no more.  Bharathan Sir  is shuttling between  his houses in Kozhikode and Irinjalakuda, Prof.Gervadis  is still in Kozhikode. Prof.Thiruvengadam in Chennai, Dr YV in Pondicherry and C S Sankaran in Thrissur. I have no idea where others are.

I take this opportunity to pay my tribute to all my senior colleagues in the department who has helped me to be what  I was in REC Calicut till my superannuation in 2011.

Note :  This  note is  on my  colleagues in   the department of Electrical Engineering. There are  several persons  from other departments   who have  helped me. They will  be remembered  in these notes in future .