4. Early friends and minor quarrels in the department

As  briefly mentioned earlier, five  of us together joined the department of Electrical Engineering in 1969. These were Sri.Raghurami Reddy from Andhra Pradesh(Ongole), M/s E.Vasu, P Jaradhanan and K M Moideenkutty. Sri Vasu and Janardhanan were from Kozhikode, Moideenkutty  hailing from Tanur,  was my classmate in TKM College of Engg and had joined REC  as a provisional lecturer after a few months in a polytechnic in Tirur. The atmosphere in the department was very cordial. Moreover, we were all  equally  poor like  Bernard Shaw said about socialism “poverty equally shared”  in the sense that no room to sit in the department nor have quarters  to live. Those from Kozhikode  were  coming every day from the city and was  comfortable. Other three of us  became resident wardens and could find a place to live and could  take food from the mess. Most of us were assigned only laboratory classes and since lab classes start only at 9AM, we need to be in the department only then. Even at that time, theory classes used to start at 8AM and the morning session  continued till 1215 . The afternoon session was till 330 PM if theory classes only and till 430PM if the afternoon classes are in the laboratory, drawing or project work etc. Saturday and Sunday were holidays even then except for special classes conducted by teachers to compensate for the classes lost

Within two months itself, we could easily see that  a proper  name  for the place Chathamangalam is  Chatha (Malayalam meaning dead ) Mangalam as the place was really dry and possibilities  for recreation was minimal. It was necessary to go to the city for seeing a movie and if we want to see the first show at  6 PM, sometimes  getting a bus to REC after the movie was difficult. So, we had to go for matinee show only. Those who were very keen to see movies, will start from the college after lunch, see the matinee  and have  light refreshments from Indian Coffee House and return by 8PM to the campus. Two private buses were plying between Calicut and Kattangal, the market near REC and these were one a green bus of CWMS (Calicut Wynad Motor Service) and another  from Prabhakar Transport Services. The latter was  not available  occasionally. We could also board the  buses going to Mukkam, Anakkaampoyil etc  via Kunnamangalam or Mavoor. Buses  via Mavoor  takes more time and then we could get down near E hostel  and come back to our hostels. There was also a  thatched  theatre  in Kattangal called Rani theatre where  mostly boys go. I must have gone there for one or two movies . Like  in our student days, we could not enjoy the  second show as  second shows were only for students with special  blue film cuts for  the boys. Therefore  no teachers used to go for second shows. I remember to have seen the movie ‘Prayaanam’by  director Bharathan  in this theatre.  There were  a few  theatres in Kunnamangalam (Jenkish was one) and another in Mukkam(Abhilash). We  never used to go far away for movies then.

Pro P K Charlu was  our Head of the  Department and other senior teachers were  P S Srinivasan, P K Bharathan, S Thiruvengadam, C S Sankaran, Thomas Joseph, P P Gervadis , I K Kurien, H Ganesh etc, Our immediate seniors  who joined just an year earlier were N Prabhakaran , Daniel Oommen and Y Venkataramani. Among these Srinivasan, Thiruvengadam and Venkataramani  were from Tamil Nadu. Among those from Kerala, I was close to  Bharathan Sir , and after  few months I got a place to sit with  Sri. C.S.Sankaran. This was the corner  room on the ground floor of DB. 

Those days in EE department, all administrative work including purchase was being done in the  department. This was shared by all members of faculty based on their experience and responsibility.  This included calling for quotations for the purchase of laboratory equipment and consumables etc. The junior faculty was entrusted with the job of tabulating the quotations received on big drawing sheets and send recommendations so that the seniors could  go though it and make decisions. Our job ended with tabulations and the important decisions were taken by the senior faculty in charge of the laboratories and Head of the department. Then the recommendations along with the draft purchase order was sent to the main office. C S Sankaran in whose room I was  given the opportunity  to sit had made me do a lot of this work mercilessly. He had also the  habit of writing some funny   poems and occasionally I had to hear that as well  as  roommate. I was not sure whether I was happy or unhappy for sitting in that room. But there was a silver lining here too, we could learn many administrative procedures this way which proved useful in our later life.

Some time around this, a staff member who had gone abroad for higher studies re-joined the department. He had done his research in the East West University in Hawaii. He belonged to Kumbala, a boarder town near Karnataka and his Malayalam was peculiar with lot of Kanarese mixed together. Naturally, there was a few senior faculty members who were a bit jealous about this man as he was also acting as someone who had  done the impossible.  By the time he joined, the regular undergraduate classes had started and all theory subjects had been allotted. This USA returned expert was allotted the Electrical Workshop practical class which   did not require any expertise.  This, he took as a personal insult and thought it was the mischief  by his jealous seniors. There was some sort of a cold war brewing in the department. One day, when the departmental meeting was being held, there  was a small argument  between the foreign returned and a senior faculty  member. During the heated exchange, the USA returned used an unparliamentary word like ‘shit’ or something. The other faculty member being educated in the Queens English was seriously offended by the use of the seemingly uncouth word and insisted that the US returned should apologise for this. Since both were arguing and shouting at the top of their voice, the Head of the Department found it difficult to   control them. The challenge and argument spilled over   and the other faculty members were unnecessarily brought into either of these warring groups. We, the juniors, had to be very careful in not getting caught into either of these groups.  Fortunately, the cold war ceased to be an issue as the US returned left the college a few months later for better pastures elsewhere.