34.Good Times smile on REC Calicut

Three years in Delhi, first two in the village and third year in IIT campus, were really enjoyable in many ways and flew off very quickly. My wife was very cooperative to take full charge of the house, purchase of ration, grocery and other things which were available in the Jia Sarai village. Once in a week, we went to Sarojini Nagar market or INA market to buy some fish or Kerala special items. My assigned duty was just to take the children to the school bus at 7AM in the morning all cuddled up in winter clothes just the eyes alone visible outside and bring them back at 2PM with all winter clothes on their shoulders. In spite of working for almost 14 -16 hours a day in the research scholars room and computer centre, life in the capital was quite pleasant. Very good vegetables in winter, cabbage, carrot, beat root, cauliflower etc and boneless chicken and mutton, plenty of milk from mother diary at moderate cost, very good quality raw rice from ration shop etc were the most pleasing.

While in Delhi, I had very little time to think about what is happening in REC campus. My effort with full support from my family was to concentrate on my research work and complete it within the allotted three years of deputation. Moreover, when we go for higher education at a later age, we will be too conscious about the  responsibility in what we do and the outcome that may result. As years go by, my experience is that we understand more but retain less (better comprehension but less remembered).  An occasional trip to ONGC, Dehra Dun to test my programs on their computer was the only outing for me. As I could get my salary in the bank at the beginning of every month, probably that was the only thing that mattered to us. We heard from our friends that things had not significantly changed in the first half.

During this time, one office bearer of the Staff Association  came to Delhi with some memorandums and leaflets to appraise  the MPs on what  is happening in REC  Calicut. He had come on association expenses and stayed with Sri.C.K.Pillai for three  or four days.  On the first day, he went to the Parliament and it seems he met a few MPs from Kerala.  After that he went round sightseeing in Delhi, Taj Mahal etc and returned home dumping the memos and leaflets  in Nalanda house where Mr.Pillai was staying. He was a typical Kerala trade union leader who speaks  big in public but acts as a cat in front of the bosses obviously, too good in double dealing. 

Many things had happened in REC Calicut during the period from 1978 -81 while we were away. There were lot of changes in the Kerala administration. In 1978 A.K.Antony’s  cabinet, Jb.C H Muhammad Koya  was the education minister . Later in 1978 October, P K Vasudevan Nair became the Chief Minister but CH continued with the same portfolio. CH became the Chief Minister  on 12^th Oct  1979 and continued till  1^st Dec  1979. However on 25^th Jan 1980, E K Nayanar  became the CM and the education portfolio was given  to Sri. Baby John .  This continued till  20^th Oct 1980. As the  Chairman of the Board of Governors was the state education minister, it was natural that these changes in the education portfolio will have its reflections in the REC administration. This became too evident when Sri. Baby John took over as the rapport between the Chairman and Principal was not good. With continued difference  of opinion  between them, the  situation  became still worse  which ultimately resulted in the Principal   resigning the post  with a new appointment as Pro-Vice  Chancellor of Aligarh  Muslim University along with one or two of his trusted lieutenants following him to AMU.  When I re-joined REC Calicut, the post of Principal was lying vacant.   It seems there was some  students’  struggle  also in which they shouted  “ Principal, resign , resign, and let   Prof. Charlu  take charge”. An occasional  amendment in the slogan was “ Let Prof. Charlu  take over after  getting his  artificial dentures fixed” ( Prof. Charlu  at that time had removed all his teeth  on the way to  putting on fully artificial dentures on him, it seems.) As  Prof. Charlu  was  only in-charge Principal, he was  not taking any policy decisions. Only when Sri.K.Karunakaran  took over as  Chief Minister on  5^th May 1982 and continued till 25^th March 1987 , Sri.T.M.Jacob  was entrusted with the  education  ministry and became Chairman of  BoG  of REC Calicut. It was in his regime that the post of Principal was advertised and Dr.S.Unnikrishna Pillai, who was a Professor in Civil Engineering and took his PhD from Queens University Canada, was appointed as  Principal. Dr.S.U.Pillai  took over   in 1983 and with support from the Chairman  took effective steps to fill up all  vacant teaching and nonteaching posts within a short time. 

At the start of REC  Calicut in 1961, only three  academic programmes in Civil, Mechanical  and Electrical Engg  commenced. One M.Tech course each was added in 1971.  However, for such an institution to grow, the most essential thing was to start more courses. More courses mean more vacancies   and promotion   chances for teaching and nonteaching staff, more infrastructure and grants. Our new Principal immediately started steps to initiate more B.Tech and M.Tech courses. As the  college was affiliated to the Calicut  University, the curriculum and syllabi  for the courses were that of the university. Many modern equipment purchased by using the liberal grants from Government of India could not be really used for instruction as these items were not available in other colleges. Academic autonomy for framing new courses, conducting examinations, upgrading the syllabi more frequently etc were essential for growth. This was pointed out by a review committee appointed for suggesting methods for improving the performance of RECs. Steps were also initiated to get more academic autonomy for these institutions. But the lukewarm attitude of the Government of Kerala and lack of coordinated efforts with other RECs were  not helpful to achieve this. These efforts bore fruit  only in 2002 when  RECs  were  declared as  National Institutes of Technology under  Ministry of Human Resources and Development of Government of India.

New B.Tech programmes  were started  by  the major  departments. Electronics and Communication Engineering by Electrical department, Architectural Engineering by Civil Engg department and Production and Management by Mechanical department were the outcome of these efforts. Similarly several M.Tech  programmes were  also started soon. Subsequently another B.Tech programme in Computer Science and Engg were initiated by Electrical Department. With the introduction of these additional courses, REC Calicut became one of the leading RECs  in India and started  being recognised an institution to be reckoned in the global scenario.

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