44. A tragedy and an act of help

In some previous posts, I have mentioned several persons who used to serve the residents of the REC campus.  Most of them were full time helpers. Let me present the story of a part time helper who was also an employee of the college.

Kannan and Bhaskaran were both working in the hostel mess. Kannan was in the flour mill where  the wheat  and rice were powdered. Bhaskaran was helping the steward but was away at times acting as phone attender. Kannan was also looking after the maintenance of the wet grinders in the different mess halls. Kannan was directly under my supervision. Both were very good at their respective jobs. The only problem with Kannan was that he was a little over confident in his work and was a bit reluctant to take orders from me as he thought I was not familiar with the machinery he was handling. Both of them used to take up some sundry work in the staff quarters to make a few extra bucks. This was the time television broadcast was initiated from Calicut. Our campus being 22 km away from the city, to get a  reasonably strong picture signal, it was necessary to use very tall antennas.  At times, three full length pipes had to be  joined  together  to form a tall pole with the  antenna at the top. Kannan and Bhaskaran, as they were good workmen, decided to make use of this opportunity to make some quick money.  They used to do an excellent job, though very risky. Mounting the three-length long pipe welded together with the antenna on top and getting the tv antenna turned to get a reasonably good picture was a very difficult task. They used to   install such antennas on at least 2 or 3 houses during their holidays, particularly during week ends. They used to collect a reasonably good amount for their work  and the residents were only happy to pay them.

Our professor  Dr.P.S.Srinivasan as Chief  Warden had observed  their dedication to work. When they applied for the post of attender in the department, they were successful. It was easy for Bhaskaran to adapt to the laboratory work without much difficulty. They did not have much work except keeping the machines clean, collecting the connecting wires, keeping the laboratory clean, etc.  Kannan, on the other hand being more used to outdoor work was bored by not being able to do anything serious and felt uncomfortable. At that time, staff members in our electrical maintenance unit and electrical laboratory were in a common group. He made a request to be transferred to engineering unit. As the junior most in the electrical maintenance unit, he was ready to take up any risky work including climbing on to electrical posts.

I was once watching my students drawing in the main drawing hall on the second floor of the main building. Usually in the drawing class, the teachers had little work except during the first half an hour after giving the students instructions for drawing. I was watching the road in front of the main building leading to the Calicut Mokkam road. I noticed a few staff of the electrical maintenance unit working on the electrical posts. Suddenly, I saw one of the staff members falling down from a height and a few people assembled near him. I also ran down the stairs and reached the spot and found that Kannan was lying on the floor and was in acute pain. Some of the persons assembled were massaging his body thinking that he had an electric shock. They called for a vehicle and took him to the health centre. As the doctor was not available that day, he was taken to the medical college immediately. Thinking that there are only minor bruises on his body, we went to back to our work.  It was only the next day we heard that the injury to Kannan was serious and that he had a major spinal injury. As he was changing the bulb in one of the street lights he slipped down and fell on a stay wire with this back hitting on it. He suffered a fracture of his Cervical spine which resulted in paralysis of the bottom half of his body.  He struggled between life and death for almost one year. We, the staff members in the department and the college tried to help his family to the maximum extent. However, in spite of the family spending whatever they had, by the end of a year, he breathed his last. The family was broke mentally and financially.

As the accident occurred while he was on duty, his son was eligible for a job in REC Calicut under the ‘dying in harness’ category. The job given to him was not according his educational qualifications as a suitable post was not available at that time. He was posted as attender in the library even though he was a graduate. After two years, two posts of library assistants fell vacant and the administration decided to promote the attenders qualified for the post by conducting a test and interview. The Principal entrusted me with the job of conducting a suitable test in Malayalam for the applicants. Subsequently an interview was also held with two library science experts from outside. When the results of the test and interview were added and tabulated, we found that there was a tie for the second position, but the first position was clear. When the Principal asked me how to break the tie, I suggested breaking the tie by choosing the one with higher marks for the test. Accordingly, we prepared the rank list and got it approved by the panel members. I was unsure about who were the persons selected as I did not know the names of many of the library staff.

When I went to the library two days later, the two persons selected came to me to say thank you. The person who was ranked first was an elderly person known to me and he introduced the second ranked person to me as the son of our Kannan who died in the accident 2 years back. I had not seen this young man earlier as I did not get any chance earlier either inside the college or outside. I was very happy to hear that the person selected by my ‘casting vote’ was the son of our dear Kannan. My happiness was doubled because I could do this great help to the bereaved family without realising it at that time.