When I joined in Regional Engineering College Calicut in 1969, our Head of the Department was Prof.P.K.Charlu. 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 as and when 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 the 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 by the side of 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.
In the early days, with his permission, I
used to sit in
his lecture class to learn how he is
teaching. If I remember
correct, he was teaching Electrical
Machines to final year students.
Because of other engagements or
otherwise, he rarely used to
come to the class in time and invariably
continued the lecture beyond the
scheduled time. On most days, his class was engaging the
4th period, just before
lunch recess . When he continues
the class beyond the time
eating into the lunch recess,
students used to become restless and some mischievous ones used to rub their
shoes on the floor and send some signal
to stop. Professor used to ignore
these and continue further which
was not liked by the students. Most of them
wanted to hurry up for lunch in the mess and return in time
for the afternoon class. These
were also lessons
for me which I tried
to absorb. I rarely used
to go late to the class
and continue the class
beyond the scheduled
time. Even if the class is
not just before the interval, it is not fair
to the staff member who is to
engage the class
in the next hour. He may be waiting for you to
come out to enter the class. Waiting outside
is always boring .
Dr. P.S.Sreenivasan (PSS) was mostly
taking care of the academic
administration in the department. He was very systematic in all matters.
Prof.PSS will invariably take his theory class during the first hour starting
at 8 o’clock itself. He used to 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 recommendation from him for higher studies or a job
after several years after passing out , PSS 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 prize for students who will be present in all his classes 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 my first draft, or even second draft and in 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 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 pursue
my higher studies in Control Systems. He was also a very good
teacher very much liked by all his students. 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 Guruvayur 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 Engineering Department, Sri. V.George of MED and myself sat as
pillion riders on their motor bikes to go to Mount road to see some movies in Safire theatre.
Dr P S Srinivasan
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