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. Similarly, t 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.
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 puzzles in 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.
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