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. 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 apologize 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.
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