8.From TKM College of Engineering to R E C Calicut

 Hailing from a tiny hamlet in Kuttanadu, in the backwaters of Kerala, I had my Pre-University education in one of the oldest colleges in Malabar, Govt Victoria College, Palakkad. Then I joined T.K.M. College of Engineering (TKMCE)  Kollam as a student of B.Sc (Engineering) with Electrical Engineering as  my specialization. After five years of study, I continued in TKMCE as lecturer immediately after passing out in 1968. During this time, I had the benefit of taking classes for my immediate juniors. It was a very pleasant experience to be a teacher of my junior friends and their constructive criticism by way of a student-feedback was very useful for me  in correcting several mistakes in my method of teaching. I do understand defects and inadequacies still exist after 45 years in teaching, but I hope at least a majority of my students has been benefited from what I could offer them in the class.

Immediately after passing out in 1968, I had registered my name in the Professional & Executive Employment Exchange in Kerala University with the address of one of my favorite teachers, Sri.G.Madhusudhanan Nair (father of famous music director M Jayachandran) who was on deputation from Kerala State Electricity Board to TKMCE for teaching. As entry level appointments to RECs at that time were through employment exchange, I was called for interview at REC during the summer vacation of 1969.

Calicut or Kozhikode was a town totally unknown to me.The  call  for  interview was received while I was  on vacation  at my native  place redirected by Madhu Sir,   I started from my home near Alapuzha in the early morning and reached Calicut city by 4 PM changing several buses from Alleppey to Ernakulam, Ernakulam to Thrissur and Thrissur to Kozhikode via Perinthalmanna as the  road through Edappal was commissioned only much later. There was a small lodge called Imperial lodge (where a branch of Indian Coffee house is located now) on Kallai Road  near the Palayam bus stand and I took a  room there and slept off for the night.  

In the early morning I had a bath and started to REC which I was told is 22 KMs away from the city. Paying just 40 paisa as bus fare, I reached the campus in about 40 minutes. Interview was held in the office of the Principal in the main building (MB). As I was already teaching in TKMCE for the final year students, a subject on Generation Switchgear and Protection, members of the interview panel started asking questions on that subject only. If I remember correct, most of the questions were on methods of circuit breaking, rate of rise of recovery and re-striking voltage etc. Difference between Oil Circuit breakers and Air Blast circuit breakers naturally came up. As this was one of my favourite subjects during my studies and had almost taught the full subject, I was sure of most of the topics and I could do well in the interview.

Three candidates who appeared for the interview along with me were already working in REC provisionally and the fourth was one Mr. Reddy from Andhra Pradesh  who had already completed  his  Masters in Engineering.  I was fortunate to be ranked 1^st in the interview followed by Reddy and others in that order. All the three working in REC were from North Kerala and I was the only person from South of Kerala. Someone had told me that people from North Kerala do not normally like those from South, the reason for this being the mistrust of the people who migrated from South to North. These ‘migrants’ with their meagre resources bought some waste land from the locals and converted this to very good cultivable lands by their sheer hard work.  The waste land was transformed to excellent agricultural   land in a few years. The famous novelist S.K. Pottekkad  has written about these people in his novels and narrated how some of these migrants lost their  lives affected  by malaria and small pox. However, the locals thought that this is by some sheer magic and could not believe it and thought these people  had done some cheating in the process. It was probably like this, the people from the South became persona non grata in Malabar.  As years went by, I and my family were more and more aware of this discrimination as very few from North liked to have marriage alliance from people of the South. Moreover, originally Malabar was a province of Tamil Nadu in British India and when Kerala state was formed adding Malabar to erstwhile Travancore Kochi was not liked by a section of the people. As Communists were strongly rooted in this part of the state, the Communists only liked the change, it seems. Naturally they came to power in the first election after formation of Kerala state.

As soon as I got my letter of appointment, I approached the Principal of TKMCE for relief to join REC, but he said as per rules I have to give one month’s notice or pay one month’s salary in lieu of that. As I had no money to pay, he advised me to meet the Chairman, Board of Governors of TKMCE Trust. Hesitantly I approached the Chairman and requested him to exempt me from paying the amount. He asked me: “Why do you want to leave this institution which has made you what you are?”. I replied: “Sir, REC is an institution under Central Government and they are starting post graduate course soon and my intention is to do higher studies at the earliest. I may get a better chance in REC for improving my qualifications”. Without any hesitation, he allowed me to leave TKMCE without paying any notice salary. In fact, I was relieved on a Friday after collecting salary till Sunday (31^st Aug) so that I could join REC on 1^st Sept 1969. Thus, I joined REC Calicut as an Associate lecturer in Electrical Engineering on a total salary of Rs.375/ pm while I was getting Rs.300/ only as Lecturer in TKMCE. There was also a chance of promotion to Lecturers post within a year.  

However,  the  only  person  who was  skeptical  about   my decision  to join REC  Calicut  was  Prof N Padmanabha  Iyer. He  said at present  REC  is  under  the  joint  control  of the  Central and State  governments  and often  like  a  child  with two  mothers  not getting  enough  milk, things  in REC  are not so rosy. This  administrative  set   up as  a joint  enterprise of Centre  and State are is good for  the  progress  of the  institution. After  working  in REC   for a  few  years, I could really understand the situation and how  correct and shrewd Iyer  Sir to make  a  correct study of the  situation  prevalent  in RECs. Fortunately,  things  changed  to the  better once  RECs  were  converted  to National Institutes of Technology  in 2002, well  before  I superannuated from REC/NIT .