Factory Training

 Industry Training ( II & III year in MIT)

As mentioned earlier, as part of the curriculum, six months of industrial training was part of the course syllabus.  Out of that  I underwent 6 weeks of training at Calcutta at the end of the first year. During my II & III year at MIT  I seized the opportunity to undertake that training in established manufacturing locations. Somehow by that time itself, my taste was towards  the petroleum & petrochemical complex and my luck favoured me. I had my training in 

      1) FACT ,Alwaye  

      2) Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli

      3) Madras Refinery Ltd, Manali, Chennai   

Let me share my learnings at each place.

During my II year first semester vacation I had the opportunity to undergo my training at FACT,Alwaye. That plant is located at the outskirts of Cochin city in a place called Alwaye, run by Kerala government under cooperative scheme. That plant is manufacturing   Ammonia & Urea  from raw naphtha drawn from Cochin refinery. There we were 6 classmates who undertook training  and we were lucky enough to have Mr P R Srinivasan, DMIT 5th batch  as our supervisor and guide. At that time he was the HOD of Instrumentation in that complex. As a matter of principle he devised  a training schedule especially for the students coming from MIT & ensured that it has to be adopted as well as followed by each and everyone. During our training we had the opportunity to understand the routine maintenance inspection procedure as we were taken around the plant areas by their experienced technicians. In those days, as that was the transition state- mechanical to pneumatic systems, not much modern instruments existed there. But the technicians going around the plant areas  to monitor + change/ placing a new circular chart for the parameters like flow& pressure measurements was  a sight to see ! As students since we could not see these actual instruments in MIT class rooms, we felt it was great.

But more than the training, the labour union issues  at that plant were more challenging.  The union secretary was one Mr Sivaraman, an electrician by trade. The prevailing atmosphere was- if Sivaraman blew a whistle, even their MD Sh M K K Nair had to come out of his cabin  to listen to the union demands and settle. We did witness some such scenarios.  

As for the stay, we took rooms in Hotel Woodlands, Kalamassery.  That hotel was falling on the highway between Cochin & Thrissur and  a few kilometers from the plant site. That hotel was famous for accommodating  bachelor engineers and trainees that come to FACT. Bus journey between Kalamassery to the plant site & back was an experience by itself.    

Next, during the II year end i.e after the completion of IV semester in MIT, a few of our classmates had the opportunity to undergo training at Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli. This complex rather a big town by itself had the lignite mining, fertilizer complex  and a large power generation facility.   There we reported for training to Mr Raghavachari. He was the HOD Instrumentation in NLC. Here it is important to mention that  Mr Raghavachari  was the HOD-Instrument Technology in MIT before moving to Neyveli. So he was well aware of the MIT syllabus and the requirements of training for Instrumentation engineer trainees.   In Neyveli we were deputed to the fertilizer complex and the power generation facilities. To our fortune, at all places there were senior DMITs  who were volunteering to guide and demonstrate the juniors in all aspects of the plant instrumentation. They used to explain the concept of the open and closed loops and their functional objectives. They did demonstrate the importance of periodic calibration for the field instruments using Wallace & Tiernan standard gauge, mercury manometers, Dead weight testers etc. Muffled furnace for the temperature sensors like thermocouple/RTD etc.  

These seniors' presence  and involvement benefited us much.

During my III year first semester holidays, a few of my batchmates had the opportunity to take training in that time upcoming Madras Refinery project  at Manali, Chennai. That was the first project executed by M/S Engineers India ltd under the guidance of M/S Bechtel Ltd. a world renowned project execution consultant especially in hydrocarbon refining. As that was in the project implementation state, we had the advantage in witnessing the multicore cable pulling,underground multi tube pulling, cable termination, copper tubing end connection, check-outs in marshalling racks, panel termination in various control rooms, calibration checks and loop checks etc.

Mr Nambirayan , Mr Srinivasan & Mr Ramasubramaniam (another senior DMIT) were the personnel who guided us throughout that training period at MRL.  

After completing my final semester at MIT ( VI th semester at the end of the third year) to keep myself actively engaged  I undertook some training in a small firm Viz. M/S Venus Moulders at T Nagar itself. They were carrying out PVC material based injection moulding modules for large end users. This company was involved in developing design drawings for the moulds as well as  fabricating finished modules using injection moulds. This I was carrying out until I moved to M/S Malco, Mettur Dam - my first job assignment in Oct. 1969.                                                                                                           

My MIT days (contd)

 MIT II &III year

An important incident that took place in the final practical examination of III year.

During the final semester Control Engineering practicals examination, we have been asked to write the theoretical aspect of the experiment first before actually undertaking the practical aspects. That day the question was - Define the Time Constant. On that the entire class  was very clear and confident and thorough about its definition- be it in writing or its graphical representation.

When it came to my classmate Sh TN Somasundaram, the institute topper whose marks were a record which was not broken until the DMIT system was in vogue, was given '0' by our lecturer Mr WC Chitra. The explanation given by that lecturer was that Soma missed out to put 'to' , though his graphical representation reflected it right. The real background to the case was that Soma never bothered to treat him with respect and he wanted to take  the revenge on that score. He was looking for an opportunity to teach Soma  a lesson by disqualifying him from getting honours grade in DMIT ( In MIT , one loses his honours gradation if he happen to  undergo a re-examination in any paper). But when Sh Chitra read out the marks of all students including Sh.Somasundaram, the whole class  including Prof.Sharma who was present then could not believe that. The whole class got shocked  and questioned- how can it be? Mr Chitra attempted to explain; the whole class in an unanimous voice protested then and threatened to walk out. At that moment Prof.Sharma intervened  and overruled Mr Chitra's decision. Prof. gave a cent percent to Soma as his graphical narration of Time Constant  reflected it right.

At the end of the course Somasundaram scored an overall 86% aggregate in DMIT,an honours grade , which was not broken by anybody until the DMIT system was in vogue. 

Having seen a lot  about the subject matters & examinations etc.  let us move to look into the other aspects of MIT life. As the institute strength was only 300 students out of which about 20% day scholars, except the first year students all others were allotted single room occupancy in the hostel. Those days not many girl students were there- in our time there was only Ms Vasantha, 17th batch Electronics  and she was a day scholar. There were overall 3 hostels ; one vegetarian and non vegetarian mess for all students. Practically speaking that non-vegetarian mess was non existent. The mess was contracted to one Mr Nambiar, a Keralite The mess was practically managed by  M/S Narayanan, Raghavan & Padmanabhan and the mess secretary for all three years (1966-69) was our classmate Sh R Narayanan. RN had the say and complete control of the mess running at any given time.

When it comes to serving the tea/coffee and snacks during intervals, it was the responsibility of Sh Padmanabhan for Inst.Technology faculty. Sh.Padmanabhan was so involved with his duty & responsibility he remembered each student's T No. , shall not require one's utterance and he shall note what each one has taken.

Our mess was so good that even students from neighbouring colleges- Madras Christian college,Tambaram &AM Jain college Pallavaram used to crave for entry in our mess. Many of them used to come as guests to our hostelites and enjoy the food whenever feasible.                                                                                               Here it is important to mention one thing. An Actual Story

Our lecturer Sh Sambamoorthy was a gentleman  and somewhat a timid soul.  One Tuesday when he was conducting the morning last hour class before lunch break, one of our classmates Sh USS Murthy raised his hand.  The lecturer thought that the student had some doubt. He asked the student 'what?' Syam responded     'Sir, it is urgent that you end the class  immediately  and let us go for  lunch' The lecturer got surprised and asked why it is urgent? Syam responded- Sir,Today is Tuesday and they serve special morkhozhambhu with vegetable bondos floating along with ethapazham ( kerala banana) chips. We can't afford to miss them by not taking them in the first batch as they have to be eaten hot.  Taken aback the speechless lecturer waved  his hand  and said 'let us go'. After that day, the morkhozhambhu exchanges became a regular feature on every Tuesday.

Other Pastime & entertainments

As we came to our second year in MIT, most of us felt relaxed and took our leisure time granted. Our classmate Anne Arunachalam's  room became the centre point for playing rummy with playing cards 18 hours in a day. At any given time, at least  4 players used to be present playing cards. During any major festival time, instead of rummy they used to play 3 cards with barest minimum stake. During one such occasion a real challenge took place.  Two players had 3 A & 3K and they went on competing with each other.  The rest have scooted and waited for them to close.  The challenge went on for hours which made others lose their patience. After 3 hours or so the witnesses  interfered and forced them to open. Anne had 3As and Auto Satyanarayana had 3Ks; the accrued amount was Rs 1100/- !                                                        That was the closed indoor entertainment we used to relish. Other than the cards group, many used to go to Vetri theatre in Pallavaram for night movies. It was a perfect Tent Kottai rather than calling a theatre.After the night show at 2.30 am, they used to walk back all the way to the hostel.

When we were in III year, Sh Senthamil Arasu of 20th batch IT, himself a good singer & later DD Tamil newsreader took the entertainment secretary's responsibility. He had organized the music programmes of M/S Balamurali Krishna, a famous Carnatic musician  & SP Balasubramaniam, that time upcoming cine musician. SPB & Arasu were close friends and for that sake SPB did not charge any amount for that program in MIT.

Added to these, under the leadership of  Sh. R Narayanan , our classmates did a village folk skit- named it    " Theru Koothu" ( street entertainment) which became famous in that circle. Even the neighbouring colleges were asking us to conduct that programme in their premises which we could not oblige due to paucity of time.

My MIT days (contd)

  Events & the course developments

 During the three year course, we came across several new exposures mixed with challenges .

1. With Books Examination                                                                                                                                    This was a peculiar experience to the students. When the professor announced that there shall be "with books" examination, we all thought  that this must be one way of encouraging students with motivation & give them high grades, But it was not to be !

When the professor announced the listing of the books in advance and allowed students to hand carry them into the examination hall everyone was thrilled and excited. Considering that involved cost for sourcing the recommended books we procured only limited sets and had understanding that the whole class shall share by rotational exchanges in the exam. All the students had the belief  that our classmate Sh T N Somasundaram shall take the lead  being the meritorious student  ( His overall aggregate was 86.4% and his record was not broken as long as DMIT system was in vogue). The understanding was that he shall mark the answers in one copy of the book  and circulate to reach the entire class.  But surprisingly the asked question was so twisted that even he could not locate the chapter/page where the answer to that question was lying! After half an hour or so, we all resigned to fate and attempted to write  some answer on our own without referring to any book/s. Everyone followed the general concept to the context  and wrote. The joke was- even the professor who drafted that question paper could not really locate the pertinent answer in those books! He expressed blank. The end result- no student has failed since everyone attempted to write some answers what they thought was right. There the task of paper correction for the professor became tedious as there were no standard answers and several versions in place. We all enjoyed the miserable scenario.

2. Viva Voce examination                                                                                                                                     The main objective was to test the orientation of each student for an interactive session where the entire class with most of the teaching staff present in a hall. The importance was to seek  an objective type of response for the asked questions. Keeping that in mind, several students prepare some questions in advance and assign them to several of the classmates for questioning during the session. They shall ensure to take their seats scattered so that a feeling of questions emerging from all directions arose. Some of the staff members were aware of these dramas but in the interest of welfare of the students  they used to ignore/overlook that aspect. Here I would like to share some examples:                                                                 a) When the HOD asked  Mr Ramachandran ( Koks) asked him why there was that long pause in response time to his question ? The professor was expecting that Koks shall answer it as 'second order lag" But Koks had different ideas.  He came out with an ingenious response.  As he was sitting in the last bench of the class, his response was - "Sir, it can be due  to the effect of the velocity of sound". The whole clause including the professor applauded him.

    b) As part of these viva voce, every student has to describe the functioning of any one instrument. As none of us have seen any instrument during the curriculum, it was left to our imagination. One of my classmates chose the Rain meter  as his presentation and took a photo from a book.  He took the help of another one to draw that in a portable black board and took help from others to transport to the hall. By mistake they placed the picture upside down and nobody noticed that folly. The session was over; then the one who copied it from the book questioned him. You know, what was his response? His reply _ "Nobody in this hall except me knows how a rain meter functions and none of us have seen that". So what I presented is final

  c) We had one classmate who was champion in counter questioning.  He was the one who shall never respond directly to any question asked. Rather on the same subject he used to put counters to the person who asked him that question.  By that time the originator might have lost in thinking to answer him!

 The original objective of the department to conduct these sort of viva voce was to train  & orient the students  to attend interviews as well as face large audience  on the technical aspects of Instrument Technology.

My MIT Days (contd)

 My II & III year classes at MIT

At the end of the first year course ( i.e after the second semester examinations including reexaminations) 31 students have been promoted to the second year. That included 20 of 18th batch entry & the rest from 17/16 &15 th batch entries For the second year course, we have been shifted to the Instrument Technology block. All our classes and practicals were conducted in that block only. In Instrumentation, we had the following subjects classes taken by respective subject matter specialists. Out of my lecturers 4 were themselves senior DMITs. The faculty members were:

Prof. GSS Sharma- HOD & Control Engineering    

Prof.MM Rao- Optics

Mr VG Subramanian- Process Instruments

Mr KV Narayanan- Electronics

Mr L S Janakiraman- Electrical Instruments

Mr Sambasivam- Aeronautical Instruments

Mr W C Chitra- Measurement Standards

+ Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry subjects continued.

When we were students ( II& III year i.e 1967-69) the Instrument  systems in factories were transitioning from mechanical age to pneumatic systems. As for electronics it was still in an infant state. Computers / Microprocessor and software development etc. were unheard of then. Yes, the ammeter, voltmeter, resistance bridge, inductance, capacitance & multimeter etc. were in vogue.

Similarly, the microscope, oscilloscope and allied optical devices were still in development state; only  a few companies in Europe ( M/S Carl Zeiss Jena , West Germany & Sweden) were manufacturing them. As India had several import restrictions then, no one can import them.

Keeping those objectives in the background, our course syllabus was restricted to the following topics only.   Servo Motors, 2nd order equation, first order equation, Time Constant, Lag & Lead, La Place Transformation

Optics- Convex, concave,opaque, transparent, prisms, refractory index

Process Instruments  - Newton's laws, Archimedes principle, Boyle's law, Buoyancy,Bourdon gauge,Flapper-Nozzle, feedback mechanism,PID control terminology, Definition of Proportional,Integral & Derivative action, Diaphragm & Bellows, Temperature elements & thermowell. Flow elements

Electrical & Electronics- Ammeter, Voltmeter, resistance, Wheatstone Bridge, Network Theory, Inductance, Capacitance, Diodes, Triodes & Transistors

Aeronautical instruments - Speedometer, Altimeter

Measurement Standards- FPS, CGS, MKS and their conversion factors

In most of the above topics, only the names used to be mentioned as the teacher himself has neither seen nor studied their assemblies! The handicap was that  the students did not have any idea about their functioning, or assembled components  or their principles of operation. The curse was  that the student did not gain any value or knowledge to realise their objective and use. The pity was that many of the teaching staff  did not have exposure to them at all as they have never worked in industry. Also due to financial constraints the department did not have enough funds to source the sample devices for demonstration and explaining to the students. The same was valid when it came to the labs.& workshop also. In the optical lab. every student has to go on polishing  the given glass disc  to make it concave or convex for the entire semester ( approx. 6 months period @ 4 hours/ week). No one was clear about the overall objective with that? There was no measuring or inspection mechanism to verify its finish or the smooth polish quality etc. When it came for verification and grading the marks for each student, whatever the optics professor felt was the final. It was fortunate that he has not failed anyone but favoritism was very much prevalent.

When it came to the mechanical workshop things were even worse. Only fitting exercises like hacksaw cutting, filing, grinding  of metal plates etc. were given as assignments. In the electrical & electronics lab. some small network applications and measurements tasks were practised.

Overall, if one evaluates the  complete course in the institution, the students have heard the various technical terms of their subject but practically no knowledge to apply Where/Which one to suit the demand in their profession. But the beauty- all the students picked up the working knowledge of their trade during the mandatory industry practical training and courtesy  the help & guidance of seniors ( earlier batch DMITs in those factories).

When it came for the subject matter textbooks, though there was a library in the department, only 2 books- Industrial Instruments by P Jones & Handbook on Instrumentation by Considine were the only two utilised by the lecturer as well as students. In the class room, I used to sit in the front row, very meticulous in taking notes- whatever the lecturer has said during the lecture hours. I used to take such notes from all the classes( irrespective of whether understood or not.) My hand written notes used to be verbatim. Rather that became handy to all my classmates during the semester examinations. Invariably as I used to move to the hostel prior to semester examinations, my notes used to have heavy demand- moving room to room at any given time ! We used to find it difficult to track its availability ! So my classmates gave me the title " Notes Ramanathan";this is over & above 'Aruvai'.

There are several instances which shall follow.

My MIT days (contd)

 Practical Training at Calcutta

As mentioned earlier, to obtain the DMIT certificate, one should have gone through 6 months practical training in industries ;  this is over & above clearing all examination papers over 6 semesters. So every student gets engaged to undergo these training during the semester holidays and take credit. But there was a basic fallacy : Instrumentation as a profession was a jack of all trades; it had both advantages as well as disadvantages. Hence these students can be sent to any industry in India for their training. The institute used to help students in fixing their training engagements.

In those days Calcutta had several industries & MIT management had strong contacts with them. Under that scheme the institute used to take names of the students and draw lots for allocation. My name came for one M/S Atlas Power Press company, Ripon street, Chowringhee, Calcutta. The funniest thing is that the company has got nothing to do with any instrumentation!But what to do? So I travelled to Calcutta for that  6 weeks factory practical training in May '67. The company was involved in finishing  / assembling metal blocks to make power press of 2 to 5 tons load.  During that time I stayed with my cousin sister ( Ms Kamala) family in Howrah. For going to the factory, I used to avail the streamer boat service Howrah to Dalhousie and then take L9 double decker transport to Chowringhee. Here it is important to mention that was the worst industrial unrest period in West Bengal and Calcutta was the main victim. When the bus used to ply in the morning around 9am, the union leaders used to block the running bus and ask all the passengers to alight from the bus in the middle of the road. Thereafter they used to light fire to burn the bus into flames. This was almost the daily routine I faced. That was when Sh Ajoy Mukherjee was the chief minister of W.Bengal and he could not do anything to control this mob fury. They all belonged to the CPI-M union. That was the usual routine day in & day out; My sister & brother-in-law used to get worried whether a person who has gone to work in the morning shall return safe or not. Somehow I completed my time schedule and returned to Madras safely. I can sum up here- during my practical training at Calcutta, I did not learn anything technical but completely got exposed to the labour union rough behaviour. Thus ,that was my second bitter exposure to Calcutta ( the first being in 1956 when I visited there with my uncle ).

My MIT days

 My MIT days

At that time in 1966 in MIT, the intake was only 100 students every year- 10 in Aeronautics, 30 in Automobile Engineering, 30in Electronics Engineering  &30 in Instrument Technology. At the end of 3 years (6 semesters & practical training for a total 6 months- can be taken during semester holidays ) each successful student shall get DMIT certificate. For its admission, a minimum B.Sc graduate with Mathematics & Physics was necessary. In some rare cases even BE engineering graduates used to seek admission for DMIT; in their cases, they shall be admitted directly in second year since they would have been conversant with the basic engineering subjects during their BE course. The DMIT was recognized equivalent to an engineering degree course but with special subjects- at that time , no other engineering institution in the country catered to these subjects. So that factor made job assurance easy.

Rather, many students after giving their final 6th semester examinations, simply pack and travel to Mumbai or Delhi and call on their seniors for job placement! It was an unwritten mandate that the senior (even if he is married and staying with family) has to accommodate him temporarily  and arrange placement for the junior in a couple of days. After that, on receipt of the first salary payment ,the junior has to host a decent party for the senior & his family members. The junior has to perform sashtanga namaskaram to that senior & his wife.This was in practice until the late 1970s.

During admission in the first year, each student is given a Technology number T No.  based on the year of joining- faculty- alphabetical order intra faculty. That way I got 1888 being an 18th batch IT Faculty student In the first year of MIT classes, irrespective of the faculty, all students attend the basic engineering subjects together. We had the subjects-  basic mechanical engineering, engineering drawings, structural engineering basics, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics and chemistry (only material science). The faculty lecturers were :

Mechanical & Engineering drawings - Prof.Garg   

Electrical engineering -  Prof. N K Suryanarayana & Mr Rajah                                              

Structural engg. basics - Mr Sharafuddin                                                                                  

Mathematics - Prof.Dr Surya Prakash, Prof. Thiruvikraman, & Mr Narasimhan      

Physics - Dr Jayaraman  & Mr Narayanaswamy                                                

Chemistry - Mr KNV Raman

Here I would like  to bring  out one important incident.                                                                                      The electrical engineering class by Sh NKS used to be  the Monday morning class first period starting at 8 AM. That professor is one who was very particular that his classes should not be disturbed by late comers; but at the same time he was not bothered to take attendance. So any late comer, if he desires to enter the class once it started, without any disturbance he should enter through the rear entrance only and not the front door. It so happened that on one Monday in August '66, I was late to that class since my electric train was delayed that morning. Following the set norms, I entered the class silently and tried to occupy a seat. Surprisingly most of my classmates wished me  and I was afraid that the professor should not mistake me for disturbing the running class. I was blank ; Luckily nothing happened and that period got over. After that when I queried some of them for their  wishes, they responded saying ' have you not seen the notice board '?That made me more shaky and I requested them to clarify. Then they congratulated me declaring that I have been rewarded with a merit scholarship and that is displayed in the students notice board. They said that you have scored very high marks in the institute conducted scholarship examination and rewarded with the Govt.of India Merit Scholarship  The resultant benefit was : Free tuition fees for my entire MIT studies, reimburse the amount already paid &  Rs 75/- per month as allowance for my sustenance. I could not believe myself and ran to see that on the notice board. In the evening when I shared that good news  with my parents, they enjoyed & my mother made payasam to celebrate the occasion. From that scholarship amount I used to spend Rs 35-40/month towards my mess fees for the afternoon lunch in the hostel and the electric train season ticket  Mambalam- Chromepet. The rest have been given to the house for general expenses.

As regards the engineering drawing classes, since I had the basic exposure during my high school days itself, I was able to grasp them fast. Otherwise, all subjects were vast in quantum and the time period was too short. Most of my classmates had arrears in various subjects and they passed out only in re-examinations. Luckily I could escape that &passed out with no arrears; otherwise my merit scholarship continuation would have come under review.

Coming to the group studies & semester examination preparations :

 As a  day- scholars self, my schoolmate Sh N Chandrasekhar & Sh.Rajah Kumar  combined together for group studies in the first year. They both were from the Electronics faculty whereas I was from IT faculty. But that did not matter then since all subjects were common. After MIT graduation, Chandrasekhar had his entire services at Bharat Electronics, Bangalore whereas R Kumar did his Doctorate degree  and rose to the rank of MD in M/S Philips International, an universal major in Electronics. Invariably we used to assemble in Kumar's house at Alwarpet for those combined studies. His father was a DIG in Madras Police and they had all the facilities in their home. His mother used to take care of our food, refreshments as well as study arrangements etc. Here it is  necessary that I should mention how she took care of us during those days. She was the person who induced me to read Vishnu Sahasranamam and Indrakshi- Siva Kavacham on every Sunday. Happy to note that virtue still continues even today .

When the semester examinations approached, I used to move to the college hostel itself  and stay with either Mr R Sundar or Mr S Muthukrishnan, both my IT classmates. There we used to study until 2AM or so. The entire hostel used to be live throughout nights with students exchanging notes from one room to another & on. Passing out the first year in MIT was a challenge in those days. I managed to pass without any arrears and moved to second year.

Regarding the first year end  factory training I shall cover in the next.

Joining MIT

 Joining MIT

With the confidence induced by Prof.Mathews and an involved teaching by Mr Joseph for Physics  & Mr Manivannan for Statistics I could perform very well in my B.Sc final public examinations in April 1966 & scored first class with overall A+ grade in my bachelors degree. Then came the dilemma in life. Personally I was not ready to take up employment; but not clear what further studies I should pursue. So, as the first step I applied for the post graduation in Mathematics ( M.Sc) admission in Loyola college itself. There were some issues cropped up.    My department professor Sh Adhivarahan Iyengar was not clearing my application but the college principal Fr Francis was keen to take me. So the matter was in YES/NO status.

Meanwhile some parallel activities took place. My Dharmapuri cousin Sh.Balasubramaniam, who was working in Southern Railway advised me- why not you apply for MIT, a private engineering institution promoted by Mr Rajam of Salem  conducting special courses in Instrument Technology, Aeronautics, Electronics and Automobile engg. and they give a post graduate diploma which is equivalent to an engineering degree. He suggested that this institution is recognized and these subjects have good prospects for employment. With blind faith I took his advice and moved my application for MIT admission. Also through a strange contact I was called for an interview for a covenanted officer position in National Grindlays Bank, UK. They conducted some written tests  and personal interviews etc.My name was short listed. Personally I did not like it  as I was not mentally ready to undertake employment then. So, one fine day, I told my mother that I shall go to MIT at  Chromepet and find out about my moved application status. Catching the electric train I went to Chromepet and went in the college. It was around 1 PM in the afternoon  and there was nobody around. I was not knowing where to enquire and whom to contact?When I was wandering in the office corridor, suddenly an old gentleman came across & questioned me- what do you want and what is the matter? When I told him about my visit to the college for enquiring, he enquired- from which college you have passed out, what degree and grade you have obtained? When I responded to him, he asked me to follow him and took me to his cabin. He typed my admission letter and handed over, asking me to pay the stipulated admission fees & register ! At that time only, I came to know that he is the Director of the Institute ( Mr K Srinivasan) responsible for all admissions in the institute! In my mind I prayed to God and thanked Him. For the first time in my life  I felt that there is some hope in life. I got selected & admitted in Instrument Technology, which I opted for in my application.

 

Shifting to T Nagar

 Shifting to T Nagar

As my sister Viji got employed at King Institute, Guindy & my father's office shifted from Triplicane to Teynampet, travelling for them became cumbersome. Added to that me joining the college at Nungambakkam necessitated us to look for some tenement in T Nagar/Mambalam area. As luck would favour us, my cousin sister Lakshmi's in-laws were on the look out for a known tenant in their house at Murugesa Mudaliar road, T Nagar. It is  a cutting in North Usman road. That person was Sh Krishnaswamy Bhagavathar and they were planning to move out of station to stay with their second son. So it was a bonus for us , we took possession and shifted by April 1963.. That house number was also No.17 ! That made our commutation easy. My father could easily go by bicycle to his office and sister could walk to Mambalam station to catch the electric train to Guindy and back. For me, the services of S3- students' special run by the state government became handy. I did enjoy that bus ride going to Loyola college for my B.Sc studies.

Our shifting to T Nagar changed my life completely. To ease our rental load factor,one of my uncle ( mother's cousin brother) Mr N M Eswaran, who was an Income Tax officer shared & occupied a portion of that house.At that time he had 3 children- Usha, Ravi Narayan & Sridhar, As they were all young then,  practically everybody felt it as one family  excepring 2 kitchens. Within a year or so, my father went on deputation to Neyveli Lignite Corpn. Neyveli but we stayed there. We used to go to Neyveli only during college vacations that too short trips since my sister was employed. It is a different thing that my father had serious health issues  and forcibly returned back after a year or so.

Coming to my education,since in PUC  I scored only II class grade, my engg. degree admission became impossible. As I was a student of Loyola in PUC,  I could easily get admission for my B.Sc Mathematics with Physics & Statistics as Ancillary subjects. By that time the college principal got changed to Fr Francis My HOD was Prof.Adhivarahan Iyengar who took Calculus for us.Algebra was taught by Mr Mathews Dynamics by Mr Ramchandran, Mechanics by Mr Dharmapadam, Physics by Mr Joseph & Statistics by Prof. Manivannan. Language Tamil was taken by Mr Arul Prakasam & English by Mr Ramachandran.Of all subjects in my major I had a special love for Algebra & Mr Mathews encouraged me on that. He was very confident that I shall get I class in my B.Sc degree and should pursue further studies.  True to his belief I scored an A+ grade and obtained first class.

As confidence has set in me I felt relaxed and enjoyed my studies. During my B.Sc days, I continued my NCC ( Infantry) and rose to the rank of Under Officer rank- highest for a college student in NCC. Recognizing that  & considering our involvement, the State NCC authorities  have organized  a 6 week army attachment camp at Mount Abu in Rajasthan - attached with 4/4 Gorkha Rifles regiment. Those 6 weeks of camp life is an experience by itself. As all students were from Tamilnadu (mother tongue Tamil) excepting Mr Nathu Shah, who was a Gujarathi but born brought up in Chennai. In the camp we had difficulty conversing with the army jawans but had a good social life, and enjoyed the company of gurkha soldiers. One particular joke-   When we students talk amongst ourselves in Tamil, we use the colloquial word ' theriyuma'- Do you know? as slang. The army jawans used to caution us - Do you understand  what you are talking about; you all are giving disrespect to your mother! They took that as 'teri ma' and cautioned us not to repeat. As we could not understand the Hindi tongue then we were blank. Only Sh Nathu Shah could make it, he explained to both the sides and clarified. Then we had a hearty laugh. Courtesy Nathu Shah only could rescue us then.

Coming to my S3 experience : The bus S3 used to start from Kodambakkam station and ply through Usman road, entire T Nagar, Mount road, Egmore, Kilpauk,Chetpet and then Nungambakkam. It used to touch all colleges- both male& female institutions en route. As the fares were subsidized, almost all students (boys&girls) used to utilize its service both ways. Though the trip used to take 1 1/2 hours each way, the students used to enjoy the ride. There used to be several love birds and fight for the seats for their companions.

It so happened that in 1968, our house owners were returning back to Chennai and they wanted us to vacate. Once again luck favoured us; one portion in house no. 7 in the same road fell vacant and that house owner Mr Ramamoorthy happened to be a colleague of my father in A.G's office. He was happy to let us occupy that portion for rental. We continued to occupy that house until 1977 i.e until  my father's retirement from the service,after which he shifted to our own house at Alwarthirunagar Even my marriage took place in 1975 when we were occupying that house only. The beauty was, when the Corporation of Madras did a survey revision, even that house number was revised to No 17! So we used to say my parents and number 17 do not part away from each other.

In Murugesa Mudaliar road, I developed new friends. To name a few : M/S PS Murugesan, Narasimha Reddy, Raju, Karuna, Mani, Vengoji..... (same age group) but none of them were my classmates or from the same college or school. Out of them, Murugesh and Reddy were very close with me. Rather Murugesan is still in touch with me. He was the friend who rushed to Tuticorin to escort me from the hospital to bring me to Chennai by train.  I met with a major motorbike road accident in 1974 while working in SPIC Tuticorin. Murugesh did his B Sc Physics from the Presidency College, Madras. He worked in the Reserve Bank of India & retired. When it comes to Narasimha Reddy, after his B.Sc he joined as a commissioned officer in India Navy. Last I met him at his Naval Training school in 1971 at Kochi , Kerala, after which I lost contact with him.

During my college days, I with Murugesh used to visit Muppathamman temple daily and Siva Vishnu temple every Saturday evening without fail. People used to wonder and question us what makes you two to join together this way.