MY ARTICLE ABOUT VASCO DA GAMA

It was in 1997 or so I got an information from Dr. Janardanan of  NIT Calicut that a souvenir was being released in Calicut Kozhikode to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the visit of Vasco Da Gama to the shores of Calicut which happened on  20th of May 1498.The souvenir was to be released by the Indo-Portugual Chamber possibly under the aegis of  the embassy of  Portugual in India.

I wrote an article about VASCO DA GAMA  which I found later was the first article in the souvenir. A copy of the souvenir was sent to me by post.Sadly later I lost the copy that was sent to me.In retrospect I believe it to be a very well written piece of  matter.

If any one who is reading this has a copy of this article from anywhere around the world kindly get in touch with me.

SOLVING THE TRANSFORMER PROBLEM AT BPL

It was somewhere in 1988 or 1989 ..I was working at the BPL Transformer shop in 80 Koramangala Industrial Estate where coils and transformers were made for Television sets.

There were two key power transformers made at this plant and I being basically an Electrical Engineer found great joy in handling these transformers. One of these transformers stepped down 230 volts to 15 volts..the problem started when Sanyo stopped the supply of these transformers and it had to be made in-house.These transformers were used in the LAN model which was a remote controlled TV.

The original Japanese transformer was very concise and elegant and duplicating it would be an herculean task..we tried to reverse engineer one of those transformers but were not successful which bespeaks of the competence of Japanese manufacturing technology.

However a local design was developed...some 3000 turns of 44 gauge  wire on the primary side..and some 300 turns of guage 34 on the secondary side with I think type 17 crngo laminations. I dont precisely remember the design but it was something like this. But the problem was it should withstand 4000 volts which it wasn't.

The problem is that majority of the Engineering personnel at BPL of that time were Electronics people who panicked at this issue but I knew it could be done.

One afternoon I wrapped the transformer tightly with three layers of teraoka tape and the transformer was withstanding 4000 volts. Many batches were made using my prototype and finally we succeeded in orchestrating a full plastic version similar to the Japanese one.

I did something at BPL in retrospect which saved the situation interim.

leg bye cartoon

subash po photo rec nit calicut

This is the old signpost of NIT Calicut when it was REC.We revere this post.It is like a light house.The very first time when we students did not know where REC Calicut was and travelling by local bus from Calicut city constantly searching for our destination and suddenly from out of the blue as the bus takes a turn near the dispensary this sign board pops up from nowhere. It was such a relief.

The present authorities at the campus must be praised for preserving this edifice and giving it the respect which it richly deserves and it is one of the finest pieces of display ever created by anyone anywhere in the world for its conciseness and background.

I MEET SHARADHA TEACHER WIFE OF E K NAYANAR

Few weeks ago I met Sharadha teacher the wife of former CM  E K Nayanar .I spoke to her over the phone and she gave the exact location of her house in Kalyasseri and she happened to know well some of our family members.

Uninformed I set out from Bangalore for a one day trip to Cannonore and then taking a local bus and reaching her house in the evening.

I spent some half an hour with her talking various issues.She is the sister of Mr.KPP Nambiar who was CMD of ITI