The Tulu language is widely spoken in the city of Mangalore and around and is unique in many ways but to my understanding has no script. Tulu is also spoken in the place called Shringeri and in many other pockets around this place. The language of Tulu must have been spoken widely in the erstwhile Tulunad which to my understanding extended from the Chandragiri river near Kasargod of today and extended some fifty kilometres northward.
My first tryst with this language was in the room B-315 of REC hostels where two of my room mates Jerald Harry Dsouza from Kinnigoli and Srinath Shetty from Shirva Manchakkal used to talk and sometimes argue in this language and I was hell-bent at learning it.Though Iam not a very fluent speaker of this language but can manage to some extent.
To my understating everything must be done to preserve this language and the local Govt. must take steps to encourage this language that for some strange reason it does not become extinct. It is unique in many ways and its identity as an independent language must be fully preserved.
Malampuzha is to Palghat/Palakkad what Brindavan gardens and KRS is to Mysore.At this place the river is damned and in the downstream is a park similar to Brindavan gardens. Malampuzha is some half an hour drive from Palakkad.
If we were to compare Brindavan gardens with Malampuzha,Malampuzha is a smaller outfit some one third to Brindavan gardens with similar elegance. This is a place worth visiting once which is in the foot hill of the Western Ghat mountains.
One key aspect here is the ropeway which carries tourists over a circular route of some two kilometers over-seeing the entire stretch of mountains ,the dam and the river.Whenever you embark to use the ropeway do so with adequate planning and if one is too young or too old avoid the rope way for safety reasons. The ropeway could be some 500ft above the ground and there is a stair case that leads to it with highly trained staff handling the operations. but involves some physical juggling from the part of the tourist.
Speeding vehicles run over dogs every day across the stretches of roads and highways of our country which is a distressing phenomenon; from small roads to highways this phenomenon exists.
Recently I was travelling to Puttaparthi, on two instances small puppies were seen crossing the road and the driver of the KSRTC bus was considerate in stopping the bus to let the pup pass.
Dogs cross busy roads in distress and confusion trying to bolt across the road landing up being over-run; a tragic phenomena. Recently a very amusing thing happened. A fully grown dog was standing beside me very confused to cross the road.I requested some damsels near-by to help the dog cross the road which they did.What the dog did on crossing the road left me speechless. It was wagging its tail and jumping in joy near the damsels so as to say Thank-You.
Some solution for this problem must be found at all levels. This menace for all practical purposes does not exist on the Bangalore-Mysore Express-Way because the road is fenced on both sides. National Highways Authority of India and other departments must find some comprehensive solutions.One of it would be to build conduits under the road for dogs to pass involving all forms of roads negating the need for dogs to bolt across roads.
Some brainstorming might be needed at all levels across the country to prevent this un-warranted incidents on our roads. International institutions can give us inputs as to how this issue can be tackled.
Hassan is a key town in the state of Karnataka and is a transit point to places like Mangalore and is some four hours journey from Bengaluru. Modern day Hassan is a major township. Decades ago I had visited a place called Holenarsipura which is near Hassan and Hassan has many scientific and educational institutions.
The key aspect today is the exquisite KSRTC bus stand which is of splendid design. It uses the "OPEN DESIGN" model of bus stations with platforms on either side with ample parking and seating spaces. Designers of Govt. bus stations around the country can have a look at the Hassan bus station and incorporate its attributes when they design Bus Stations.
My Father was uncompromising in the supply of texts and books to his children sometimes travelling miles across various destinations just to source one text book and he was meticulous at bringing constructive educational material for his children starting from the morning news paper.
One such book he bought from out of the blue was the KINGSWAY MODERN DICTIONARY. This book was a joy of our childhood and was at our house for many decades and was a interesting thing for children that it had many portraits. The book was basically in demand from our colleagues at school who wanted to keep it for themselves at least for a day.
This book is published even today and a copy of which could adorn the shelves of homes, schools and institutes.
Indian Railways is the largest employer in the World and operates with efficiency many trains including extra-long distance trains. Modernization activities have also been undertaken over the decades with many stations getting a face-lift.It has also improved on cleanliness with time and punctuality is much better.
However to my observation Indian Railways can improve its load factor even better by providing one call center at every station where a commuter can specifically call for queries. This call center can function round the clock giving passengers without clutter information about trains.A centralized information system of officers can be appointed for this purpose to provide real time information.
By doing so the professionalism of India Railways can be improved manifold and made even more endearing to public.
The temple town of Puttaparthi is a key international destination brought to prominence by Divine Grace Sathya Sai Baba and is an abode of peace and tranquility and reflection for a global audience.The touch of class of Sai Baba can be seen at this place and could serve as a model town for other cities in the world.
Basically Puttaparthy is a remote town some three hours drive from Bangalore ..though the temporal proximity might be larger the spatial proximity is much lesser. Its a town within the Eastern Ghat ranges but enjoys a much cooler weather because of planned and deliberate vegetation. Penukonda a very important township of yore is close to this place.
Travelling from Bangalore to Puttaparthi involves travelling through Devanahalli, Chikkaballapur, Bagepalli, Gorantla .Kadri is another township in this trajectory.There is only one APSRTC covering this destination from Whitefeild,but Iam told there are many buses to Kadri..which means one has to alight at Gorantla and few kilometers away is Puttaparthy.Be careful not to embark on a re-docking journey which simply means getting down at one place and waiting for the connection bus which is an uncertain and avoidable experience.
What the world can learn from Puttaparthi..very simple.....by planned addition of largescale vegetation a place can be made cooler and less arid and more favourable and inhabitable.
The Meppadi to Anakampoyil tunnel project through a place called Kalladi is a ambitious civil engineering venture in many ways.I have tried to understand it fully but only with partial success but still enthusiasts of this venture can enlighten me about this further.
To my understanding the Western Ghat mountains within these points is barely some eight kilometers and writ with streams and hilly formations.A tunnel some six kilometers long struck through the mountains and a bridge some two kilometers long would do the trick of connecting Anakampoyil to Meppadi.
This immediately means that the Ghat road called the Thamarassery ghats would no longer be needed to ferry from Mysore to Calicut which for all practical purposes would transfer to a eight kilometer stretch through the tunnel in the mountain ranges saving nearly one hour of travel time. At present the Thamarassery ghat section is some twelve kilometres end to end and it takes one hour to clear it which indicates a travel speed of some 10kmph.The general travel strain faced crossing the ghats would be eliminated and reduces travel risks on the Ghat stretch.
This will have far reaching consequences on NIT Calicut which means a four lane stretch through the campus is in-evitable considering that to reach Calicut from Anakampoyil a transgression through NIT Calicut is the only option.The load factor on this road will be like the one seen in front of NIT Suratkal which harbours the Mangalore-Mumbai highway.
The generic visibility of NIT Calicut would expand many fold as it is on an important transport artery which will face various forms of challenges with time.The generic peace an institution should enjoy could be at stake.
One option is to fully widen the road through NIT into a four lane which means the sound of vehicles will mar the people in the hostels and this will also need demolition of buildings near the road-to some extent a less acceptable option.Another option would be to set up a four lane flyover all the way from Kettangal upto the Chatamangalam hills ahead of the 12th mile bus stop totally by-passing the institute which would a acceptable option in many ways.The final option would be more cumbersome and would be to put a four lane tunnel road from Kattangal to Chatamangalam hills saving NIT Calicut of all possible maladies. However the other option would be to put a ring road from places like kattangal to the main road fully bypassing the institute. The idea is to be more astute before-hand so that the best option both economically and otherwise can be arrived lest some mistake is made which could lead to some form of perennial discomfort.
The Wayanad hill tunnel can have environmental implications. One must understand water from the Ghat mountains create rivers and any inadvertent damning of some river can lead to water short-fall downstream. The destiny of Calicut is going to change for ever that is for sure because it brings Calicut closer to Mysore and Bangalore in terms of temporal proximity adding economic upheavals along this corridor. To my understanding a railway line could also be formed along thhis stretch.
The city of Bangalore is a marvellous city in many ways chisseled and christened by centuries of occupants both domestic and International and every community for that matter has left an indelible stamp on the city in its own way and right..
Very crisply said the city of Bangalore has many decorations handed down by the past both pristine and modern.The greatness of this city are its lakes -myraid of them in every nook and corner.Added to these lakes are three formal rivers which are in turn connected to these lakes.The water in these lakes are largely gifted by the Eastern Ghat mountain range which are short in height and barren and large supplies of water descending from these mountains traverse in many ways accross the Bsangalore plains to join the Cauvery river in some form down the plains.The lakes are largely plush with water from the Eastern Ghats and also from the rains.
When I was a kid there were two major lakes near our house which are oliterated now.In 2002 I had sent an email to the then Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri. S M Krishna the need to save these lakes and hence came the LDA (Lake Development Authority) which over the decades hence has done a splendid job preserving and developing these lakes.
Shri S M Krishna CM in 2002
Iam seen with the older brother of Shri S M krisna with whom I had some friendship
Recently I visited the Nayandahalli lake and was wonderstuck at the wonderful flora that has been created around it and also two fountains in the middle with coloured light.Such fountains could be placed in all the lakes to add to the aura of the city.The same model could be followed across the country by district administrators to preserve the water bodies and add fountains in the middle with coloured light which glorifies the town in many ways.
The new BSNL land-line telephone system coupled with internet hotspot(optional) is technologically different in many ways from conventional co-axial cable systems. It uses optical fiber upto the last meter and then uses an adapter which is power operated to connect to the land line. Data transmission of voice and other data is much faster and is a good option.
The dis-advantage of this system is that it always needs power back-up. If power fails the system does not operate. BSNL can supply a small UPS with this system to give power back-up during power failures to keep the system operational.
BSNL along with institutions like ITI could team up to set up such optical fibre broad-band telephone systems in countries that still use co-axial cables. This would be a good international operation for both the institutions and other support institutions in this feild.
At the entrance of the 100ft road in Indira nagar operated a firm called TOPSYS SOLUTIONS PVT LTD in the mid 1990's and was run by an alumnus of IIT Kanpur by name Mr.Balagopal Karat an enterprising person in many ways and had skills at developing and packaging new software.He had a wide range of products one of them in the design of Electrical Layouts and another was an Accounting Software formidable in many ways called ACCOUNT-21.
I worked for a couple of months here as a consultant doing business development for the software Account-21 and was successful in selling them through software channels.I got rare insight into the accounting software market. During these times TALLY used to be the leader.I used to meet software re-sellers in Kolar,Hosur ,Mangalore ,Hyderabad etc.During my tenure here I understood there were scores of Accounting softwares in the country-numerous of them. Accounting Softwares paved way for the mdern ERP softwares of various kinds.
Mr.Balagopal Karat handled the overall operations very well. I dont know what became of TOPSYS later but is an inspiration that relatively small outfits using minimum number of people can work wonders in sectors like software where to my understanding there is more scope for developing custom-made specific softwares.
Madanapalliis a township in Andhra Pradesh State not far
from Bangalore city and few kilometres from the State border.It is a historical
place in many ways and comes within the Rayalaseema territory of the
Vijayanagar empire. The emperor Krishnadevaraya was fond of this town for many
reasons and the term Madanapalli has Vijayanagar origins..Madana being name one of
the founders and Palli meaning village and is simply a village
in the name of Madana. Madanapalli is a small township in the cradle of the
eastern ghat mountain ranges some 75 kilometers from Chintamani off the NH 4
highway.
One of the key hillocks at this
place is Basinikonda which has a temple atop it.It has a statue of
Krishanadevaraya at two places. The Basinikoda and its adjacent hills give source
to a river in the past and a drain of today that criss-crosses the heart of the
city. In ancient times this river must have been the source of water for this
township.
The paradox of this place is the
dichotomy of weather. As we approach the city the area some twenty five kilometres before the city is very cool with temperatures increasing steadily
over evey kilometer. This is an irony of sorts. The reason for this is that the
Eastern Ghat ranges twenty five kilometers before the town carry very high
amounts of vegetation adding to the the cool nature of the weather but as we move
into the town the hillocks like Basinikonda are hard rocks which absorb
sun-light and emit the heat into the town creating a furnace like feeling
within the town; To cool the town Government could consider rampant addition of
vegetation of some kind on the hills adjacent to the town to create a more
cooler atmosphere.
Once the English took over this
place they added many logical components to it like English education through
the Theosophical Society of Annie Beasant. The present day Madanapalle could be
made even more endearing by adding various forms of professional inputs to it
and developed in ways it can support the city of Bangalore in many operational
and functional ways.
The Bangalore Fort can be stated
as the mother of Bangalore City as we see today.It is traditional Bangalore
which could be more than one thousand years old,the remains of which can be seen in
the Kalasipalayam area of Bangalore City of today. The original Bangalore is
Kalasipalayam. Palayam in the vernacular means a Fort. It is also possible this
place was called Kailaspalayam which with centuries became Kalasipalayam.In
ancient times people lived in such fort complexes which were a city in itself
with many facilities and hosted some less than half a million in population.The
Fort provided protection from inimical forces.
The very consistent view point
here is the large hillock seen within Lalbagh which was the primary motivation
to set up Kalasipalayam. The hillock served as a watch-tower and also as rains
embarked this place gave vent to large lakes flushed with water which served as
a primary source of water for the residents. Kengal Hanumanthaiah road also
called double road today was a lake in the yore of mammoth size storing large
quantities of water and the water coming down this hill also guided through
small water-ways into various tanks within the Palayam or Fort. Such water
bodies can even be seen today around this hillock.This hillock was the
life-line of this fort centuries ago.
What did this fort look like
exactly.The Sanctum Sanctorum of the fort if you may so call it is the
structure seen today which was the residence of the Kings and royalty from time
to time with its own paraphernalia , design and assets. Around this was another
large wall which is extinct today but stretched over a large periphery with
gates on four sides.In history there is mention of the Kengeri Gate the gate
from this large Fort Complex exiting towards modern day Mysore road.
To politely understand what the larger periphery of the Fort wall could have been study the temples of
Bangalore city.There are two kinds of Temples in Bangalore city…one kind that
exists on the banks of rivulets like the Gali Anjaneya Swamy temple and temples
in Ulsoor which pre-date all other temples in the city by centuries.The other
form of temples are ones generally built within Fort complexes.To understand
the periphery of the external rampart walls of the Bangalore fort study the
trajectory of temples.The fort walls towards Ulsoor side must have extended
upto modern day Richmond Town.Note a temple exists at the almost fag end of
this trajectory today behind the Mallya Hospital,the Ulsoor Gate of the external
Fort walls could have been around here and towards the Mysore road side upto
the banks of the Vrishabavathy river. On the other two sides the Fort
wall extended much beyond Basavanagudi and could be upto the Ulsoor lake on the
remaining side. It is difficult to pin-point exactly but that was the expanse of
Kalasipalayam from the sheer study of temples. Near Mysore Bank circle towards the end of Avenue Road also we
see a temple which was part of the Fort system. I have roughly tried to mark the
periphery. With the advent of Cannons it was easy to penetrate these
fortifications because they succumbed to Canon fire over centuries and the
simply don’t exist. With the advent of the rule of the Mysore Sultans many
mosques and similar structures found its place within these fortifications. In
the third Mysore war under the direct supervision of Lord Cornwallis this entire
structure fell into the hands of the English. The English appear to have broken
through these Fortifications from the Ulsoor side reaching the sanctum
sanctorum of the fort seen near City Market of today creating a breach on the
Fort some one square meter in size and thereafter using various forms of
ordnance through this aperture killing many within this complex and then
sending foot soldiers through this opening and finishing the job , opening the
fort gates and thereafter taking full control of it.
The original fortified settlement
dating back centuries is Kalasipalayam. Chickpet Balepet and all these pets were
markets that served the needs of people within the fort. Including modern day City Market. Around this fort were
agricultural activities of various kinds and it must be emphasized that Lalbagh
of today stands within the Kalsipalayam Fort complex and so do the many
temples seen near Sajjan Rao circle.
Next time you walk through
Kalasipalayam in Bangalore near the City Market for any reason remember you are
trudging on centuries of History.
As a kid in middle school the authorities of the school had the
ingenuity to take our class for an excursion to Whitefield, which we kids were
all very excited about. This must be in the sixth standard as Mrs. Grace
accompanied us.The plan was to take the morning train at 9:00AM and return by
the evening train at 4:00PM.
We visited three places , the Alembic glass factory, the Blind
school and the Joy ice-cream factory.It would be worthy to point out that
Bangalore in the 1970,s were full of mini plants largely making steel and a
power intensive sector where many worked in various capacities. Kamani steel,
Kap steel, Andhra Steel, Shivamoni steel to name some on the K R Puram Railway
station to Hope farm road. Whitefield had become a very important residential
hamlet by the early 1900's with many Victorian style houses.
What struck me most as a kid was the Alembic Glass Factory.
Kamlesh Mehtha the son of the owner was a student at our school for some
time.We tiny-tots were treated with courtesy by the factory staff. Alembic
glass factory existed close to the Whitefeild Railway Station. We were amused to
see glass manufacturing. Alembic glass company made glass bottles for the Medical
industry. Large furnaces and procedures that made glass bottles were seen.
In retrospect I think children could be introduced to Industrial
Manufacturing so that at a very formative age they get to appreciate such
things and imbibe them which will shape what they do in the future.
IIM KOZHIKODE is at a place called Kunnamangalam some 15 kms from Kozhikode city.Please note that Kozhikode and Calicut refer to the same place.Kunnamangalam is on the Calicut Bangalore highway which is also the Calicut Mysore highway and also the Calicut Ooty highway and also could be broadly stated as Calicut-Wayanad highway.
Where is NIT Calicut vis-a-vis IIM Kozhikode?
NIT Calicut is at a place called Chatamangalam which is closer to the Western Ghat mountains and is EIGHT kilometers from IIM Kozhikode.While coming from Calicut turn towards the right at the junction in Kunnamangalam to reach NIT Calicut.
Who founded IIM Kozhikode?
KPP Nambiar founded this institute facing various challenges and road-blocks from various agencies.This institute exists in Calicut by and through his efforts.I used to meet him often in Bangalore.
I was a witness to a major fire in the GRAPHITE INDIA plant in 1992.Industrial fires are of a major concern around the world as it can create huge economic losses and an extended and un-predictable down time.
Graphite India used to have a Baking unit which bakes charge coming from Extrusion department.It used to be done with furnace oil in pits at a temperature of 800 degrees centigrade. Calcined petroleum coke and pitch are the key ingredients of making graphite which is a by-product of the Petroleum refining industry.
On that afternoon welding was happenning near by and a spark lit the oil largely that was scattered on the ground.The GM of Graphite India was A K JAIN and the Joint General Manager was Kersi KUKA.I used to have good relations with Kersi Kuka.A K Jain was out of town and Mr.Kuka was supervising things and sometimes had the temerity to go close to the fire which was ill-advised.
What ensued later was a very major fire towering above the plant and the fire engines arrived almost two hours later and doused the flames.
There was fire in BPL plant one night during over-time when some spark from some soldering machine lit cotton waste in the corner.
One of the reasons why I am putting these on record is that Indusrial engineers and managers must do everything possible to prevent fires.Sparks from the welding process have created fires at many places.The resonsibility of predicting possible fires and extinguishing them very early is a key aspect of Industrial engineering which would prevent huge losses to all stake holders and prevent organizations from going into a reverse gear.
Dr. K P Mohandas served REC of our times and NIT of today for many decades with diligence and distinction.A product of College of Engineering Trichur and later doing advanced education at IIT.He could be easily labelled as one of the few academic experts in the area of Control System Theory of which he was a specialist. I mentioned somewhere earlier that I used to get high grades at the exams in his subjects.I was planning to visit the College of Engineering Trichur but will do so some time soon.COE Trichur is one of the earlier Engineering colleges put up in Kerala.
He had a methodical approach to teaching most of the time bringing notes to the class and progressing through the session in a systematic style and also was an intellectual in his own right.My Father used to share good rapport with him.
If I
were to remember some of my teachers in the list would be Mrs. Starry who used
used to teach Science at Lowry Memorial School in Bangalore,Mr Chandrashekar
who used to teach Sanskrit at Sri Sathya Sai Arts Science and Commerce college
in Whitefield and Mr. H K Nagaraj who used to teach Trigonometry and Mr. Hegde
who used to teach Physics both of the above at Whitefield.In this list would
come two more people Dr. P S Srinivasan who used to teach Induction
Machines at REC NIT Calicut and Dr. K P Mohandas who used to teach Control
theory at this place.
If there is one thing Professors can learn from him around the world never go into classes without some description or document which pertains to that particular session so that classes can be effective a lesson one can learn from Dr. K P Mohandas.
TUMKUR now called TUMAKURU
is a town towards the north of the city of Bangalore distant by some
sixty kilometers and is an important transit point. Bangalore, Tumakuru and
Shivamogga (Shimoga) are towns in the Deccan Plateu and are not very far
from the Western and Eastern Ghat mountain ranges.Tumkaru is a town which can
be said to be equi-distant from these mountain ranges, the city of
Shivamogga(Shimoga) more closer to the Western Ghat mountain ranges and the
city of Bangalore more closer to the Eastern Ghats than the Western Ghat
ranges.There are many independent mountains and hillocks at various points in
the Deccan Plateau and these hillocks are made of solid rock formations and
resemble the Eastern Ghat ranges.
One such hillock is the
SHIVAGANGA hill on the way to Tumkur from Bangalore; I had visited this place
decades ago and if my memory serves me right a turn towards the left from the
highway It is an independent hillock which has many mythological tales and
anecdotes associated with it.There is a SHIVA temple here within a cave.I did
climb the entire hill. It is an exercise of adventure climbing the hill which
is steep at many places and there are well formed stairs and railings at
various points to make the ascent easier and the view from atop the hill is
breath-taking.
Anyone living in Bangalore during
his younger age must visit this place atleast once and take a climb up the
hill.When you climb the hill take due care not to slip and go about the
exercise with diligence and caution.
From 1980 to year 2000 full twenty years BPL made Television sets now called the Dome TV. Mrs.Indira Gandhi on returning as Prime Minister sanctioned the large scale expansion of TV transmitters creating a sudden explosion of the Television Market. There were hardly any tv's in the country and only very few very privileged people had them. The sudden explosion of the TV market meant a huge demand for TV sets and there was only one channel namely the DOORDARSHAN.
Dyanora, Solidaire ,Bush were all few names during these times and into this market gate-crashed a less known electronics company called BPL which was till then known for making Medical Electronics products. With the pioneering spirit of its JMD (Joint Managing Director) K P R Nambiar BPL for several years later had dominance in various forms over the TV industry.
Initially TV was made with hands-on soldering and with time imported two automatic soldering machines from SANYO.
These machines were of a splendid nature and showed superior Japanese engineering skills of these times.Some twenty operators would stuff the PCB( printed circuit board) in a production line and it would enter the machine which operated with many sets of relays..the most key part being a solder bath at very high temperature arising on the operation of a relay and automatically soldering the entire PCB and another set of two TUNGSTEN CARBIDE cutters driven at high RPM cutting the leads of the electronic components after soldering. With the arrival of these machines the Production quantity at BPL quadrupled. The machine had a circular design with PCB's taking a U turn at both ends.It was a treat watching them work.
There must be such machines in vogue even today. These machines can give sudden maintenance problems of many kinds and periodic servicing of some kind and spares replacement can prevent break downs and critical maintenance issues.
9089 and 9347 are two telephone numbers that Iam not able to forget. These are the PAX telephone numbers of my Father's workplace within ITI (Indian Telephone Industries).PAX means PRIVATE AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE...a modern equivalent of Intercom with every part of the township connected very well by the PAX system.I dont remember a single day when this system did not work.
Everything was well ordained within the ITI complex with a PAX telephone avaliable for the public at the main gate. As a kid I could not reach up to the phone and had to prop myself on some slab to get access to the phone to speak to my Father and at times some elderly person or security staff would help.
Along with the PAX system ITI also had the PABX system meaning PRIVATE AUTOMATIC BRANCH EXCHANGE with the help of which we could call BSNL telephones in the city. However this facility was only available in the hospital. Note that in the 1970''s and almost through the 1980's telephone penetration in India was very poor.There must have been one BSNL land-line for every say 10,000 (ten thousand) people and people had to look at some public outlets to make telephone calls. Sounds strange. Land line penetration improved drastically in the 1990's with Electronic Exchanges made by C-DOT(centre for the development of telematics) From the ITI hospital I used to call the cousins of my mother PRABHA SANKARANARAYANAN on 75695 and PREMA BAKTHAVATSALAM on 74453 and also the house of Dr.P C Nambiar in Cox-town on 51188.
Recently I was riding near the ITI main gate and happenned to remember those times and as I stand near the Main Gate of ITI can somewhere here the faint voice of my Father even today.
KETTANGAL is simply not what it used to be.It has changed from being a hamlet or a village to a small township...some of the old structures simply dont exist. Ali.s hotel is gone ,some of those smaller restaurants around are gone..A prominent mosque exists at this junction and so do flashy and up-market restaurant.How and when such a change happenned is unknown.
There is a full fledged auto stand and the roads from various directions that meet at this place.In what aspect Kettangal will change in the future is unknown but more far-reaching changes can be expected.
What was Kettangal during our era. It had Ali's hotel managed by his sons ...few other hotels of this kind,few barber shops, hamzas omlette corner and juice shops that gave mango milk shake.
The Canteen at REC NIT Calicut was in many ways a place to socialize for students during our times. At present there are many food outlets at the campus but during our era the canteen was one of the eat-outs in the vicinity of students. Recently on my visit to the institute I saw the canteen is fully refurbished with aura and murals painted on the external walls that gives a good feel and ambience. The menu has changed drastically with all north and south Indian cuisines and food..during our era it used to be Nai-roast with tea and a simple elegant afternoon lunch with boiled rice.Radha and Damu used to be the key waiters at this place and Mr.Vijayan used to be the Manager.
The Canteen building in many ways is elegant and symmetrical.,they have given a new name to this place which I do not re-collect.Both the wings are functional now and gives a relatively imposing posture.The Canteen building has stood the test of time and has existed here welcoming scores of students over the years.
It was a meeting point for we students very often settling in the corner table and sharing one nai roast.As I sit at this place I can see scores of students of my era and also some times the rain that lashed outside.The space in front of the canteen now is more busier than what it used to be and with increase in traffic and population there is chaos.Some rumble strips could be put on the main road to regulate traffic flow.
The present canteen can be improved further. I dont know exactly how. Some architects and civil engineers must take a look at this place. The basic idea is to build a firtst floor over the above structure without disturbing the present aesthetics and the floor could be some 4000 square feet a large expanse which could hold a large populace with some portion of it air-conditioned. If such a proposition can be executed in the ground floor with attachments even that would be welcome. Architects and civil engineers should have a look to see how such a system can be executed and incorporated.
GUNDLUPET is a township at the crossroads of Bandipur forests some one and a half hours journey from Mysore.For good or for bad the broad-guage railway link on this sector is upto Nanjangud thereafter the railway link extends towards Chamrajnagar.
Gundlupet has a key strategic role as buses towards Ooty and towards Calicut have to pass through this township. A broad guage railway link to the township of Gundlupet will have many advantages more than anything else it will ease the population load on Mysore Bus stand and also the Mysore railway station.Instead of travelling to Mysore interim populace could directly travel to Gundlupet by train and proceed to Ooty or Calicut by bus. A major Government bus stand can be planned at this place with pathways and link to the Gundlupet Railway Station.
Railway links to places like Sultan battery (Ganapativattom) and Vythiri in Wayanad through the forests can also reduce travel time to Calicut and other towns in Kerala. The Government is planning a tunnel from Meppadi in Wayanad to Anakampoyil in Calicut through the Western Ghat mountains the tunnel being some ten kilometers long..the tunnel could also accomodate the Railway line.
For reasons unknown such a project has not been undertaken as the time and expenses to lay such a railway line would not be much considering it is level land and could help propel the economy of this sector.
