I VISIT NIT CALICUT FEW MONTHS BACK

I decided to visit NIT REC CALICUT a few months back.It is much more than a decade i had been there and I decided to make a sudden trip just out of the blue getting a very rear sleeper berth in one of the sleeper coaches that is permitted to transgress the Bandipur forests in the night.All other buses in the night take the Manantavady route.

I was filled with nostalgia riding the bus from the modern Kozhikode Calicut bus station and much of the stretch looks the same and and alighting at the college bus stand and remembering my father who brought me to this place at the first instance decades ago. I went into the canteen and then decided to take a stroll through the Campus though it was fairly late in the evening.The Canteen is very much the same only that it is self service now. No Damu And Radha..I enquired about Damu who used to help us in the canteen and was told he is in the middleeast.

Much of the areas are fortified now with security personnel at every step and I had to introduce myself at the entrance and was let in.There is no liaises fare here anymore. The place now looks very much like a mini IIT. The football ground on the left has given way for buildings and there are many new buildings adjacent to the road.

When I entered the main building I could see the vision and Mission statement. They were written and framed in small letters. Before I came to this place I got myself photographed by one of the present students and the photograph can be seen here. I hope the MISSION AND VISION STATEMENT OF REC NIT IS MORE PROMINENTLY PAINTED IN MUCH BIGGER FONT ON THIS WALL so that people could appreciate it better.

I then went about thinking of having a cup of tea at our MC but to my horror and astonishment I found none of the present students have heard the name MC.Only later I had to digest the fact that the MC has been done away with in the present scheme of things and a more austere looking bulding called the Student corner or something. I had some cool drinks in the student corner thereafter spending some time with the Steward of the D hostel and visiting my room in the D hostel where I slept for nearly an year and a half. as a student.I was told Dhanya talkies in Kettangal has stopped functioning.

Then I came into the C hostel.In the C , B and A hostels an additional annexe has been built.It seemed to me a marvellous civil engineering idea.Annexe is not behind the hostel but attatched to the front of the earlier hostel.This scheme should have created larger hostel capacity.

On the way back I went to the canteen again and had some fried rice and happenned to chat with three present day girl students whom I just happened to meet.One of them from Talap in Cannanore and the other from Trissur.

Thus ended my short visit to this place where I spent many formative years of my life.

FELLING COCONUTS AT REC NIT CALICUT

As I mentioned somewhere in the September of 1982 five of us were staying in the B hostel room 315.S V Giri, Srinath Shetty,Jerald Harry Dsouza,Arvind Poal Masaji from Nippani Belgaum and myself.

The hostels of NIT Calicut and its vicinity had many Coconut palms fully grown and mature with abundant yeild. On few occassions it dawned on us to venture  in the night and pluck few of these for ourselves.There was something risky about this but we ventured few times sometimes near the auditorium.

Dsouza was an avid climber and excelled at felling coconuts and then descending from the tree and the whole activity had to be done with care to ensure that the coconuts did not fall on anybody.

Then came the task of peeling them at which Shetty excelled. Most of the time I was only a spectator at the mercy of the skills of my room mates.What followed was excellent a total feast of high quality Coconuts  some times with lot to spare.We never knew that these trees were given on lease to a tenant farmer who would not have appreciated what we were up to but most times they did not object.

A bizarre incident happenned in the June of 1983 when a Bengali lad one year our senior fell from the coconut tree near the AC lab and met his end.This was a shocking incident for us all.Rains the earlier day had left the palms wet and he happenned to slip from the top.Sadly I dont remember his name and if any one reading this column knows his name I could include it here .

With this incident ended our quest for coconuts and our adventures in the night.Well it was a jolly experience for we adoloscents at that time but I would very well advice student folk at Universities around the world who are in such circumstances to may be refrain from such acts.Nightfall is to have a good sleep in the room and not to embark on such adventures for good or for bad.

P O SUBASH PHOTO

THE ABOVE IS A PHOTO TAKEN IN ONE OF THE CONFERENCES IN BANGALORE IN 1997

THE ABOVE WAS TAKEN IN WINNDSOR MANOR IN 1996..RE ENGINEERING CONFERENCE.

THE ABOVE IS FINAL YEAR DAY PROCESSION IN AUGUST 1986 PASSING THROUGH STAFF QUARTERS REC NIT CALICUT 1982 TO 86 BATCH.

THE ABOVE IS FINAL YEAR PARTY IN THE AUDITORIUM FROM LEFT TO RIGHT  SAMPATH S R , MYSELF, SRINIVAS AND DOMINIC SAVIO

AT THE SAME PARTY..THE LADY IS THE STUDENT HEMALATHA OUR CLASS MATE...I FORGET THE NAME OF THE NORTH EASTERN STUDENT..PLEASE PARDON ME..OTHERS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT S R SAMPATH, P V K MOHAN,MADHU,MYSELF,KANNAN, ASOKAN AND DR.P P GERWADIS OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.

AT THE SAME PARTY ABOVE AND BELOW IN A SKIT. MADHU DRESSED LIKE A GIRL.

THE TWO PHOTOS BELOW TAKEN AT HOTEL REGENCY CALICUT IN AUGUST 1986..SEATED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT..SRINATH SHETTY..I FORGET HIS NAME, .BADRINARAYAN WHO WAS MTECH STUDENT AND LATER HOD AT RVCE BANGALORE, S V GIRI,MYSELF, JERALD HARRY DSOUZA AND GAYATHRI BHAT.

THE PHOTO BELOW WAS TAKEN AT THE FINAL YEAR PARTY IN THE AUDITORIUM..THE ENTIRE SET OF STUDENTS CAN BE SEEN. 1982 to 1986 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING REC NIT CALICUT.. 

P O SUBASH PHOTO

PARTY HOSTED BY OUR JUNIORS AT HOTEL REGENCY CALICUT IN AUGUST 1986,,THE LONE LADY STUDENT IS GAYATHRI BHAT  NIT REC CALICUT.