MANATHAVADY IN WAYANAD

 

The name Manantavady rings bells in my mind.In October 1983 or so S V Giri and myself reached at around 8pm  the old Calicut bus stand to board the 9pm bus to Bangalore but the bus was full and I still remember the blunt way in which the bus conductor shut the door of the bus and the bus took-off almost instantaneously...we waited upto 2:30 am in the Calicut bus stand under difficult conditions to board the early morning Karnataka SRTC super delux bus that would reach Calicut from Ernakulam around this time. Eventually we did board this bus reaching Bangalore at around 11 am.

The irony of the situation is that at  9 pm  there were several buses parked in the Calicut bus stand bound for Manantavady. For all Practical purposes we did not know where this place Manantavady was. Many people who visit Calicut for the first time would be in such quandary and must not make the oversight that we did.

Manantavady is a town in the Wayanad district of Kerala up the Western Ghat mountains.(Kalpetta is another town close to this place). It is a town on the same axis as Virajpet or even Madikeri. The principal fact of the matter is that Manantavady is relatively very close to the city of Mysore. Manantavady has a small befitting Kerala SRTC bus station. There are two routes from Manantavady to Mysore. One through Nagarahole forests through H D Kote (HeggadaDevana Kote) which should take three hours and another route through Gonikoppal which should take some four hours. Manantavdy also has a link road to Tellicherry.

Any one stranded in Calicut bus stand can try this route too to come to Bangalore. Calicut to Mananthavady to Mysore and to Bangalore.

CALICUTCITY:KETTANGAL

I was having a Milk Shake recently and happenned to remember the Banana Milk Shake and Mango Milk Shake which I used to have sometimes with my batch-mate S V Giri in Kettangal. Kettangal is a hamlet adjacent to REC NIT Calicut. During our times we used to visit Kettangal for milk shake which used to cost Rs. 5/- at one of those outlets run by some very elderly person. He used to peel the mangoes himself and empty them into an old mixi and a roar of the mixi for few minutes and he empties a thick soup of Mango milk shake into a tumbler and it was pleasure having one. It must have added value to our health in those days supplying vital nutrients to the body.

I have not visited Kettangal of late but must be more intense in population by now. Kettangal is basically a confluence of four roads. One that comes from Calicut via Kunnamangalam and proceeds to Mukkom, another that goes adjacent to the E hostel and proceeds to Koduvally, and another towards Mavoor .

Kettangal had some three hotels one of which used to be Ali's joint.In Ali's hotel you get Mixture with onion laced on it and on a rainy evening having it with a cup of tea used to be Heaven.

Kettangal never sleeps.It is active at night too with small eat outs working overtime supplying bread omelette and tea.

I dont know what would be the future of this joint? With increase in population may be the roads here might need widening which could change the face of this place. Kettangal! You were a joy of our lives on any given day not to mention the music played at some of these joints which could be heard aloud and a saloon nearby.

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.. 

REVITALISING KSRTC KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION

Having come to know from some quarters  that  Kerala State Road Transport  Corporation is troubled and is looking for ways and means to revitalise itself ….I thought  it necessary as a Corporate Consultancy  enthusiast to share observations and possible  solutions  from my experience and view-point. Earlier I was associated with  Corporate  Consultancy initiatives in Bangalore city handling  projects of System improvement  and  Re-engineering. That  KSRTC  has asked the help of independent  consultancy institutions to find remedies which is a welcome move and also a sign that the Kerala Government  is seeking professional involvement  to improve and augment  situations. I was listening to  Gita  Gopinath  the other day who is on a similar mission.

My own experiences  with  KSRTC. As a student at the erstwhile Regional Engineering College at Calicut  between 1982  and 1986  I used to use the Bangalore- Calicut service often. In 1982 me and my room  mate  S V Giri were stuck at the Calicut Bus Station because the 9:00pm bus was full and we did not have a reservation. We had to wait for nearly  five hours to board the Karnataka SRTC  delux bus at  2:00 Am. Many times on my journey from Bangalore to Kozhikode the  Driver and Conductor refused to give a halt at Kunnamangalam from where REC  was very close-by though I pleaded with them and emphasizing that I was a student….which means I had to un-necessarily go to Kozhikode and comeback to REC…a  round  about  journey that could be fifty kilometers. We used to prefer private buses  because they would give a halt at  Kunnamangalam. On another occasion  the night bus from Kozhikode to Bangalore broke down in Kengeri and I had to take a BMTC bus to reach Bangalore terminus. By and large the service was good I must say…economical on one hand and sufficient at the other at most  times. Two of my recent journeys with the  KSRTC has been awful. One by an Air-Condition morning bus from Kozhikode to Bangalore..the bus making rattling noise and the Air Conditioning device misbehaving in many possible ways and another night journey by a deluxe  bus from Bangalore to Cannanore…hell of a noise from all sides…..bus at over speed though under full control…..full night of engine noise totally preventing sleep and had the feeling of being cattled from  Bangalore to Cannanore. The reason why  KSRTC is in doldrums might be hidden in my experiences mentioned above. KSRTC is novel in many ways and needs re-definition and invention.

Note that the overall area of surface transport is an exciting one and set to grow.  overall economic scenario is encouraging but in many ways shows some kind of supply –chain patterns; which means the services are in high demand during some seasons and tends to dilate during the other. Such patterns can be seen during the days of the week and also note the possible increase in cargo. Lets note an interesting phenomena…every bus stop of one time is slowly becoming a full fledged Bus station and the number of commuters increasing along these lines. Roads are being widened and made more durable and new connectivity’s emerging. In such scenarios why is KSRTC under loss? The environment is encouraging but the realities pointing otherwise.

Many factors must be looked into to remedy the situation..some of these are obvious and some need analysis.But KSRTC being in the encouraging Transport sector would find it easier to emerge itself from the crisis it appears to be in unlike certain other Organizations and Institutions which are in restricted sectors and would need to be shelved or resources re-defined and distributed.

Let us look at the most fundamental equation of any Business so to say. Operating revenues must be greater than costs. Costs must be having many cost heads and less tangible but revenues on the other hand more distinctly measurable. Revenues minus the costs are profits. Either you increase the price or reduce costs are the two logical dimensions of Business. Some of these can be crudely done in some places and situations but would be complex in another. Also note increase in price would create a fall in demand. Assuming  a possible marginal increase in pricing the onus of profitability falls totally on cutting costs. How could  this be wisely done without effecting the values of larger society is the most important challenge facing KSRTC. May be the yearly budgets would very clearly indicate places where there is cost over-burden….some of them could be halved or totally obliterated.. which is a surgical solution which may not be palatable in a democracy.

As a professional who worked in teams for some time trying to find solutions for issues like these ..let me downsize my observations to some kind of a ten point program implemented over a period of time could give results of some kind.

1.Conduct Customer Satisfaction surveys once every three months to start with and then made bi-yearly. What generic commuters rate  and state must be validated and bench marked and improved. Existing employees could be used for this purpose and Quality Circles made who evaluate the progress periodically. Every minute aspect must be worked upon.

2.Implement six sigma style models to increase customer delivery.Every Station Manager at KSRTC bus depots must ensure proper commencement of services and also study delays , failures, breakdown and accidents occurring in his jurisdiction. Technology could be introduced to improve such delivery systems. Very crisply said Zero delays..Zero accidents..Zero skirmishes of any other kind. Six Sigma type models could also be implemented to improve ticket reservation systems.

3.Study of pricing models vis-à-vis competition and also induct flexible pricing systems…which means seasonal pricing.The price increase could be marginal but could increase revenues and cushion the situation. Also study the profitability of various classes of  bus services and price adjustments could be undertaken.

4.Re-engineering exercise could be initiated which would involve study of various processes and process times of all activities inside the organization.  Implement drastic improvement measures where ever possible.

5.Create a comprehensive Vision and Mission statement for KSRTC and display it at all major bus depots.

6.Continuous Marketing efforts must be initiated. This would need elaborate study. Positioning of various services, public relations, Customer value, Customer delivered value ,niche markets, punch lines, product lines, Sales promotion, internet marketing, routing and the like. A separate department must be created and maintained for this purpose.

7.HR or human resources efforts must be created and maintained. This would involve periodic training modules on technical and soft skills and customer handling.

8.Study technical issues through R and D division regarding fuel efficiency of vehicles and other vehicle related Scientific and technical issues.

9.Use KSRTC services to move light cargo across destinations. This is being done to my observation but must be made more viable.

10. System standards and upkeep of all Bus Stations to world standards.

REGIONAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE CALICUT

I spent more than four years of my life here and became a man from a teen-ager. I count myself fortunate for having been given an opportunity to study at this place and thank heavens for the same every other day. I liked this place and to a large extent a life full of fun ,games and frolic - away from the binds of home. I must thank my father for having sent me all the way from Bangalore to this place to study which not many a parent would endeavor. 

REC presently re-christened as NIT was culturally very very different both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is a socially different place as we find students from all over the country and abroad. Social learning is a challenge to an intelligent mind as much as technical learning. The setting is simply different from any other institute. Recently the government has done away with this policy of admitting students from various states and has gone into a national merit list and the NIT of today will be a totally different place from the REC of yesteryears. There were many tanzanian students during our days. The International hostel at REC was inaguarated in 1983 by the then chief minister of Kerala Shri K Karunakaran. He started his speech in Malayalam and with the hindi crowd uncomfortable with the language switched over to English. The foundation for the F hostel was laid in 1985 by the then Education minister Shri T M Jacob. At the place where the F hostel stands used to be a tract with bushes on either sides leading to the Mini-Canteen. The Mini-canteen was thence shifted to the present location to give way for the construction of the F hostel.

I beleive somewhere NIT Calicut has a problem called the "crisis of entry point". Even today I have not been able to perfectly pin-point the main gate of the institute.Technically the institution's confines starts at the temple towards the end of the chathamanagalam hills and runs all the way to the edge of the E hostel at Kattangal which should be around 3 to 4 kilometers. At both these points there are no gates that should prevent extraneous elements from making an entry into the institute. For all practical purposes the institute's main gate is the one seen near the canteen leading to the main building and other key structures further leading to the hostels. This could well be called the student zone or the academic zone. This area in its entirety must be around 10 acres of land including the sports feilds which are for practical purposes used by students. I have not been to NIT of-late but have come to know from several quarters that many more buildings have come up in this zone. The irony of the situation is that though the campus is on 400 acres the effective student area is as mentioned thereby the area per student is effectively much lesser than what could be.

The best view of NIT Calicut is the one from Papachan hotel ;especially the true majesty of the departmental building appears from this angle and view. Many a visitor to the institute returns without a view of NIT which is truly majestic. When we approach the Departmental building from the Main building we encounter a land surface which is in a downward gradient and the true majesty of the departmental building lies camouflaged so to mention due to this uneven nature of land.

The class rooms at NIT are very spacious. We used to have our first year classes in the left wing of the Main Building on the first floor; the III sem classes in the ground floor of the main building and most of the other semester classes in the various floors of the Departmental building except for the V semester where we came back to the ground floor of the Main Building.

From a strategic view point I beleive that the entire land mass of NIT must be put to better use through some process of fundamental redesign. The good and bad aspect of NIT is the road that winds through the campus with many private vehicles finding a throughfare. The next generation NIT should be able to stop this in some way which protects the interests of the institute and at the same time does not put the public to inconvenience. As a initial recourse to such a situation the road could atleast be made a one way road. Vehicles approaching NIT from Calicut could take a deviation at 12th mile towards the left and use the stretch to reach kattangal. In the long run a fly-over would be one of the possible solutions from the temple point to kattangal thereby bypassing the institute aerially and serving long term purposes. Even other wise no mode of transport other than college buses must be let beyond 12th mile. This could create inconvenience to lady students who would like to reach their hostel but a diagonal road could connect 12th mile to the lady hostels forming a short-cut.

When I visit IISc at Bangalore I witness a very novel venture in the form of an underpass that links the institute to the JRD Tata auditorium. To me this is an unique civil engineering effort and very effectively links and integrates both the parts of the institute. Rightaway one such link could be considered at NIT too which links the hostels to some point near the guest house making the yonder part of NIT easily accessible to student community bringing the kind of synergy that is needed and at the same time increasing the land area per student that was being discussed. The residential area of faculty could be fenced and made a private area with minimum tresspass from students if necessay .

The beauty of NIT is the two valleys. One yonder to the faculty quarters and the other seen behind the guest-house. When we were students in the first year the valley behind the guest house was accessible to us. One fine day when we returned from vacation we found the entire patch of land sealed by the forest department for afforestation. During our first year we used to walk down into this valley the corner of which had a ground with the resemblance of a cricket feild and have played some cricket matches there. What a good feeling? I think this patch of land must be re-opened for students if it has not been done so.

Iam concerned that the breath-taking view of Departmental Building as seen from papachan be fully tapped as one of the measures of making NIT look even more formidable. A full fleged gate could be constructed at this point. I have walked down the road one evening from papachan towards the river which at that time was a desolate stretch but now must be more occupied and utilised. By constructing such a gate a parallel joint like kattangal could come up in the vicinity in some form thereby reducing the dependence of students on kattangal for various reasons. At all open points around the boundary of NIT barbed fences must be constructed.If possible the exit at Kattangal must also be sealed fully or partially.

NIT I believe needs to strategically redefine itself as it enters the new era. Note that when we were students communication facilities like telephones were non-existent. We could hardly make phone calls to our homes and there were no STD booths and writing letters were the only source of communication. Compared today we are in the mobile and internet age where any one could be got on demand at point of time and at any place, What a transformation. As a precursor to development at NIT an accurate high altitude geographic re-modelling of NIT must be done in some form so that it is accurately positioned to provide high quality services and at he same time gallop into upcoming avenues with ease and least discomfort.

In the year 1982 I get a seat at the REC calicut. Calicut is roughly 350 km from Bangalore and is on the arabian sea coast. At these colleges there used to be an inter-state quota and 06 of us from the Karnataka state were deputed to this institute. We were Subash (myself) & S V Giri from Bangalore ; Srinath shetty , Jerald harry dsouza from Mangalore ; Gayathri Bhat from kasargod and Arvind poal Masaji from Belgaum. My father accompanied me to this instute during admission.

All the five boys were housed at the room B 315 at REC Calicut along with two other boys from Maharashtra namely Gautham Balram Hendre and Ullas Hiralal Ghondane(This person left the institute soon after). We were seven people in this room. There after I stayed in the rooms

b 108; c 327 and d312. Antony Susairaj; M M Shajan; Binodanand Mishra ; Anil Eapen were all my room mates at some point of time or another.

During my stay at REC I had a local guardian at calicut by name Capt. K T Sreenivasan. I think in retrospect this was a big plus point. He was the zilla welfare officer at calicut during that time. The wife of this person by name mani is the neice of my father. It was a spacious bungalow and I used to frequent it. My batch mates Raghuvaran , s v giri and anthony susairaj have visited this place atleast once. There was a student strike at rec cakicut on 11 november 1983 because some students of my batch were purportedly held for involvement in some ragging case. The events of 11 of november 1983 became violent and the crpf was called in and students were asked to vacate the hostels. I took refuge in the house of Capt. K T Srinivasan for the night seeing the movie big beard ghost at crown theatre. In bombay i happenned to talk to my senior kalol roy and we had a lengthy conversation about this strike. iam told that in 1977 there was a conflict between students and the locals living around rec.

I must make special mention of the great help Capt. Srinivasan and family did to me during my stint at Calicut. Captain (though he never liked being addressed so) was a generous man . He passed away in 2008 and his wife a little earlier. He had many political contacts and friends in kerala. I remember meeting minister Mullapally Ramachandran in New Delhi through his introduction. I remember meeting colonel ayilath a retired military officer in the office of captain and many people from the police department. The native place of Captain K T Srinivasan is in Meppayur near calicut ,which I visited once and remember meeting his mother and climbing the mountain one morning that runs behind his house.

REC was renamed NIT somewhere in 2003 meaning National Institute of technology. REC stands for Regional Engineering College.

More than a place of academic learning I found this place more apt for fun and frolic which I had to my heart's content. Kilungatha changallagal was the first movie we friends saw at kattangal dhanya theratre and thereafter we were frequent visitors to this place. Food in the messes were very good and there was lot of scope for extra curricular activities and sports. This place gave me a once in a life time experience which I enjoyed to the fullest extent. Though I was party to the fun and frolic deep within me I was committed to academic work and was judging to fairly accurate extent the academic pressure and ways to react to it. I like quiet places in life but REC was not simply one of those quiet places.

At that time there were only five hostels at REC ; A B C D and E. Eventually I moved to other hostels during my stay here namely C and D. The best stint I had I think was at C hostel room 327. I remember my senior Prem Vathore from Bombay used to stay close to my room.

I studied Electrical Engineering at REC. The academic standards were fairly high and the Calicut University was a tough university to be in by any standards. Among the teaching staff I remember Dr. P S Srinivasan who used to teach at this place and later was the Dean. He taught us Induction Machines and used to do a splendid job at that deriving expressions off-hand and showing general mastery over the subject.