ninavu 1.2- knowyourcetian

Dedicated to the memory of ajitha our batch mate
The world we lived was a different one, much different from the current. We walked through the arched portals of the campus in 1984 for the first time. That was the doordarshan era . Internet hasn’t stepped out of the realms of science fiction, completely. Even STD calls weren’t as easier to accomplish as a preferred task. Mobile phones? Come again please? “Lords” was not even in concept stage!

Bell bottom has just made its inevitable exit when we entered the campus. Baby shalini was , well “baby” shalini and was playing second fiddle to actor Rahman who was in the peak of his acting career. Priyadarshan hasn’t finished getting inspired by Hollywood movies, yet.

We saw history in the making with the shocking assassination of Indira Gandhi and the sudden entry of Rajiv Gandhi. We had first hand information when Punjab was burning and the killing fields of Tamil Ealam spilled over to India, rise and fall of Gorbachev, beginning of the end of Soviet Union.

Margaret Thatcher was proving herself as the iron lady and Ronald Regan   was defining Reganomics. Bush senior became President of United States while we were preparing to leave the campus.

We left the campus in 1988.Not before having some of the finest moments in our lives- cherished to the finest detail even till this date.

Shri. Narayana Iyer was the principal when we landed in the campus in 1984. (Later Shri.Ramantha Iyer took over the reins). We found ourselves thrown into a cauldron of political , cultural and literary activity.
First year witnessed series of   student strikes against course lagging culminating in blocking the NH in Sreekaryam and police lathi charge to chase the students. Our seniors asked us to sit in the front row. Many of our class mates from the first year , who took part in this got police lathi taste for the first time -in their first year. ( it is worth mentioning we ourselves ended up being victims of course lagging and were forced -not that we regret- to spend more than the assigned 4 years in the campus.)

Sathishkumar ( currently in Dubai) was the chairman, when we were in S3/S4(incidentally, both Pradeep and John Thomas, who contested against him under different panels are now in UAE).
Sureshkumar from our batch was elected Gen Sec in 1987 and Chairman in our final year-1988.

In 1985, following the basketball trophy final between Mar Ivanios and CET at our basketball court, violence erupted and tyres of Mar Ivanios busses were deflated in our campus in true juvenile spirit. Looking back it was silly - but fun!

In 1987 , Shri EK Nayanar took over as CM when Congress under Shri. K Karunakaran lost the Assembly elections. It was in his first year as CM Shri Nayanar inaugurated the cultural event of the campus- Sangamam ’87. (The CM’s visit to the campus was equally symbolic too- it was for the first time ever that a politician of any stature was invited to preside over an official function. It was around this time that political banners of various hues and colours started to appear more prominently) Eventhough Sangamam ’87 was celebrated with wide ranging participation, events that followed weren’t.

In 1988- International film festival was held in TVM. Hostellers used to go for the night shows and come back by the 12.30am Ernakulam FP to get down in chavadi mukku on their way back to hostel. The reserved seats were fully occupied by the students leading to tussles between the KSRTC union and students. Some of the students made a garland of old chappals , hung it on the sound horn of the bus and honked them loud and strong. Imagine, at 12.30am, the full bustand is with the sound horn blast . some how the students managed to come out of Thampanur KSRTC bustand without any major damages

Just before we left the campus, in 1988 we were part of (and witnessed) one of the finest moments of student solidarity when the then principal suspended some of the final year students (and this would have made the final year students miss their exams-Regi Kurien, Biju PK, James K Jacob, Sudhakaran ,Shiva Kumar),following a clash involving locals from Alathara/Kulathur and the hosteliers. The students forgetting their divisions along political lines united to stage demonstrations and fasting in front of the college to remove the suspensions on final year students. And finally the suspension was revoked.

We are the proud batch to have with us , among others the brave heart Alexis Leon, who inspite of a near fatal accident sometime later in his career, continues till date to be one of the finest examples of a good engineer- and an extraordinary human being!

Even though “Lords” was not a physical entity while we were in college, under the shadows of acacia trees, romance flourished . And it culminated in marriages among several of our batchmates:
Manoj C/Jayasree TA of Electrical; Sudhir Kumar/Sreelatha of Electrical ; Balagopal of mechanical /Soniya of Electrical ;, Balachandran and Prathiba (both from Elec.) Anitha from electrical and Krishnakumar from 87 mechanical. Even though they didn’t have the opportunity to romance around the acacia trees, fate found later in the life Subath of mechanical tying the knot to Binukamal of Civil. They rendered the campus more colours.

And the rest of us were busy making our lives more colourful with all those MH day, college day, Mechs day, holi day, hostel election day, bucket strikes etc.

Unforgettable memories!

And where are the roses of yester years? Click on the photographs to see.