2

Published by

IIT MADRAS
Alumni Association
Journeys 2012

Copyright © 2012

Self Publishing

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under National and International Copyright Laws
and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronics or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the above mentioned.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the various articles in this Year Book are the views of the individual alumni
and cannot in any way be construed as the views of the IIT Madras Alumni Association.

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 CONTENTS

S. NO. TITLE

1. President‘s Message 4
2. IITMAA - Bringing Alumni Together 5
3. The History of the IIT Madras Alumni Association 10
4. The 77 Batch Story 14
5. DR. ING. Wolfgang Scheer - A Tribute 21
6. INTERNSHALA - Eearly Stage Lessons of Doing A Start-up
& Thing I Am Most Grateful For 26
7. Higgins In India [*] 28
8. Two In One 31
9. Only a Ride Through IIT Campus, But Unerasable 32
10. Madan Mohan & Lata Mangeshkar - Songs with
Healing Powers! 33
11. Once Upon A Time in Chennai 34
12. Create Valuable Output from Proven Productive Resources 38
13. Now it Can Be Told 40
14. Written for Campus Times in 1985 42
15. How I Was Named ―GHOST‖ 44
16. God Lives in My Backyard 45
17. The Strategic Importance of Technical Computing Software 47
18. Arranged Love 50
19. Drinking Grade Water From City Sewage - A Reality 53
20. Once Upon A Time... And Now 55
21. Ragtime Reminiscences 58
22. A Compilation of Raghu Nandan‘s (1969 – BTME) One Liners 62
23. While Going for a Walk 65
24. Study of Water Bodies Along OMR / IT Corridor 66
25. Over a Cup of AI AI Tea! 68

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 PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Dear Alumnus / na,

Greetings from IITMAA.
It gives tremendous pleasure in releasing our year book, ―Journeys‖. The ―Journeys‖
started off as a quarterly on line magazine with contributions from the alumni. Due to
various reasons, we could not continue in that format and we have decided to turn it into
an annual edition with both print edition as well as on line edition.
This edition consists of contributions from alumni across batches and some sort of
photographic record of events organized by Alumni Association. The usual topic of interest to IITians, viz.,
professors, hostels and eccentric batch mates are covered in various articles. I hope you enjoy them.
Beat wishes to alumni and their families.
Warm regards,

V.Gopinathan
President
IIT Madras Alumni Association

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 IITMAA - BRINGING ALUMNI TOGETHER

IITMAA is a non-profit organization, registered in Chennai, India, under the Tamil Nadu Societies Act of 1975.
We represent about 37,500 IIT Madras alumni residing around the world, working together to make IIT Madras a
world- class institution

OUR VISION:
The vision of the Association is to provide an organization through which the Alumni of IIT Madras around the
world, and faculty, staff and students of the institute can interact with each other for mutual benefit and to further
the objectives outlined in the Mission Statement.

OUR MISSION:
To Alumni:
• To facilitate improvement in networking among alumni with the following purposes in view:
• Provide a platform for social interactions and enable higher levels of interactions
• Enable interactions between alumni for mutual benefit in academic and/or business areas
• Provide assistance to alumni and their families where deemed fit by the association

To Institute:
To facilitate and encourage alumni to contribute towards improvements in the status of the institute in areas
pertaining to academics, infrastructure, industry interactions and any other area that the alumni and the institute
may feel appropriate.

To Students:
To render assistance to students of the institute and to provide assistance in academics, placement or any other
area that is felt appropriate by the association and the institute. The association shall also work towards better
interaction between the alumni and students by providing forums and creating opportunities for such interactions.

To Society:
To encourage and facilitate the alumni taking up activities geared to improve society at large - particularly the
underprivileged sections of society.

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Other:
To further such objectives as the General Body may decide from time to time.

MANAGEMENT:
IITMAA is managed by a democratic apex body of elected members who together constitute the Executive
Committee. The Executive Committee meets once a month on the 2nd Saturday of every month to discuss and
decide upon matters. Additional Meetings are also held as and when necessary to deal with important issues.
The Executive Committee is elected once in two years and IITMAA is the first of its kind association to organise
these worldwide elections online using our state of the art website. Members residing in any part of the globe can
participate in the electoral process to nominate or vote for candidates of their choice.

The current Executive Committee has three key office Bearers namely, the President Mr.V.Gopinathan, the
Secretary Mr.C.P.Madhusudhan and the Treasurer Mr.Mohan Narayanan. The current Executive Committee had
made rejuvenation of Chapter activities as its priority for its first year of office and the reaching out to the PG Alumni
towards making the Association more inclusive as the priority for the second year of its term

OUR CHAPTERS:
IITMAA has Chapters in several cities within India including Chennai, Cochin, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi,
Mumbai, Pune and Coimbatore amongst others. IITMAA also includes the IIT Madras Alumni Association of North
America, which has chapters in Houston, North California, New York, Los Angeles and Washington -DC amongst
others. IITMAA also has Country Chapters in other parts of the world, which includes Australia, Singapore, Malaysia,
Japan, UAE, UK, Italy and Switzerland.

BRIEF ACTIVITIES OF THE ASSOCIATION AND SERVICES OFFERED:

Issual of ID Cards:

IITMAA also issues ID Cards to its members and their spouses at a nominal fee. This ID Card also serves as
a walkers pass for alumni intending to take a walk through the picturesque campus and is also a prerequisite for
Alumni who wish to utilize the facilities on campus including the library, the Gymkhana with its swimming pool,
tennis courts, gym, et al, The Film Club which offers a unique viewing experience every Saturday night as well; as
on other special occasions at the Open Air Theatre (OAT) etc. The ID card is also a status symbol in the outside
world and stories abound of the usefulness of the Alumni ID Card in the world outside.

Reaching out to Members:

The primary mode of Communication to individual members is through a personalized bulk email system
which has been set up recently. Moreover, the association has created over 150 Yahoo Groups since 1999 on
the basis of the year of passing and the region currently located in and these yahoo groups are extensively used
as a mode of communication to reach out to the members. These yahoo groups enable batchmates to interact
with each other, banter and have fun. Infact, the discussions found in the 1970 batch yahoo group were gathered
together to form a book titled ―Stroke sixty something‖ which was released by the batch at the time of their Ruby
Reunionon Campus.

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 While a quarterly magazine titled ―GC – Alma Mater‖ was printed till 2004 and ―Journeys‖, a quarterly e-magazine
by and for alumni was initiated from 2005 they were not sustained due to lack of alumni contribution. However
IITMAA officials took upon themselves the responsibility of ensuring regular content and a monthly e-newsletter
titled, ―IITMAA Communiqué‖ is currently being disseminated since March 2011. It is also planned to release an
annual Year Book beginning from this year and the same will be released at the AGM this year.

Realising that the younger batches were not comfortable with yahoo groups and were more comfortable with
modern social as well as professional networking sites the General Manager created a profile on Facebook and
a group on Linkedin exclusively for the alumni to interact with him and has been fairly successful in reaching out
to them and mobilizing their participation for alumni events.

Website Management:
The anchor in our efforts at reaching out to our alumni has been our website www.iitmaa.org which was set
up in February 1999 and is currently on the model of a social networking site. AlI Alumni members are requested
to register themselves on our website. The process is user friendly and will only take five minutes of their time
but will provide benefits for a lifetime. Upon registration alumni create a username and password for themselves.
Registering on our site provides our alumni access to all the alumni contacts on our web database. They can also
create a profile for themselves, participate in various forums for discussion and post blogs on which other alumni
can appreciate or comment upon. Over 20,000 alumni have registered on our website thus far.
Our website contains all information related to IITMAA including our E-newsletter, ―what is new‖, Alumni
Achievements and Distinguished Alumnus Awards, Alumni Contributions, Recent happenings of interest,
Forthcoming events, link to the IITMAANA website, job listings, matrimonial tidings of alumni families, Chapter
News, Photo / video gallery, updated database with list of all alumni from 1964 to 2012 and details of registered
alumni and recently even links to a matrimonial portal ―Jodi365‖ developed by one of our very own alumni, etc.

Conduct of Reunions:
Another of the major tasks that IITMAA undertakes is the facilitation and conduct of batch Reunions. IITMAA
encourages the various batches to organize reunions once in five years. The Association reminds the concerned
batch by trying to locate a few of the batch representatives based in Chennai and invites them for a briefing in
January - February. IITMAA leaves the responsibility to this group to organize the reunion. The representatives
then select Branch Co-ordinators as well as a steering / core committee and the planning activities are co-ordinated
by these representatives.

The Reunions require meticulous planning & logistics. Typically, batches spend one or two days on campus
and a day or two at an off-campus resort (commonly on the shores off ECR). During one of the campus days, the
Reunion batch interacts with the Director & Deans. IITMAA takes care of every small aspect to enable the alumni
to remain free and concentrate upon having great fun during their Reunion.

Welcoming the Graduands:

Sometime in 1995 the then Executive Committee of IITMAA decided to establish a tradition of sponsoring a
farewell dinner for the Graduands prior to their departure from the campus.

The duly elected Executive Committee of the 2004-06 term decided that a brand name should be created to
mark this annual event. Thus was born ―ADIEU‖ which has become one of the highlights of the final year students‘
calendar. To make the event self-sustaining and also to have more involvement of the alumni, the practice of

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supporting the graduands get-together was initiated in 2005 when the first three batches of 1964, 1965, 1966
were the sponsors of the event and it has now become a tradition with three batches taking turns by rotation to
support the event every year.

(Graduands get together 2011)

However, the current Executive Committee of 2011 – 13 felt that the term ADIEU seemed to portray the wrong
message. Since IITMAA wished to welcome the fresh graduands into the alumni fraternity and not bid them
farewell the name WILLKOMMEN was used this year not only to welcome the new graduands but also to honour
the German connection of IIT Madras.
IITMAAMENTOR: Connecting people with process platform and partnership
IITMAA launched its Student-Alumni Mentoring programme, ―iitmaaMentor‖ in partnership with Chronus the
platform provider on 30th October 2009. Successful and resourceful alumni of IIT Madras through this program
are mentoring over 500 final year and pre-final year students. iitmaaMentor is available to the IIT Alumni through
the Alumni Association‘s state-of-the-art portal.
This e-enabled program uses an on-line platform, in addition to other modes of interactions, linking final-year
and pre-final year UG & PG students with illustrious alumni as well as distinguished IIT faculty, who provide them
one-on-one career guidance and counselling for their career choices and growth, whether they be engineering,
academics, jobs, management careers or entrepreneurial ventures, drawing upon the wide expertise of our
illustrious alumnae.
From the launch of this programme, in October 2009 this initiative has now about 250 mentors participating
actively on-line in addition to the several interactive group mentoring and off-line interactions facilitated by this
initiative. Further, the success of the student-mentoring program resulted in the program being extended to young
alumni, who have started benefiting from the guidance and mentoring by senior alumni. The seniors are currently
mentoring 120 young alumni.
Mock Interview Programme for students
As part of our initiatives for students, we have been conducting the Mock Interview Programme (MIP) for the
past seven years to benefit the final year students who are about to participate in the placement interviews for
that year. Simultaneously a Group Discussion exercise is also undertaken for the students
These Mock Interviews and Group Discussions enable the students to obtain a feel of the actual interview /
Group Discussion and help them gain confidence as well as address their shortcomings. Feedback regarding their
performance is also provided to the students after the programme.

Based on feedback received from students popular verticals are identified and panels of alumni from these
verticals interview the students. A HR specialist from each of these verticals also sits on these panels.

The IITMAA Life-Saver Group Health Insurance Scheme:

The IITMAA Life-Saver Group Health Insurance Scheme, which commenced in July 2010, is now successfully
entering its third year of existence. As a special offer, Alumni of any IIT who are interested in seeking Health
Insurance cover can now do so with effect from 1st July 2012 when the third cycle of this scheme was launched.

The IITMAA Life-Saver covers all pre-existing diseases from day one of the policy with a 20% co payment
clause and is subject to sub limits. Most policies currently offered for individuals do not cover pre existing diseases
during the first few years. Our policy does not have a waiting period and alumni can avail medical facilities from the
day on which the policy becomes effective. The policy does not require the insured and dependents to undergo
any medical check up irrespective of their age. This is a family floater policy with coverage revised to rupees five

8
lakhs during the current year. Most of the other policies restrict the coverage to rupees two lakhs based upon the
age of the insured, if it is more than sixty.

IITMAA has negotiated with Star Health Insurance Ltd. who is the service provider to add to the benefits and
increase the age limit to 85 years as well as the maximum coverage to rupees five lakhs making the Life Saver
a first of its kind for alumni benefit.

IITMAA provides emergency vehicle breakdown service with MyTVS

IITMAA has entered into an agreement with MyTVS to provide emergency vehicle breakdown assistance
services to alumni located all over India. As per the agreement MyTVS provides a discounted fee to all IITMAA
members who wish to utilise the services of MyTVS.

The scope of services provided is comprehensive and is available across India except Jammu & Kashmir and
the North Eastern states.

―ALUMNI CARE‖ Video series on alumni implemented socially relevant projects

IIT Madras Alumni Association compiled a Video titled ―ALUMNI CARE‖ during 2012 to visually document the
socially relevant projects taken up by some IIT Madras Alumni. The video was shown in many Alumni forums and
received good response. We also believe that the video would motivate other alumni to take up similar projects
and contribute to the Society at large.

We had received feedback that this video was not comprehensive and had not covered the projects of some
other alumni. To cover more alumni projects we now intend to bring out another video – Volume II of ―ALUMNI
CARE‖. The production of the same is currently underway and it is expected to be completed in August 2012.
The earlier video can also be viewed on our website.

Job Listing Facility on our website.

We have recently launched a job posting facility for recruiters on our web site. With a view to enhance the
services provided to our Alumni we have launched this facility of posting available jobs for their benefit and hope
to gradually convert it into a full fledged job portal. A nominal fee is being charged for this facility. This service will
not only benefit alumni who are looking for career growth but will also enable HR professionals seeking quality
personnel to reach out to IIT alumni to fulfill their needs.

Miscellaneous Services:
Travel Desk: With support of the 1980 Batch IITMAA has established a full-fledged Travel Desk to take care
of the complete travel needs of all Alumni visiting Chennai. The Association arranges accommodation on campus
or outside, arranges for tickets as well as plans and organizes local travel sight seeing, et al.

Transcripts: Alumni requiring Transcripts or duplicate certificates are also helped by IITMAA with proper guidance
on how to apply as well as follow up to ensure that such documents reach the alumni on time

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 THE HISTORY OF THE IIT MADRAS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
OUR HISTORY IN A NUT SHELL:

The IIT Madras Alumni Association was created and formally inaugurated by Prof.B.Sengupto on 10th July 1964
when the first batch graduated from the Institute. Dr.D.Venkateswarlu who had already distinguished himself as a
pioneer in building up various associations in Chennai including the Gymkhana took up the responsibility of being
the convener and interim President of this Association. At the first meeting on 10th July 1964 Dr.M.V.C.Sastri was
nominated as the President and Dr.B.V.A.Rao as the Treasurer by the Director, Prof.B.Sengupto.

Right from the beginning the focus of the Association has always been on Membership development and
network5ing. During the early stages, the association published a yearly magazine titled ―Pradeep‖ The association
was also involved in placement related activities to assist the passing out batches to secure good jobs.

The concept of chapters was first initiated in 1980 when the first chapter meeting of the alumni was held in
Houston in 1980. Bhamy Shenoy of 1965 batch became the first president of this chapter. The Houston chapter
was the first to make a donation to the institute when in 1985 they collected about $ 20,000 for buying PCs to be
distributed to the hostels. In 1989, when Prof M A Parameswaran was president, he encouraged the formation
of the Chennai chapter. The first President of the Chennai chapter was K V Rangaswamy of 1965 batch with
Rajamani of the 1966 batch as the secretary.

The practice of organising reunions commenced in 1991 when the first ever Silver Reunion of the 1966 Batch
was facilitated by the association and the 64, 65 batches also were included as they did not have sufficient numbers
to organise individual reunions. It was actually the conduct of Reunions that paved the way for the setting up of
a full time office for IITMAA. When the 1968 batch organized their Silver Reunion in 1993 they felt the need for
a full-time office for the association and agreed to raise the funds to support this. Prof N V C.Swamy, the then
Director, facilitated this even before the donation by assigning a place in the HSB building for this purpose. Thus
the IITMAA office started functioning full time from March 1994.

Prof A Venkatesh, President during 1994, hired a full-time executive with the designation of Executive Secretary.
Captain Subramaniam was the first Executive Secretary. Prof O Prabhakaran, during his tenure as President,
realised the need for an alumni directory. Prof Santhakumar took the initiative forward and this was released in 1998.

It was also in 1994 that D Chandrasekaran, the then Secretary drafted the MOU and registered the association
under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. Due to the resignation of the incumbent President, Prof V
Kalyanaraman signed the registration document as the President with others present as founding members of
the Society.

It became a practice that the secretaries for the association were from the group that celebrated the Silver
Reunion as they were the most active at that time. Thus the 1967, 70, 72, 73, 74 and 75 batches found more and
more place in the EC.

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 With the advent of the Internet, Yahoo Groups as a mode of inter batch & intra batch communication was
introduced by H R Mohan of 1976 batch and championed by Raj Varadarajan. They were instrumental in introducing
the concept to the association in 1999 and ever since communication has flowed freely from the Association to
its members as well as among the alumni themselves. Each passing out batch has a yahoo group dedicated for
communication within their batch. Each region or city too has a yahoo group to enable networking amongst alumni
living in a particular city or region.

The then Director, Prof Natarajan, felt the need to network the alumni. He went on a tour of USA guided by Sri
Gopalakrishnan with the funds donated by Desh. The office of Alumni Affairs was established in August 2000 with
the idea of networking the alumni and soliciting funds for the Trust.

When the next Director Prof. Ananth came on board, he felt the necessity to integrate the alumni affairs and
the Association and made Prof G Sundararajan the Advisor as well as the President of the Association. However
it was discovered that the byelaws of the Association did not permit nomination for any post and only election
was permitted.
The year 2004 saw a major change in the bye laws of IIT Madras Alumni Association to suit the laws of the land
and the posts of President, Vice President, Secretary, Jt. Secretary and Treasurer were thrown open for elections
thro‘ E-polling and electronic voting which was introduced for the first time. Now, the Executive Committee Members
are spread across the Globe. All positions were thrown open to the alumni and V Srinivasan of 1985 became the
first President elected by the alumni.

It was also in 2004 that the IITMAA office was moved to a spacious location and is currently located at Room
# 109, Office of Hostel Management, Hostel Zone, IIT Madras

In January 2009 a new Executive Committee took charge and made all out attempts to revitalize the association.
Therefore a General Manager was appointed in August 2009. It was during this period that the IITMAA Mentorship
programme commenced in October 2009 to mentor the final and pre final year students of IITM. Subsequently the
programme was enhanced to include mentoring of young alumni as well.

July 2010 also witnessed the launch of the IITMAA Life Saver Group Health Insurance scheme, which has
benefited several alumni. The scheme has now entered its third cycle with increased cover of up to five lakhs per
family and revised age of entry up to eighty-five years to benefit the alumni families.

The Current EC with its focus on revitalization of Chapters and inclusive membership of PG alumni took office
in February 2011. During its first year in office it has supported several chapter initiatives in India and created three
new chapters in Singapore, Middle East and Malaysia. It has also by its efforts created a momentum, which is
witnessed through increased alumni participation in all IITMAA events. Some of the noteworthy events conducted
so far include the felicitation to the outgoing Director Prof.M.S.Ananth, Welcome to IIT Madras‘ first ever Alumni
Director, Prof.Bhaskar Ramamurthi & Felicitation to B.Muthuraman, Chairman, Tata Steel on being conferred the
Padma Bhushan. Indeed IITMMA continues to write history through its path breaking initiatives for, by and off the
Alumni.

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 PRESIDENTS OF
IITMAA

Name From To

1. Prof. D. Venkateswarlu Dec. 1964

2. Prof. M.V.C. Sastri Jan.‘65 Aug.‘65
3. Prof. R.G. Narayanamurthi Dec.‘68 Aug.‘68
4. Prof. P. Venkata Rao Aug.‘65 Nov.‘68
5. Prof. R.G. Narayanamuthi Nov.‘68 Jun.‘69
6. Prof. P. Venkata Rao Jul.‘69 Apr.‘70
7. Prof. E.G. Ramachandran Apr.‘70 Jul.‘ 70
8. Prof. P. Venkat Rao Jul.‘70 Jun.‘71
9. Prof. E.G. Ramachandran Jun.‘71 Mar.‘73
10. Prof. P.C. Varghese Mar.‘73 May‘73
11. Prof. R.K. Gupta Jun.‘73 May‘75
12. Prof. B.S. Murthy Jul.‘77 May‘78
13. Prof. R.K. Gupta May‘78 Dec.‘79
14. Prof. M. Satyanarayana Dec.‘79 Jul.‘80
15. Prof. Y. Narayana Rao Jul.‘80 Jul.‘83
16. Prof. V. Radhakrishnan Jul.‘83 Dec.‘87
17. Prof. L.N. Ramamurthy Dec.‘87 Dec.‘91
18. Prof. M.A. Parameswaran Dec.‘91 Jan.‘94
19. Prof. A. Venkatesh Jan.‘94 Jan.‘97
20. Prof. O. Prabhakar Jan.‘97 Jul.‘98
21. Prof. A.R. Balakrishnan Jul.‘98 Jan.‘03
22. Prof. G. Sundararajan Jan.‘03 Oct.‘04
23. Mr. Vasan S. Sampath Oct.‘04 Dec.‘06
24. Mr. Srinivas Nageshwar Dec.‘06 Jan.‘09
25. Mr. V. Varadarajan Jan.‘09 Jan.‘11
26. Mr. V. Gopinathan Jan.‘11 Current

12
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13
 THE 77 BATCH STORY
By U. N. Umesh
(1977 – BTME)

Mukesh Sundaram‘s career should have been easy to predict. He was on his way to becoming one of India‘s
great tennis players. Or so his classmates thought. In his first year at Alakananda Hostel, he could be seen almost
every day in tennis clothes with racquet in hand. No one had actually seen him playing any tennis, yet everyone
assumed that he was a great tennis player. Based on that assumption, fellow classmates at the hostel even
elected him as the Sports Secretary. But, instead of taking up a career in Sports Management, Mukesh became
a software entrepreneur, with companies to his name in Bangalore and the Silicon Valley.

Think of Computer Mohan instead. Computers were very new during our time at IIT, and when IIT Madras got
one of the most advanced computers in the world, the IBM 370, some of us were able to get sneak previews of the
computer just after it was installed. Everyone talked about it. Forget running programs, we were even impressed
by a computer flashing red lights.

The Director gave a speech in which he mentioned that many people did not appreciate developments in
hardware and software. Most of us had no idea of what these were, or, really, the difference between the two. We
just looked around with blank faces. But not C. Mohan. He shook his head in agreement with the Director. At that
moment, we settled on his new name - C would stand for Computer, and he has since been known as Computer
Mohan. It was a good predictor of his future career, it turns out, since many years later he had the rare distinction
of being made an IBM Fellow.

The story of the 77 batch is a glorious one. The life experiences of such an imaginative group can hardly be
sketched on a collage, let alone a canvas; but snippets of their many stories can provide a flavor of what they
went through at IIT and beyond.

We have now gone beyond the computer generation and even the Internet generation, and become a texting
generation. So with the limited time and space in publications such as these, the stories of a small group offer a
memorable window into those years. We had many interesting episodes in our lives during our education at IIT,
and these experiences continue to enrich our lives today.

Students have many experiences and insights during their study that will end in them becoming a Bachelor of
Technology. It is hard to predict what they might do in their career by examining their activities and statements at IIT.

Take for instance, Sivaramakrishnan. I met him on our first day at IIT when we walked from the bus stop to
Alakananda hostel. One evening, during his first few weeks at IIT, a group of senior students found him wandering
barefoot through the corridors wearing his pajamas. He was advised to wear NCC boots to complement his
pajamas. He eagerly complied. He said he wanted to meet senior students to get to know more about IIT (and

14
impress them as well!). They asked him to come outside the Hostel and communicate with a calf. He showed
off his skills by approaching a stray calf and bleating, ―Baa Baa.‖ His argument: his greeting was appropriate.
After all, a sheep closely resembles a calf. He even had the famous nursery rhyme as a ready citation. After he
returned, some of his wing mates suggested that his attire was outlandish even considering the very wide range
that was acceptable in IIT hostels. But not one to be outwitted, Sivaramakrishnan had his retort ready. ―The senior
students were most impressed with my choice,‖ he told them. ―They said that with my matching pajamas and NCC
boots, I cut a rather stylish figure.‖ Luckily for us, and for the sake of humanity, Sivaramakrishnan did not choose
a career in fashion design. Instead, he applied his wit to become a famous Professor of Business Administration
at Rice University in Texas.

First year B-Tech students have the most interesting stories. Girish Reddy used to enthrall after-dinner
audiences of students gathered in a hostel room, with tales of life in Hyderabad. P. Anandan was one of the few
students who really understood sequences and series in the mathematics class. He tried explaining it to those
who questioned the relevance of such mathematics– to this day; some of his classmates are still not clear as to
how a convergent series works.

Then there was Kista, whose career was predictable and closely related to his activities at IIT. He had built himself
a reputation as a skilled card player, particularly at the game of bridge. Some of his hostel friends had theories as
to why ―He plays bridge all the time, instead of studying,‖ they would say. But, this was an unfair characterization
of Kista. He spent a fair amount of time in the mess hall and in the Common Room. He was rumored to have
studied some civil engineering, which he put to good use in later life when he formed a company that manufactured
concrete tiles. But after graduation, he became best known as a member of the Indian National Bridge Team. And
Kista finds himself in good company. Now we know that bridge players can accomplish many great feats be it the
pouring of concrete or founding large software companies, as is the case with Microsoft‘s Bill Gates.

There were many dedicated hard-working students in our class. Subra Suresh – who was in my section B,
group 4 in workshops and labs – was one of them. He approached academics in such a systematic manner that
he eventually became Dean of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recently, President
Obama appointed him Director of the National Science Foundation, the largest supporter of basic research in
non-health related scientific research in the United States.

Forecasting careers was but one aspect of the education received at IIT. Looking at some challenging life
experiences of students helps us understand the mind-set of those who have been through the well-funded and
well-designed B-Tech program at IIT. The five fellows below, by chance, were all residents of Narmada Hostel.
Many apologies to those who were residents of lesser Hostels, but many of you might remember these tales from
your own lives.

1. Sashidhar Murthy was always known to provide precise answers as a budding civil engineer. A group of
us knocked on his door at 4:00 AM, complained of our misplaced watches, and asked him to give us the precise
time. He was fast asleep, but woke up to the thunderous knocking on his Narmada hostel door. He calmly turned
on his overhead light, found his watch and proclaimed that it was 4:01 AM. It wasn‘t until two years later, during
dinner in the hostel mess that he told us that though we were all friends, ―it was not a nice thing to wake up people
in the middle of the night and ask for the time.‖ We all stopped eating and asked him, with considerable surprise,
―Why do you say this?‖ Sashidhar continues his precise responses to questions as a Quality Control Manager of
a laser etching company in San Diego.

15
 2. The light bulb problem. Swaminathan knew all about it. He thought that his light bulbs were constantly
burning out. Little did he know that one of us had an extra key to his hostel room and replaced his overhead
light with a burned-out light bulb. Within minutes of his discovering that his light bulb was no longer working, a
good Samaritan from the hostel wing would supply him with a ―new‖ bulb. We kept it up for some time until he
decided to file a complaint with the hostel authorities about the ―electricity supply reliability.‖ An electrician was
dispatched promptly to solve the problem. However, his wing mates intercepted the electrician as soon as he
entered Narmada Hostel, and this unfortunate electrician was given a 3-minute lecture on electricity by someone
studying Aeronautical Engineering. The electrician was dazzled by the IIT Engineering jargon and became somehow
convinced that electric wires near the hostel area had a feedback loop that caused a voltage spike when 3-phase
electricity became entangled with two wires on the 2nd floor of the hostel. The electrician, an employee of IIT
Madras maintenance department, could find nothing wrong in the wiring in Swaminathan‘s room and began to say
that the feedback problem with 3-phase supply was to blame. Swaminathan accepted the explanation and kept
thanking his wingmates for supplying him with free light bulbs repeatedly for more than six months! Actually all
the free light bulbs had been taken from Swaminathan‘s room. We never wondered how someone who had got
the first rank in SSLC in Tamil Nadu could be tricked by failing light bulbs –the story seemed foolproof to us. Even
today, after getting an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and heading several divisions and companies in his career, he
still holds a slight grudge against his wing mates for running the light bulb experiment for so long.

3. Then there was Kanthan, the Narmada Hostel Mess Secretary. He took his Mess Secretary position seriously.
He stood for and got elected to Institute Mess Secretary (I‘m still not sure how he did this). An Institute Mess
Secretary had the privilege of making speeches to all Hostel Mess Secretaries who had been invited to sit in the
Narmada Hostel Common Room and listen to his wisdom on food quality and its effect on human psychology.
His speeches dealt with the topic of designing hostel menus that best fit the needs of engineers! While the topic
seemed to agitate some students – how is this possible they asked? – He gained the admiration of others who
appreciated his creativity while not fully comprehending how there might be a correlation between the engineers and
the food they consumed. But alas, as skilled a secretary as he was, he was not immune to our pranks! Kanthan was
a tremendous fan of the movie actor Shivaji Ganeshan; he claimed that Shivaji was superior to any other actor.
He frequently sang songs from Shivaji Ganeshan movies and judged them to be superior to songs from movies
with other heroes. Naturally, we demanded a mathematical proof. He tried but was unable to provide this proof.

4. There was Ramanaprasad, RP for short. He decided to study High Voltage Electrical engineering for his
B-Tech. While his area of specialization was common enough and related to worldly phenomenon, many of us
wondered years later how he could extend this to being the Managing Director of a company in Chennai that
manufactured television sets. Still, he was a down-to-earth fellow, who eventually decided that high voltage did
not really mesh with TV sets, and switched continuing to run a successful company that makes equipment rated
in Kilovolts.

5. The artist in our wing was a gentleman by name of Muthuswamy, Muthu for short. One would not have
expected a student who obtained first rank in the Pre-University exam of Madras University while residing in
the remote outreaches of Kumbakonam to be such a skilled artist. Such people were expected to be the staid
managerial types; the kind who would insist on using fountain pens when the rest of the world was gradually shifting
towards ball point pens (whatever happened to fountain pens anyway?). But, Muthu played the harmonium, made
amazing paintings and invented new art forms. He could use a pin to prick tin foil and shine a light from the back
of his art through some coloured paper to create images that rivaled the best traditional art in Paris museums.
Almost none of us had ever traveled overseas in those days, let alone to Paris, but we assumed his type of art
was exhibited in Renaissance art museums in Europe. Yet, he graduated in Aeronautical Engineering and even

16
worked as an Aeronautical Engineer for some time. We can blame his career plans on his B-Tech project, which
was the study of windmills, and we have pictures of many of these windmill prototypes spinning merrily on the
terrace of Narmada Hostel; a full 20 to 30 years before the world realized that windmills were not a curiosity of a
bygone era but a modern technique to generate electricity.

6. The IIT experience is so profound that it has had a delayed but profound impact, decades later, on some
students. Take the case of H. S. Srinath. At IIT he was known to greet every one with the Kannada words,
―Yane-ri‖! He did not become a Kannada playwright upon graduation. Naturally he did what most graduates
do – got involved in software while continuing to eat vegetarian food. If you see him years later, he has changed
remarkably. (All except for the vegetarian food, of course!) He spent two years building a house that is immersed
in French art, grows every conceivable tropical vegetable and fruit in his Florida garden, and travels regularly to
the remotest parts of the earth including Namibia and Antartica.

7. Vichu Viswanathan had a similar life pattern. He obtained IIM education after getting a B-Tech, worked for
decades in a variety of companies including the usual software giants, and suddenly decided to pursue a Finance
Ph.D. at IIT Madras on a full-time basis.

8. On the other hand, Ambi Parameswaran, who used to walk around the hostel in a Lungi, ended up with a
similar management education. Instead of becoming a….wait, not sure what an Ambi with a Lungi might do in
the business world…he ended up becoming a major Advertising Executive in Bombay (or should we use the more
politically correct Mumbai?). Ambi Parameswaran has even written popular books on advertising and marketing.

Workshops played a major role in IIT Madras in those days. The German Universities that had collaborated to
help set up the only IIT in Southern India of the five original IITs, insisted that practical hands-on experience was
vital for learning engineering principles. So this hands–on approach meant that we had our hands on a file every
day for a full eight weeks to learn practical skills in our first year. Within five days, our task was to take a block of
steel channel and use a file to shave off most of the metal and leave a uniform plate of steel. Lest we achieve
our task in less than the allotted 35 hours of vigorous movement, our workshop supervisors gave us blunt files.
Most of us had only glanced at a file until then, but we ended up with complete knowledge of its every detail by
the end of the week. The steel file had become so ingrained in our minds, that D. Laksminrarayanan, who was
known for singing Tamil songs irrespective of which hero sang it in a movie – decided to convert a popular Tamil
song, that had dramatic English lines, to include files. The song was L. R. Easwari‘s ―Naan Oru Kathal Sanyasi.‖
With the steady buzzing of the rasping files of his classmates in the workshop as background, he first sang the
Tamil dance number and then stopped dramatically: ―Students! Stop Working! Your files are dirty. It is 11:30.‖
These types of songs and other workshop entertainment helped us while away our filing hours.

While the 247 boys in the 77 batch had dull worn-out files, the three girls were beneficiaries of chivalry in
the workshop. The workshop management decided that the three girls would get brand-new files to lessen the
arduous nature of the task. One of the boys in our immediate row of workshop tables had managed to ―borrow‖ a
file from a sympathetic girl. The file was simply amazing and vastly superior to our files. Each student got to try
it for 15 minutes. We realized that if we filed at a breakneck speed we could shave a full 3 millimeters of steel in
15 minutes. Unfortunately, this rate of vigorous filing caught the attention of the workshop supervisor, who, even
at a distance, became suspicious of the excessive passion in filing displayed by one student at a time. The file
was confiscated and returned to the helpful girl within an hour of starting this exercise. The workshop supervisor
advised us that if we paced ourselves and did steady work, we would easily complete the task in a week. He spoke
thus: ―Don‘t file-file-file-file-file, just fiiiiile…..fiiiiile…..fiiiiile…..fiiiiile…..fiiiiile!‖ The Works Manager, a German by
the name of Ebert, gave us occasional pointers on these physical tasks. But more importantly, he approved small

17
hobby-based projects that some students were inspired to create. By the end of second year we were all as skilled,
at least to some degree, in a variety of workshop activities, including fitting, carpentry, welding, foundry, lathe
operations, milling, drilling, shaping and scraping as current day graduates are at typing unfathomable computer
code endlessly on their keyboards.

In those days, the Internet had not even reached the science fiction books. Today we take it for granted; we can
scarcely enumerate its daily benefits. The biggest benefit for the non-local IIT student today is not the ability to
send e-mails, but to book tickets when going home at the end of the semester. With the exception of the Brindavan
Express to Bangalore, getting a reserved seat or berth on trains was a superhuman ordeal. But IIT students,
brilliant as they are, came up with a few unique methodologies to solve the train booking problem.

a) First there was the easy approach: the overnight trip to Bangalore on the Bangalore Mail. A group of us would
reach the train station by 7:30 PM and buy an unreserved seat. Soon after we got there an empty train would start
chugging into the platform. Many of the doors would be locked and we would scramble through the Windows of
the slowly moving train and place a towel on an overhead berth in the unreserved compartment. If we got there
15 minutes late, we would have to pay the porter Rs. 6 to get a berth. While this might seem to provide a lasting
solution to the ―how to travel comfortably in the night train‖ problem, our problems and adventures had just begun.

As more people slowly filled the compartment, small arguments would begin to break out below. The train
would leave for Bangalore at around 9:30 PM. From our comfortable perch on the overhead berth, we observed
that as the train stopped at small stations people would try to get into our unreserved section of the train. Several
people in the compartment would shout ―this is reserved; go further to the unreserved section.‖ As the night wore
on, the people who were packed below would notice that the last person who was sitting at the edge of the seat
had fallen asleep in a sitting position. The whole row would gradually push outwards until this last person fell off
the edge and woke up with a start. The ―Pushers‖ would make sympathetic noises and the surprised individual
would get back on his seat. As soon as he appeared drowsy, the pushing would start all over again. After he had
fallen a few times, the unfortunate person would either walk away elsewhere or use a newspaper to sit on the
floor, creating more space for the others. While the travelers were temporarily happy with this successful form of
seat-eviction, there were times they would make angry remarks at the IIT boys who were comfortably sleeping
above them. We were all glad when we reached Bangalore early in the morning.

b) Those who traveled to Northern cities such as Jamshedpur had difficulties in getting tickets that were several
orders of magnitude greater than traveling to Bangalore (we have to exclude those students whose parents worked
for the Railways or had other connections). Holidaying in distant locations was relatively uncommon but some of
us had a vague understanding of Jamshedpur because we knew there was a steel plant there. Govind Tatachari
would point out that it was unfair and that Bilaspur was no less of a ―North‖ and deserved equal mention. For most
of us Bilaspur was impossibly hazy, like a town in a Rudyard Kipling story or the mythical town of Malgudi in R. K.
Narayanan‘s novel, Malgudi Days. However, there was no doubt that Govind Tatachari was a Southern transplant
who had lived in this Bilaspur, since he seemed to know a lot about the ―North.‖ At the end of the semester, these
Northern dwellers would head to the train station and stand in lines, sometimes all night long. One enterprising
group of students, who had stood patiently for hours in the queue, decided to create and hand out tokens to all
the people standing in line in the middle of the night. ―With these tokens in your hand, you can go get tea or eat
some tiffin and your rank in the queue would be safe‖ they advised. IIT students, who are generally very familiar
with ranks, had no problem thinking of the rules for rank allocation. The members of the public who had got tired
of waiting endlessly in the queue, were willing to accept tokens from just about anybody and without bothering to
ask with what authority these people, who looked like students, were handing out these tokens. When the rest

18
of us in the hostels heard about these events the next day, there was always a suspicion that the token-giving
students had manipulated the rank system to give themselves good ranks in the queue to get the tickets. The happy
ending of this story was that students were able to buy one train ticket to go home for the semester-end holidays.

In the evenings, students would make an outing to Adyar. These students were never from Madras. In fact,
Ramanaprasad, a longtime resident of Adyar, found it incomprehensible why anyone would go to Adyar for an
outing: ―What is there?‖ he would ask. We had some adventurous students from North India who would go farther
for an outing; ―Adyar is too close and backward. We are going to Mount Road.‖ This activity was even more
incomprehensible to the residents of Madras. The Mount Road (now renamed Anna Salai) was a long stretch of
road from the center of old Madras to Mt. St. Thomas. Why would anyone want to go there for an outing? It turns
out that someone had told them that the most important part of Madras was Mt. Road and they wanted to be at
the most important location from time to time.

Skating was a reasonably popular sport and IIT Madras was one of those rare institutions of higher learning
with a skating rink. Skates cost Rs 45 for the semester and were shared by three people (Rs. 15 each). Those
who were at the skating room on the first day, it was open for the semester, got the best skates. By the end of
the week only the half-broken skates were available for the semester-long rental. It is not that the students had
much time to skate once the periodical exams started, but everyone viewed it as important to get the best quality
skates. If some firstst year students had come the first day and got the high quality steel–wheel skates, some
senior students would approach them a few days later and try to convince them to exchange their nice skates
with the plastic wheel skates or the half-broken steel-wheel skates that the seniors had been unlucky enough to
get. Some firstst year students did make the exchange – although they would try to reverse the deal after trying
them out, with the statement that the skates from the seniors do not move forward easily. The senior students,
who were unwilling to return their newly exchanged skates, had a good line for them, ―then try going backwards.
It‘s much easier.‖

No one text while skating in those days. Not even Robert Nathan, who was known to make high-level political
connections for the batch in those days, but is best known today for arranging alumni dinners, and writing long and
serious e-mails. Mostly because it is very difficult to skate and text without falling down;but only slightly less so
because texting had not yet been invented. People listened to you while you were speaking, rather than keeping
one eye open for any messages on their Smart Phones. The bicycle was central to our existence and the bicycle
helped us carry out every conceivable activity on campus. However, how many of us would have imagined that
students would be texting while bicycling on campus in future? Certainly not Seshan Raj, who used to get most
of his imaginative ideas while pedaling furiously on his way to class. These days he gets even more creative
ideas while driving at a steady 110 KmPh, but waits to get home before texting them to friends as he notes that
like most people of his generation, he is a two-arm texter and a one-arm driver.

Sometimes it is difficult to imagine today how much impact liberalization and the move to the free market economy
has had on our daily life. Recently, I met a German doctor on a train in Germany. She recalled her pleasant
days as a young lady, before she became a doctor, working in a clinic doing social service for a few months in
South India. The facility was on a hill and every time she needed to make a phone call to her parents she had to
take a bus that went down the hill that came every two to three hours. In the town below, she had to walk up to
a telephone and make the difficult phone connection. She went back to the place recently, after so many years,
and was pleased to see that the bus came every thirty minutes. She further noted: ―The best part was that I did
not have to take the bus at all to make the phone call. Everybody had a cell phone. They were more than willing

19
to let me use their cell phone to call my family in Germany right from the top of the hill.‖ So here was someone
who was not concerned with ―India Shining‖ but was impressed with ―India Talking.‖

On one final issue, I appeal to the sensibilities of our intellectual alumni. It turns out that current students
continue to complain about hostel food. Loyal IIT Madras alumni feel that this is a fact of life and move on to
suggesting and discussing many great technological and environmental initiatives that IIT Madras can and should
promote. But, having observed the repetitive patterns of the food served for years on end, how is it that alumni
have not viewed the quality and variety of food as a priority item to address? Surely, judging by the girth of some
of the older alumni, it appears that they have great expertise and wide experience from eating good food in the
intervening decades. So, we have to end with the all important thought question: ―What shall we do about the
same old hostel food?‖

U. N. Umesh, Ph.D., is a Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Washington State University.

20
 DR. ING. WOLFGANG SCHEER — A TRIBUTE
By Thomas Tharu (1969 - BTME & 1987 - MSME)

This account of Prof Scheer‘s role in the setting up of facilities at IIT Madras in its formative years is based
partly on a rather brief conversation with him when he visited India in February 2009 at the age of 86 to participate
in a golden jubilee event organised in honour of faculty from that period.

The rest is a mix of recollection and comment by this writer, who considers himself greatly privileged in having
been a student in his ‗turbo-machines‘ classes during 1966 to ‘68. I am by no means a ‗typical‘ IITian, in the
sense that I remained an engineer throughout my career, and enjoyed it immensely. What follows is admittedly
the personal impressions of a starry-eyed admirer, not perhaps a ‗balanced‘ account.

The Background

Prof Scheer was among the very first group of German experts identified by Prof R A Kraus, who had been
commissioned by the Federal government to build the team for setting up an IIT in Madras. He had completed his
doctorate at the Pfleiderer Institute (for research in turbo-machines) at Braunschweig, having registered under
Prof C Pfleiderer himself, among the top authorities in the field. By the time he finished in 1958, Prof H Peterman
had taken over the director‘s post from the ageing founder. Prof Scheer‘s mastery of the subject was evident to
all of us who later attended his classes.

Contrary to what we might imagine, it was not an easy decision for Prof Scheer and the others who made up
the German team. We often have misplaced notions about the circumstances surrounding the ‗white sahibs‘. The
reality was that with Germany still recovering from the devastation suffered during the war, suitable positions for
qualified professionals were still scarce, and many had to consider options in other countries. The value of the
Deutsche Mark was then little more than an Indian rupee! The terms offered were not particularly attractive, and
there were definite risks regarding security of service and future prospects of those who volunteered. There was
also the question of adjusting to life in a tropical third-world country for several years, especially for their families.

Nevertheless Prof Scheer was among those who opted to take up the challenge and set out on this great
adventure.

Planning and Building

The team of German experts had to visualise and plan everything right from scratch, based on their own
experience, ingenuity and capacity for improvisation, since the campus was still virgin jungle at the time. Prof
Scheer‘s main responsibility was the planning and setting up of the mechanical department, in particular the
workshop laboratories, for which he was given almost a free hand. The central workshops were the responsibility

21
of Mr Ebert, and the whole team sequenced their activities in such a manner that facilities which could possibly
be generated ‗in-house‘ were done locally, instead of trying to get everything imported. This procedure naturally
provided valuable practical training for local staff, machine operators and supervisors — an important feature of
the team‘s agenda.
A bit of ‗bias‘ towards his own subject was perhaps evident in the fact that there were separate halls for thermal
turbomachines and hydro-turbomachines, but no one can seriously fault the facilities created then in any of the
engineering laboratories. My impression is that the infrastructure would have been comparable with (or possibly
better than) that at the German universities. The team which came had the opportunity to plan from scratch and
take care of any shortcomings they may have perceived in their parent institutions, where the growth might have
been hampered by space or economic constraints.

One feature which Prof Scheer was very particular about was that the professors and faculty associated with
a lab should be located right there, rather than in an ‗academic‘ building somewhere else. This was in contrast to
our traditional attitude of isolating practical work which is typically perceived as inferior to intellectual activity! The
German emphasis on acquiring workshop skills has been commented on sufficiently in other forums.

Setting up the core infrastructure on a literally green field site was the major task which occupied Prof Scheer
and the others during the first few years. IIT Madras was the most prestigious and largest ever educational project
undertaken by Germany in a foreign land, and they did full justice to it. By the time I joined as a fresher in 1964,
the institute already gave the appearance of being a well-established institution.

Academic Activities

While the first batches of students were steadily progressing beyond fresher status, the German experts
shared duties with the Indian faculty for teaching the elementary engineering subjects as well. Prof Scheer took
on the responsibility of creating a very thorough and systematic course for engineering drawing. It was really
mechanical drawing, but it was common for students of all branches during the first two years. I noticed that the
same exercises were being used almost unchanged over two decades later, though the course content had been
drastically reduced, until the subject of drawing was dropped altogether. In those early days we used tee squares
and instruments which are obsolete today.

Those initial drawing exercises proved invaluable to me as a mechanical engineer who has spent an entire
career in machine design (though my batch-mates are unlikely to share my sentiments!). At the time Prof Scheer‘s
activity was limited to his turbo-machines lab, and I found out only many years later that he had been the architect
of those drawing courses, which has of course increased my admiration for his versatility.

His lecture course on ‗Introduction to Turbomachinery‘ in my third year was clearly the high point of my
engineering education. The systematic way in which he opened up the subject from the very basics to advanced
topics, gave me an insight into a whole world of engineering, extending much beyond the immediate subject .
Though I realised then itself that I would never specialise in that field because I had certain wider interests and
lacked the mathematical skills associated with study of fluid flow, I gained sufficient familiarity to deal confidently
with a variety of practical problems relating to ‗turbo‘ items like pumps and blowers in my later career.

His lectures were indeed a great delight (at least to me). His neat notes and drawings on the blackboard, using
a systematic colour code throughout the course, and his expressive actions while explaining a concept, remain
vivid in my memory. I have even carefully preserved the notes which I took down in his class (not the set which was
prepared by the department, based on his lectures). He spent particular effort on framing interesting examination
questions which forced us to think from fundamentals.
22
 The classes were held in the Chemistry lecture theatre of the Humanities and Sciences Block, in order to
accommodate the large number of students (mechanicals plus chemicals). Many of them were naturally not much
interested in the subject, and some would make fun of his accent or pronunciation. Though the disturbance level
in the large hall was sometimes considerable, Prof Scheer never allowed himself to get provoked but patiently
went on with his lecture for the benefit of those who cared to listen.

I also benefited greatly from Prof Scheer‘s course on ‗Design of Turbomachines‘ in my fourth year. The insights
provided into practical details of various machine elements were of direct relevance to a much wider range of
problems in machine design. Of course I realised the value of all this only gradually in later years, but even in my
final year I was able to do a design project relating to a crane gearbox with considerable confidence, which I am
sure was a consequence of what I learnt in his course.

Along with the lectures, we also had a carefully structured set of tutorial exercises which helped us to appreciate
how the theory of turbomachines was applied to actual problems. When I look into my tutorial sheets now I can
hardly believe that as a student I had been exposed to such depth and detail, comparable to what I encountered
later in real engineering practice.

Straight after graduation, when I had the opportunity of getting training in a large German factory, I had no
difficulty in getting to grips rapidly with the drawings and shop practices, thanks to the background I got at IITM,
with much of it being at least indirectly due to Prof Scheer‘s dedication. I was not intimidated even by drawings of
rather complex items like large turbocharger assemblies, because I had once learnt the basics of turbomachines. In
later years when I worked in companies having German collaboration partners, that early and thorough grounding
made the evaluation of design and technical issues easy for me.

Madras to Addis Ababa

Prof Scheer left IIT Madras in early 1969 after ten years of dedicated service. His next assignment was in
Ethiopia, where the West German government had a project to set up an engineering institution in the capital city
of Addis Ababa.

That turned out to be a much greater adventure for Prof Scheer, and it lasted for twenty-three years. I could
glean only a very sketchy impression of a story, which can perhaps fill a whole book. The facilities available in
Ethiopia were quite primitive compared to Madras. He lived through and survived the periods of major upheavals
and violence which are so common in much of the African continent. It was almost a ringside seat for him during
the overthrow of the monarchy, and take-over by a communist regime and the military. Sometimes colleagues
would simply ‗disappear‘. Because they all realised his value as a key person who was dedicated to his work, he
could continue unharmed, though often in danger.

He mentioned one example of the lack of facilities under which he had to achieve results. Pump casings and
impellers have curved shapes which are invariably made by casting. For an agricultural project, he had to design
and make a multi-stage pump, but there was no foundry to make the parts. With typical German ingenuity Prof
Scheer got the impeller blades constructed out of sheet metal. For the bearings and seals they used available
truck parts. And the casings had to be made out of cement! The whole unit was assembled and tested stage by
stage, with appropriate modifications until successful performance was achieved. When he visited the college
once more at the age of 82, they requested him to help them once again as an advisor!

23
 Now Prof Scheer has retired and settled in a small place in Germany. Though I didn‘t venture to ask any
questions of a personal nature, I got the impression that he is content with having spent a useful life in selfless
service, rather than pursuing name or fame or wealth.

I was surprised (and immensely pleased!) when he remarked that he doesn‘t use a computer or carry a cell phone.
He probably shares my view that computers have spelt the death of the engineering profession by discouraging
any application of mind to technical problems. I have my doubts about whether we in India (or in Ethiopia) have
really imbibed any lessons from the example set by people like Prof Scheer.

What impressed me most about him was that a person of such obvious calibre should have dedicated (maybe
one could use the word sacrificed) his life to the cause of technical education in third world countries.

General Tribute

My career as an engineer followed quite naturally from my training at IIT Madras, with a strong influence of
German practices. In my opinion we had an excellent curriculum. The strong emphasis on the basic sciences,
intense workshop training and practical work in the engineering laboratories added a lot of substance to lectures in
engineering subjects. For instance the experiments we did in the electrical and chemical engineering labs provided
an exposure to equipment which I found useful in later life.

I have no hesitation in stating that I benefited as much from Prof Scheer‘s lectures as from all other theory
classes put together! I had only brief exposure to classes by other German faculty. I remember some physics
lectures by Prof Koch, where he demonstrated some principles of mechanics and rotary motion using appropriate
models. Prof G Bechtloff who joined IIT only around 1968, took our classes in machine design for a while and they
were at an advanced level we could scarcely follow. During my final year design project, Prof Bechtloff used to work
at the adjacent drafting machine from time to time. To me it seemed like magic how a clean drawing sheet would
get transformed into a complete crane assembly drawing over a day or so! Whereas I would be making tentative
lines with pencil and eraser, Prof Bechtloff could rapidly render his designs straightaway in ink. He had of course
a background with solid practical experience, and that kind of competence also inspired me a lot.

By Way of Conclusion

That more-or-less sums up my account of the contribution made by Prof Wolfgang Scheer in particular, and
the German experts in general, to IIT Madras and my own career as a mechanical engineer. I am not aware of
any account of Dr Scheer‘s career or biographical details by those who worked with him and would have known
him a lot better. I do feel it is a pity that such people are not honoured or recognised.

It is indeed a much greater tragedy that the man who actually coordinated the setting up of IIT Madras — Prof
Robert A Kraus (1898-1970) — has been completely forgotten! I could gather only little bits of his remarkable
story. His early career was mostly spent in China, setting up the technical university in Shanghai, which however
got destroyed completely (twice!) during Japanese invasions. When he was back in Germany making plans for
rebuilding it at a new inland location, the second world war overtook events.

Later he set up and headed the mechanical engineering department at IIT Kharagpur till around 1953. His
students who are still around are all praise for his qualities as a teacher and a person. As senior-most professor
he would also serve as acting director on occasion. Dr Kraus was a competent all-round mechanical engineer

24
and designer, and also a pioneer in his specialisation (kinematics and mechanisms). He authored several books
(some of which I have used), and contributed various chapters relating to kinematics and machine elements in
the comprehensive eleven-volume ―Huette‖ handbook, which for decades remained the authoritative reference
work on engineering in Germany and elsewhere.

The German government appointed him as chief commissioner for the complete planning and construction
of IIT Madras, where he remained till early 1964. He certainly deserves a full-fledged biography, but I don‘t think
much information about him has survived, even in Germany. I guess Dr Kraus and Dr Scheer belong to ranks of
those whose extraordinary qualities are recognised only by the people with whom they have worked closely, but
otherwise remain unhonoured and unsung.

25
 INTERNSHALA – EARLY STAGE LESSONS OF DOING A START-UP
& THINGS I AM MOST GRATEFUL FOR

By Sarvesh Agrawal (2006 - DDCE)

Since graduating from IIT Madras in 2006 (Civil Engineering Dual Degree), it was a dream to start something
of my own one day, and hopefully before completing 5 years in a corporate job and becoming too comfortable. So
in October 2012, sixteen days before hitting the 5 years milestone, when I quit my (hopefully) last corporate job to
start Internshala (www.internshala.com), I knew I would have one regret less for the rest of my life.

I had a rather happy corporate career; I love numbers and the stories they tell and hence truly enjoyed working
in Business Analytics domain at different levels with some really well known Brands in India and abroad.

However, deep down I knew that only a start up would give me the freedom to do what I really wanted to do;
make mistakes, fall down, and get back up again; push the boundaries of what I thought I could NOT do and
discover strengths and weaknesses that I never knew existed in me. So finally when I stumbled upon the idea of
an internship portal while talking to a friend, I had run out of excuses on why I should NOT be doing a start up. I
had a safety net in terms of my IIT Degree and 5+ years of corporate experience, had no liabilities, and had an
idea which I felt excited about.

Thus came Internshala into existence. A little over a year (I boot started the idea when I was still in my last
job), having won hearts and minds of thousands of students and hundreds of organizations, I want to talk about
5 things that I am most grateful to Internshala for and they constitute my biggest learning.

I thought long and hard if there is anything that I hate about or feel frustrated about doing a start up which I can
share but surprisingly there is nothing. Yes it would be nice if I did not have to follow up with everyone every time,
or if there was more certainty about how Internshala would be a year down the line, or if we had a lot more hands
available to work for lot less money; but all of these are positive tensions and problems that I rather enjoy solving.

For all the long (and at times sleepless) nights, for all the moments of sheet frustrations and mornings of waking
up feeling like a complete idiot; here are 5 things that I am thankful to Internshala for –

1. For giving me an opportunity to give back: - ―…Internshala is simply superb and awesome. No more words. I
have got my first internship through Internshala and I will never forget this. I am heart fully happy. No more words.
Have a Happy day. Be blessed‖ This is one of the thousand such emails that we have received from students
from all over India (including from IIT Madras) in the last 1 year. As someone for whom having access to good
education at IIT opened doors to opportunities world over, such moments are emotional and nostalgic where I

26
can personally relate to the truth of what a student has written. In my 5+ years of corporate life, there was not one
moment like this.

2. For teaching me not to take ―No‖ for an answer: - We all have been in situations where either our own
inhibitions or external obstacles made us stop in our tracks and leave things mid way (remember the IT project
that could not go through because budget /people /technology was not available). At a start up most of the times,
―NO‖ is not an acceptable answer because the question is of survival. ―No‖ only means that this solution is not
workable and hence you should find another but ‗solution‘ does exist. Randy Pausch could not have been closer
to the truth when he said this in his Last Lecture – ―But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The
brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want
something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don‘t want it badly enough. They‘re there to
stop the other people‖

3. For teaching me that the world is full of people who want to help: - Yes, it‘s also full of people who may
want to cheat, do it the wrong way; but why focus on the minority. Majority of us, I believe and have found, are
genuinely interested in helping a fellow human being. When I started Internshala, I knew nothing about setting up
a web portal, did not have a facebook account, had done no press & media, knew none of the 400+ organizations
that have used Internshala till date, and the only student that I knew looking for an internship was my own cousin.
But we did move the needle a bit in the last 15 months and it was made possible only because of the help that I
received from friends and strangers alike on innumerable occasions. The only thing that you have to do is to keep
aside your ego and inhibition and shout out for help. Someone somewhere would hear it and echo back with a
solution – just keep your ears and eyes open!

4. For teaching me what customer led innovation means: - A big corporate word otherwise is now a way of life
at Internshala. We take pride in responding to each and every comment, email, call, conversation on facebook
that is directed at us by students, employers or chance visitors and we do it for a selfish reason. This is the only
way for us to know what our users want and innovate around that. With six industry first innovations or initiatives
in the last one year, we can speak with some authority on how listening to your customers is a necessary and
sufficient condition for a business to innovate at a very low cost. It has also allowed us to quickly proto type new
ideas, test them and scale or shelve at a lightning speed before investing heavily into them

5. Finally, for teaching me that Internships truly matter: - Our mission statement reads –―At the core of the
idea is the belief that internships, if managed well, can make a positive difference to the student, to the employer,
and to the society at large. Hence, the ad-hoc culture surrounding internships in India should and would change.
Internshala aims to be the driver of the change.‖

In the last 1 year, we have seen well structured internship programs making a HUGE difference to students
and organizations alike (many of them alumni start ups) and I would urge anyone reading this article to seriously
consider internships as a great talent acquisition tool or a really cost effective way for you to tap into some of the
best talent available in India. Students bring with them, a fresh perspective, tons of new ideas, and a bucket load
of energy which is difficult to find elsewhere that your organization will benefit from.

If it is still not convincing, I will let you in on the best kept secret of Internshala till date. Internshala has been built
by none other than student interns themselves. These interns, (the youngest one just finished her 12th standard
and the senior most one is a Ph.D from IIM Bangalore), take care of EVERY aspect of business at Internshala
and have done wonders for everyone to see. All Internshala did was to give them a platform.

Think about it!

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 HIGGINS IN INDIA [*]
Tee Square (Thomas Tharu 1969 - BTME & 1987 - MSME)

[ First published in Campastimes, IIT Madras, sometime in late 1965. Reconstructed from rather erratic memory
plus fresh inspiration, since no record of the original has survived, or any old issues of Campastimes for that matter.]

[*] By way of enlightenment (strictly for those who fancy wading through trivial details in fine print) :

1) The circumstances of the initial encounter of Professor Henry Higgins with Eliza Doolittle have been adapted
here to comment on the toilet habits of Indians in general and IITians in particular. (The text of the original is given
at the end for comparison.)

2) The Hollywood version of Lerner & Leowe‘s famous Broadway musical My Fair Lady (in turn based on
Bernard Shaw‘s Pygmalion) with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in the leading roles, was hugely popular at
that time. It was among the earliest movies to be screened at the (then new but now defunct) Safire theatre near
the Gemini crossing on Mount Road. One of the fourth year IITians is said to have seen it some twenty odd times,
in those blissful days with no distractions like TV or computers.

3) Those accustomed only to sleek modern push-button toilets, should try to imagine the predominant design
of an earlier era, consisting of a cistern tank mounted some eight feet above the floor, with a chain hanging from
a lever to activate the flushing mechanism.

4) Names like Cauvery are hostels in IIT Madras. That‘s enough of enlightenment. Now for the substance :

Higgins is chatting with a companion outside an IIT hostel toilet when someone comes out -
Higgins : Look at him, a pris‘ner of the gutter,
Condemned by all the decent folk who mutter :
By right he should be taken out and shot
For the lousy mess in which he‘s left the pot.
A disgusting sound is heard from within.
Higgins : Heavens, what a stink !
This is what the local population
Refers to as hygienic education.
Companion : Come, yaar, I think you picked a poor example.
Higgins : Did I ? See them down in Cauvery,
Tapti or Godavari,
Leaving toilets anyway they like.
(To someone else who comes out) Hey, you‘ve pulled the chain I hope !
Reply : Vart you take me for, a dope ?

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 Higgins : No-one taught him what that chain is really for.
Go to Narmada, it‘s worse -
You may end up in a hearse.
I‘d rather use the Buckingham Canal !
Pigs living in a gutter,
Just like this one -
(coinciding with a very audible sound from within) : S-p-l-u-t-t-e-r !
Higgins : Yechh ! I ask you, dammit, what sort of life is this ?
It‘s lack of basic hygiene that keeps him in his place,
Not his sloppy gait and corny face.
Why can‘t the Indians teach their children how to flush ?
This squalor we adore is apt to make a sailor blush !
If you behaved as he does instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be a ruddy pig too.
Companion : What the hell do you mean, yaar !
Higgins : An Indian‘s sense of hygiene absolutely classifies him.
The moment he uses a toilet he makes some other Indian despise him.
A clean mode of living I‘m afraid we‘ll never get.
Oh, why can‘t the Indians learn to set a good example
To people whose habits are painful to your nose ?
They‘re quite unconscious of it I suppose.
There even are places where hygiene completely goes.
(spoken) Down Saras way you‘d better walk on your toes !
Why can‘t the Indians teach their children how to flush ?
The Greeks and the Norwegians always make the water gush.
In France they‘ll yank the damn thing even when they have to rush,
(spoken) The French don‘t care if no water flows, actually,
just so long as they give the chain a tug.
Arabians use perfumes to make the whole affair a pleasure,
While the Hebrews have a smart device to dose the exact measure.
But try to tell these blokes and you‘re regarded as insane,
Oh, why can‘t the Indians - why can‘t the Indians -
PULL THE CHAIN ?

The text of the original ‗lyric‘ from My Fair Lady is more-or-less as follows :

WHY CAN‘T THE ENGLISH ?

Higgins : A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere – no right
to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech : that your native
language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible; and don‘t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.
Eliza : Aooooooooow !
Higgins : Look at her, a pris‘ner of the gutters:
Condemned by ev‘ry syllable she utters.
By right she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.
Eliza : Aooow !

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Higgins : Aooow ! Heavens, what a noise !
This is what the British population
Calls an element‘ry education.
Pickering : Come, sir. I think you picked a poor example.
Higgins : Did I ? Hear them down in Soho Square,
Dropping aitches everywhere,
Speaking English anyway they like.
(To Cockney) You, sir, did you go to school ?
Cockney : What-ya tike me fer, a fool ?
Higgins : No-one taught him ―take‖ instead of ―tike‖.
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse,
Hear a Cornishman converse:
I‘d rather hear a choir singing flat!
Chickens cackling in a barn,
Just like this one.
Eliza : Garn !
Higgins : Garn ! I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that ?
It‘s ―Aooow‖ and ―Garn‖ that keep her in her place,
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face.
Why can‘t the English teach their children how to speak ?
This verbal class distinction by now should be antique.
If you spoke as she does, sir, instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers too.
Pickering : I beg your pardon, sir !
Higgins : An Englishman‘s way of speaking absolutely classifies him.
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.
One common language I‘m afraid we‘ll never get.
Oh, why can‘t the English learn to set a good example
To people whose English is painful to your ears ?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely disappears.
(spoken) In America they haven‘t used it for years !
Why can‘t the English teach their children how to speak ?
Norwegians learn Norwegian ; the Greeks are taught their Greek.
In France every Frenchman knows his language from ―A‖ to ―Zed‖,
(spoken) The French don‘t care what they do, actually,
so long as they pronounce it properly.
Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning ;
And the Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely fright‘ning.
But use proper English : you‘re regarded as a freak,
Oh, why can‘t the English - why can‘t the English
Learn to speak ?

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 ‗TWO IN ONE‘

By Tushar Dutt
―70 batch

Fleet Warships after grueling exercises at sea are normally rewarded with a ‗Foreign cruise‘. Some are lucky
to visit places like Seychelles, Mauritius, Indonesia, Thailand or even Australian ports. But in our case, namely
the Indian Naval Ship Rajput during the early ‗80s, it was Jeddah and Aden, Ports of call that were not much to
write home about.

Being the Flagship, we had the Fleet Admiral along with the band and fleet staff, embarked on board. Whilst it
may outwardly appear exotic, foreign cruises are big headaches for the ship‘s Captain, who needs to ensure that
there are no disciplinary incidents, desertions etc. This is automatically passed on to his Chief, XO-the Executive
Officer. More than half the ship‘s problems are considered solved with a skilled XO, blessed with a booming voice.
In our case it was Commander Subhash Chopra, a Gunnery specialist, armed with excellent man management
skills and word of command seldom requiring the services of a loudhailer.

Right from day one when the cruise program was announced, he got busy with his pep talk to the ship‘s company
and fleet staff as to the do‘s and dont‘s at the ports of call such as how to best use the modest Foreign Exchange
allowance and avoid issues with the Customs. He even got down to suggesting the shopping list, which was basically
a ‗Two in one‘—a contraption combining radio with a single tape recorder, textiles and toys for the family. This
is all what the allowance could take care off. Soon ‗two in one‘ became the ‗household‘ word on everyone‘s lips.

Sure enough, the moment the ship touched Jeddah, liberty men made a beeline for the city with a single
mission—‗Two in one‘! ‗Two in ones‘ began vanishing from the departmental store shelves like magic. Late next
day leading Cook Lal decided to try his luck. He got friendly with the Pakistani shopkeeper, who assured him an
excellent ‗Two in one‘ which was cheap and best. He packed it nicely and handed it over to him saying ‗Good bye,
Lal sahib, ‘Khudah hafiz‘, as the ship was to sail early next morning.

An excited Lal returned on board beaming, ‗mission accomplished‘. At the gangway the Officer of the Day
(OOD) asked him ‘yeh kya hai?! ‗Two in one‘ hai Sir‘, Lal responded! ‗Thoda bada lagtha hai , kholo ise‘(looks
somewhat big, open it). To everyone‘s including Lal‘s utter shock it turned out to be a ‗Two in one‘ Mixer cum
Grinder, with its myriad attachments! It was too late for a disappointed Lal to return the merchandise. The OOD
consoled him ―yeh kitchen mein bahuth kaam aayega‘( would be very useful in the kitchen). Lal however soon got
an opportunity to make up for his ‗disappointment‘. The following year Rajput sailed to the booming middle east
ports—Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Muscat.

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 ONLY A RIDE THROUGH IIT CAMPUS, BUT
UNERASABLE
By George Vergese (1971 - BTMT)

In the hostel room, the most advanced gadget at that time was the slide rule. A close second was the alarm
clock. When one is new to the IIT life style one is dependent on the alarm clock to keep to the time schedules. And
when the alarm component in the alarm clock does not work one tends to get lost. So it was the case. The alarm
system in the alarm clock did not work on the very third day at IIT. It had to be taken out for repair. I tossed the
alarm clock into the rear side basket of my bicycle one evening. I set off to a repair shop. I was told that there was
one in Mylapore. Once the repair was done, it was time for a light dinner. I was then on my way back to the hostel.

On the first day of joining IIT, after Prof Anantharaman, the then warden of Jamuna Hostel, received us it was
mess Supervisor Srinivasan‘s turn to host the reception. Srinivasan‘s methods of giving a reception were different.
He mentioned places we ought to be cautious about. He warned us about yakshis – fair sex vampires who were
beautiful . He said that they would normally wait at nights for young boys around the Shopping Centre.

Somehow Srinivasan‘s warnings did not come to mind, when I was riding back to the Hostel through the dark
forests in IIT campus. As I passed the temple – the time must have been around 11.00 PM – I heard the temple
bells ring. I thought to myself, what a God fearing person he or she would be, going to the temple that late at night.

I kept cycling. To my horror I heard the bells continue to ring and moving with me apparently through the trees.
If someone were to record it I would have broken all time cycling speed records at that moment. In a jiffy I was
at Shopping Centre. I took a fleeting glance left and right at the cross roads. Nothing in white was seen then. But
the bells continued. I panicked. I continued to pedal at break neck speed hoping to get ahead of the ringing bells.
While the bells continued to move at the same speed, the frequency of ringing started dropping. I realized then
that it was the alarm clock in the rear side basket of my bicycle that had gone off!!! The repair was successful.

George Vergese 1965-71 Metallurgy, Jamuna, Ganga, Godavari di.

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 MADAN MOHAN & LATA MANGESHKAR - SONGS WITH HEALING POWERS!
Ram Seetharam (Seethru)
(1981 - BTCH)

81 Batchmates, as some of you know, my one enduring passion has been for Hindi Film Music (HFM). I honestly
believe the 75 years of music that this industry has generated is a national treasure with many masterpieces over
the 7+ decades. Check out my Gaana Pehchaana facebook page if you are also interested in HFM.
Did you know that nine out of 10 doctors prescribe listening to songs composed by Madan Mohan and sung
by Lata Mangeshkar as the cure for many ills? And that six of these doctors claim these songs can even cure
cancer? So, try a course of these nine prescriptions. And don‘t worry, I checked - this is coved by your HMO. All
you need is a 99 cent co-pay to buy these songs at your local itunes pharmacy.
For minor ailments, you can start with three over-the-counter drugs - Hai Tere Saath Meri Wafa, Lag Ja Gale
Se and Mera Saya Saath Hoga - with their lilting, uplifting themes. And, no, the OTC designation is not meant in
any way to belittle their curative powers; these are simple, melodious pieces of genius! The sunshine in Lataji‘s
voice brings out all the nuances of Madan Mohanji‘s inspired compositions.
For those symptoms that continue to persist and require a visit to your friendly physician, there‘s the Dastak
course of treatment. Start by listening to Lataji sing Mayiri Mai Kase Kahoon, paying special attention to the
Haaan, Mayi ri that Lata ji interjects towards the end of each antara. And as if one gorgeous song in the movie
wasn‘t enough, Baiyan Na Daro makes sure you are fully nursed back to health. Listen closely as Lataji sings the
Mohe Chodo Haye segment. The full Dastak course of treatment includes Madan Mohanji singing Mayiri in his
own haunting raw voice. I admit it – I have OD‘d on this last drug many times.
If your symptoms still persist, you have a serious case of HFM immune disorder (HFM: Hindi Film Music). Time
to roll out the serious ghazal-based drugs.
Let‘s start with the old time-tested Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibayen - the quintessential Lata-Madan ghazal. This is
to be followed by the complex flavors of Hai Isi Mein Pyaar Ki Aabroo. Mujhe gham bhi unka azeez hai, ke unhi
ki dee huyi cheez hai – high quality curative ingredients provided by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan!
Still not cured? Time for you to listen to the slow, aching rendition of Aaj Socha To Aanso Bar Aaye. Listen
as the haunting Hanste Zakhm signature tunes give way to the soul-satisfying ghazal-like melodies. Then wait
expectantly as Lataji‘s gorgeous voice starts with Har Kadam Par and the other antaras.
Don‘t worry about the tears – that‘s the sign that you are cured! All your ailments are now replaced by a long-
lasting meeti dard somewhere deep inside you! By the way, several of these drugs are available in a digitally
enhanced format at the Classics Revival pharmacy, produced by none other than Madan Mohan‘s son, Sanjeev
Kohli. He also maintains a website in honor of his father - be sure to visit and pay homage. http://www.madanmohan.
in/html/the_legend/snapshot/snapshot.html

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 ONCE UP ON A TIME IN CHENNAI
By Deepesh Salgia,
(1990 BTEC)
Representing our batch experience at Saraswathi hostel.

―Rundu Rubaay, saar ?‖, the caapi serving Thambi‘s words distracted my mind that was trying to concentrate
on the reverberating sound, 300 meters away.

―Who lost the Schroeter ?‖……. ( one voice)

@#%$*$ lost the Schroeter…… (Chorus)
―Who lost the six-a-side ?......(one voice)
@#%$*$ lost the Schroeter ? …… (Chorus)

Cheerful celebrations for losing Schroeter? Unable to believe my ears, I finished my last sip of caapi at
Tharamani, paid two rupees to Thambi and walked along the upward slope towards the Sangam skating ring. The
ambient sounds of insects had now reduced resulting in a better Signal to Noise Ratio. The cheerful voices were
more audible and clearer as I was out of the bushes onto the south-eastern edge of Sagam and in direct line-of-
sight with this gathering of over 100 guys diagonally opposite me, and now approx 200 mts away.

As the sound became more clear, it became more unbelievable……. The ―@#%$*$― was nothing but ―Godav‖.
Over 100 guys at the back door of Godavari hostel were shouting cheerfully,

―Who lost the Schroeter ?

―Godav lost the Schroeter ? ‖
―Who lost the six-a-side ?
―Godav lost the six-a-side‖

The lingering taste of Tharam‘s caapi was now not on my agenda, as my mind wanted to solve the puzzle, ―Why
Godavites should cheerfully shout about their loss?‖ After tightening my Veshtti, I took the shorter diagonal route
instead of walking along the skating rink (Being TamBram, I still prefer calling it Veshtti than calling it white lungi).

I was in my final year and it was 10 p.m. This was during April 1990 and the end-semester exams were very
close. As the distance between me and the crowd reduced, the intensity of sound increased exponentially, reminding
me of my JEE Physics (1986). But this crowd seemed to be unaware of even the end-semester exams, just a few
days away ! Either they were all very well prepared and didn‘t need to study OR possibly they were all from the
same batch and all had decided not to study thus obviating any adverse effect of Relative Grading (RG). Students
at IIT, as they say, are one step ahead of the Profs.

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 I was now almost there, just next to the cheering crowd. Unable to find any of my Godav friends in the crowd,
I walked into Godav through the backdoor, somehow squeezing through the gap between the two grills, locked-in
by a loose but thick steel chain.

In complete contrast to the shouting crowd, there was an eerie silence within Godav. If one wanted to see
how polar opposites like Noise and Silence could co-exist, then this was the place. All students were inside their
rooms, no one walking in the lobbies, the Common Room was empty too and the TV too was off. The tension of
the end-semester was palpable; an ideal setting for an IIT Prof‘s dream picture.

Without wasting much time I went to Venky‘s room. Venky was my batchmate in the first year and had become
a good friend of mine. He was a hard-core anti–RG guy. He strongly believed that RG was the biggest contributor
to the stress-levels in IIT. Knowing very well that it may be difficult to remove RG, he had suggested extending it
further to Sports. Giving credits to Sports, he thought, would bring the muggos onto the field which would reduce
the stress for them as well as for others. Nothing of that sort happened; the best Venky could achieve was to
become the Sports Secretary of Godav.

Venky was in his room with five others. The mood was mournful and indignant; a four letter word was the most-
spoken word. The picture to me was now getting clearer.

―Yennada Venky….how are you?‖, I asked, as if unaware of the gusto of the shouting crowd.

―I am fine, Chinthamani.‖ Replied Venky.

―But you are looking upset, yaar‖, I showed concern and tried to earn some brownie points.

―Can you believe something like this could happen in IIT?‖, shouted Venky, thumping his feast on the wooden
desk. Frustration was surely the mood of the hour.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

During the last four years, Godav had consistently improved its score in the inter-hostel sports and during 1989-
90, it was poised to win the Schroeter trophy. Right from the beginning of the academic year, there appeared to be
no second, only third. Godav was also looking forward to win the six-a-side football. Six-a-side football, in those
days, was independent of Schroeter and was a very prestigious inter-hostel tournament. Unlike other big sports,
it was played in the hostel zone( at Sangam) hence attracting a large number of viewers .The flood-lights added
the extra-glamour to it. Godav was expecting a very tough competition from Narmada. In the round robin, it could
barely manage to beat Narmada 1-0, through a fluke goal. Fortunately for Godav, Narmada later tied its match with
Krishna (quite unexpectedly),increasing the chance for a Godav v/s Krishna final, since Krishna had a better goal
margin. If Krishna had reached the finals Godav was sure to win but with Naramada, it could be a different story.
The only match left for Narmada, in the round robin, was with Saras. Narmada had to defeat Saras with a margin of
4 goals to qualify for finals. Saras was no push-over. It was easy for Narmada to beat Saras but definitely not with
four goals, especially with Saras‘ star player, Srini. Naramada desperately wanted to win the six-a-side football due
to the prestige associated with it and further since it had now no chance of winning the Schroeter.

Saras, incidentally was historically very poor in sports and had never won Schroeter in ten years. However,
this time it was quite different. Its earlier sports secretary, Uday had strongly moved an anti-muggo drive and laid
a foundation for a Sports Culture in the hostel during the previous three years. Incidentally, Saras 1987 batch that

35
passed out (still a record for any hostel at any IIT) had AIR 1,2,3,4 and 5 of 1983 JEE and it earlier also had the
first Triple 800 scorer at GRE. One can only wonder the Muggo-Index at Saras during the larger part of the 1980s.
But the scene had changed over time and this year‘s Sports Secretary Ramki took it further and put Schroeter
high on the agenda. During 1989-90, Saras had many all-round sportspersons and it became the only contender
for being Godav‘s rival.

If Saras had muggos, it also had smart strategists. It realized that the target was not to win cricket or hockey
but to win the Schroeter. It, therefore, focused on events where it could avoid competition and easily collect points.
It found its first ―Blue Ocean‖ in Kabaaddi. Kabaddi was a sport dominated by M Tech/PhD, hostels. This year,
many of the Kabaddi Badshahs had passed out. The Saras Kabaddi captain, saw the opportunity, built a strong
team and charged his team not only into finals but also won the Gold even before Godav could realize it as an
opportunity. [For the uninitiated, Americans talked about ―Blue Ocean‖ strategy only post 2000.]

One must also not forget that Lady luck was on Saras‘ side. And yes literally it was. In chess, Saras was to
play Sarayu and other stronger teams had to play among themselves. Please note that I am not being an MCP,
Sarayu did have the most intelligent girls in India but as I said Lady luck was on Saras‘ side, the Boyle‘s law for
girls came to Saras‘ rescue. The girls who were playing chess for Sarayu were quite pretty. Boyle‘s constant of
Beauty x Brain worked for Saras and Saras stormed straight into Semis to meet another not so strong team and
then went straight into the finals.

But despite all this, for the Schroeter fight, Saras was still second and just behind Godav. The only way Saras
could win Schroeter was to beat Naramda in Carrom. State-level Carrom player, Gopalan was playing for Narmada
and thanks to Gopalan, Narmada was poised to beat Saras and win the Carrom Gold for the third time. This meant
that Godav was almost done for Schroeter.

Saras was also to play Narmada in six-a-side football, where its only hope was Srini and if Srini‘s magic worked,
it could defeat Narmada and finish third, a victory for pride but would give no points to Saras for Schroeter, as
six-a-side was an independent tournament. A victory for Saras would make a clear path for a Godav v/s Krishna
final, which Godav was very confident of winning.

In March first week, therefore, Godav was awaiting its Double Sundae. Schroeter + Six-a-side, an honour that
no hostel had achieved earlier.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

I was aware of this background information, when I had entered Venky‘s room. The sine waves containing
Venky‘s frustration were conspicuous in his room.

―Do you think it is really possible? Come on, we are in IIT, the most reputed institute in this country?‖, questioned
Venky. This time the other Godavites in the room too were swinging their fist in the air, releasing more sine waves
of frustration.
―It‘s a sport, someone wins and someone loses‖, I tried to take a neutral posture.

―That‘s the point I am saying, if it was sport, I would have understood but this is not sport‖. I was still not clear
what Venky was trying to communicate.

―I am not getting your point, can you please throw more light on the issue?‘. I said.

36
 ―To win Schroeter, Saras had to defeat Narmada in Carrom finals. Gopalan of Narmada has till date never lost
any match. Narmada was poised to win the Carrom Gold for the third time. And this Narmada lost to Saras. And
ultimately, Godav lost the Schroeter. Can you believe this ?‖

―Seven years back India defeated West Indiies in World Cup cricket finals, when no one had ever won a one-
day match against WI and WI was to win the world cup for the third time. It happens in sports‖, I argued and also
tried to calm him.

Continuing his counter argument, Venky spewed his anger now on Saras. ―Saras was to play six-a-side with
Narmada. For Narmada, it was not just a win but a four goal margin that would have made it into the finals. Given
Saras‘ strong team, this was not possible. What happens, when I go for the match? I see Srini, the star Saras player,
sitting injured with a big bandage on his knee. In the last match he was completely fit. How could he suddenly
get hurt?Without Srini on the field, Naramda beat Saras 5-0 and stormed into the finals. In the finals, Narmada
managed to beat Godav in the tie-breaker. Thanks to Saras, Godav lost the six-a-side football‖

―If someone is injured, you can‘t blame him for his injury‖, I tried to make Venky think more rationally.

Venky‘s emotional burst continued ―When it was the question of cheering Naramda during the tie-breaker
against Godav, the same injured Srini had forgotten all his pain‖

Venky was now approaching the Touch Down. He put it in plain words, ―Saras wanted to win the Schroeter
and Narmada wanted to win the Six-a-side. So there was a deal. A deal ….!! Narmada gave up its Carrom Gold
for the final position in Six-a-side. Saras lost Six-a-side bronze for the Schroeter Trophy. Narmada and Saras
got what they wanted. And the loser at both the places wasGodav. It lost Six-a-side. It lost Schroeter……… And
hence all this noise, behind Godav‖

Who lost the Schroeter ?

―Godav lost the Schroeter ? ‖…

―Who lost the six-a-side?

―Godav lost the six-a-side‖

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Now in April, 2012, I still wonder if what all Venky said was really true or was just an argument put up by him
to hide his failure in front of his hostel mates. Indian politicians, in those days, would see a ―foreign hand‖ in every
failure of theirs. I could possibly see the same spirit in Venky‘s argument. I would be happy if Venky was wrong.
OR may be, Venky was right. And it was not a co-incidence but it was planned. Saras and Narmada possibly
had fixed the matches, as claimed by Venky.

And if it was indeed so then did it have something to do with the emerging trend in international cricket during
the 90s and the first decade of this century?

… ….. .Innovation, almost always begins @ IIT.

37
 CREATE VALUABLE OUTPUT FROM PROVEN PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES
By A.Sivakumar
(‘68.B.Tech.Mech.IITM)

In March, 2012, I came across two unrelated but interesting news stories. They form an ideal curtain raiser to
my article.

―Dr AW Frankland, MA DM FRCP, Director and consultant of the Allergy Clinic, St Mary‘s Hospital, London is a
very busy man. A brief run through his diary is enough to make one wince with vicarious exhaustion. His is a world
of international conferences, speeches and official dinners. In February, 2012, he was called an expert witness in
a court case involving a careless driver, a wasp sting and an iPhone. As busy as ever, he has a paper coming out
in a renowned journal in a few months time. Dr Frankland celebrated his 100th birthday in March, 2012.‖

―Ninety Four year old Urologist Dr. A Venugopal was one of the city‘s oldest practising doctors, fondly called
by fellow practitioners as Dr AV. He passed away in March 2012 and was active till the last week of his life. When
interviewed by press Dr AV in 2010, the nonagenarian had said he had no plans to retire.‖

―In Search of Technology –Experiences of an IITian‖ is the book I wrote on my corporate career when I retired
in 2005. My colleague Natarajan, an alumnus off IIT Madras of early ‗80s, while acknowledging the usefulness of
the book to fresh graduates and young professionals, suggested that I should write one after a decade for those
who retire from corporate career and need guidance on what to do further. It is a comment, which has kept me
thinking ever since.

One can reasonably assume fifteen years of active life after statutory retirement. The wealth of knowledge
available with the retiring professional is enormous and will go waste if not channelized properly. In this article, I
would like to share my ideas on what a retiring IIT Alumni can do in the current environment. I will refer to them
as Senior IITians as I feel there is no retirement from work.

Are Senior citizens contributing to the society or are they a burden to the society? In fact, senior citizens
particularly from upper middle class activate the economy by spending more as compared to younger professionals.
Health industry depends on senior citizens to a large extent. Just like Art, sports, Entertainment and religious
functions generate and support economy, senior citizens too support economy by spending. In spite of this fact,
a senior citizen will feel happier if he can contribute directly to the development of the society.

Various options are open to Senior IITians retiring from service and each one has its limitations. Those who
own and run their own organizations continue to work in the same way while their counterparts in industry are
forced to move out of their jobs. From my interaction with such entrepreneurs, I find that they feel they are tied
up to their units and are unable to enjoy outside. Many feel it is like a golden cage and they are leading highly
stressed life, facing and solving same problems day in and day out. There are others who want to relax and enjoy

38
life, spending time with family and visiting places. While it is good for them, it is nice to balance it with activities
useful to the society.

Social service through NGOs is another popular field attracting senior citizens. It brings satisfaction and joy.
However, I feel IITians can attempt doing a lot more based on their experience. Usually private sector units tend
to retain the retiring professionals as advisors or provide them positions in the Board of Directors. One major
advantage of the unit is that the retiring professional does not join the competitor and hence current information
on strategies is protected from competitors. After a couple of years or more, the contract comes to an end as no
harm can be done and no competitor will take him being out of touch with current operations.

One is back to Square one and is left thinking about what to do after a few years of extended service in the same
organization. It is not the money, but job satisfaction with freedom to work in an open set up which is appealing
to the Senior Alumni to take up work. As a citizen, one should continue to earn his bread and not live on one‘s
savings. Contributing to the development of the world will bring satisfaction. In the process, if one enjoys work, it
is most welcome.

The tradition of education in IIT starting even from JEE is to experience the mastering of unknown technology.
As the former Election Commissioner Mr. Seshan once said, ―IIT does not teach mastering technology. It teaches
how to master mastering of technology‖. In essence it means one should explore unknown areas and use one‘s
experience to study and solve problems in the new field using one‘s approach in other fields deployed earlier in
his career. That way, one will feel fresh, be interested in the job and enjoy maximum job satisfaction.
Activities comprising of identification of the problems affecting society, studying, analyzing and solving in
innovative ways after trials will be of great interest. Identification of problems in any field is relatively easy. India has
them in great abundance in every sector. One can list them out and based on one‘s inclination can start working
on a select few one by one. A number of sectors such as ‗Agriculture‘ etc are neglected and not looked upon
by industry as they constitute the bottom of the pyramid. There is plenty of opportunity to bring in technology in
rural applications. Even in urban areas, there is dearth of technology to solve problems in civic services like road,
transport, water, housing, sewage treatment and eco systems.
It may be interesting to know my experience since 2005. Over the last seven years, I have been working in
the field of Nutrition. My activities included developing intensive cultivation of Moringa(Drumstick) plants and
processing leaves into powder to obtain the world‘s most comprehensive nutrient mix and that too a natural product
rich in minerals, anti oxidants and vitamins apart from protein and carbohydrates. It is a total directional change.
I had to start learning fundamentals in the new subject. In the process, I realized that there are a lot of fallacies
we believe in which need to be corrected. For promoting the product for wider use, I interacted with various State
Governments, NGOS, Ashrams, and Professionals from industry. I must however admit that I am still in the initial
phase of my work, though brimming with confidence and feeling happy enjoying my work, trying to overcome
obstacles and disappointments.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, scientists/inventors had their own laboratory or workshops in their
cellar at home and continued to work even at old age. Today we need a workshop where prototypes can be made
fast as per the requirement of the professional. The product may fail a number of times, but the workshop should
make prototypes every time the technologist wants them as per his revised design.
Within the Alumni organization, IIT can start an exclusive group, devoted to Senior IITians. IIT Madras is likely
to have more than ten thousand senior persons. After exchange of ideas an action plan may be drawn up and
executed within a year. The success of such an initiative will show the way to the rest of India, which has a few
millions of professionals spread across the country.

39
 NOW IT CAN BE TOLD…………….
By V.Sivaramakrishnan (1971-BTMT)

Lot is said at times about how the (G)olden days were prosperous etc etc and how it has changed now –this
we talk about in society .But it is amusing to recall a few things about IIT life ,but not generalize.

We were a bunch of closely knit young men(!) when we entered IITM in 1966.The first experience was about
Ragging! The mildest forms were –1.we were asked to write impositions –guess what? The full names of the only
two girls in our set!! 2. In the luxury of the single room for each we were asked to vacate the suitcase out of its slot
on the wall and asked to sit cramped in that high pedestal and answer cranky questions from our unquestioned
senior guys.

We had anticlimax also. There was this tall chap who we installed later as the only ―Lambu‖ of the batch – he
happened to come from rural area-and rumor is that no senior whatsoever he asked was not able to get an answer
more than a poker faced ―What‖-he is one leading Consultant in the USA for over three decades –now we think if
it was a strategy! The other anticlimax was one who was known as Ruffian of the batch ragged the seniors! We
had continuous week workshop (alternate week) those days and he could easily be identified as fresher with the
Khakhi uniform. Some seniors picked on him near the workshops and they had a tough time to get him to react!
In ten minutes the workshops were buzzing with news that the seniors are getting ragged! He happened to be a
relative of a staff and that made it more interesting.

The ―common room ―in hostel was a star attraction –particularly for people like me who came from ―near
villages‖. I am a music addict (not Carnatic, but light Tamil/Hindi songs).I had just tasted Juke Box in Coimbatore
before joining IIT. That was at cost. Here we had the record player at our disposal (Jamuna) and choice of records!
It was complained later on that the needles and records wore off much faster and I was responsible –by playing
some records on and on for a few hundred times!! And the poor watchman in Jamuna used to plead with me every
night by about 11 PM ―Sir, I have a family and need to close the common room and go back to them, please will
you quit?‖ The result of all these distractions was I had to scrape through the first year in spite of my bifurcated
engineering in SSLC!

Saturdays used to be fun-filled. Lal Bahadur Sastry, then Prime Minister,coined ―Miss A Meal Day‖. This was
conveniently interpreted as miss rice (Only!). We used to collect the Dinner packet (in it were Buns, fruits like
oranges/plantain, puff etc ).Obviously they were carried to the OAT and in the darkness orange peel and plantain
peel used to fly to strategic locations! Invariably we used to head from OAT to Velachery Varalakshmi (Or so) or
Thiruvanmiyur Jayanthi for two more continuous movies (at the cost of one!)-and when we returned to the hostels at
4PM sleep is already out of the window! Sitting dangerously on the parapet wall in front of the rooms the ―yapping‖-
sessions will start-vigorous arguments on ‗Non Issues‘ as if life and death were at stake! By 6 AM some people

40
PICTURES FOR JOURNEYS

(Picture: Some Members of the current

Executive Committee for 2011 -13: Mohan
Narayanan – Treasurer, C.P.Madhusudan
– Secretary, Raj Varadarajan – Immediate
Past President, V.Gopinathan – President,
Vivekanand Jha – Jt. Secretary: India,
M. Inbarasu – Member & Dalton Eddy –
Immediate Past Secretary)

(Above left: Felicitation Event for our Alumnus Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi who was Appointed Director, IIT Madras. Above
right: Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi addressing the Felicitation get together for our Alumnus B.Muthuraman (1965-BTMT) on
being awarded the Padma Bhushan)

B. Muthuraman sharing a lighter moment

 Group photo of Pioneer Reunion of 1964, 65 & 66 Batches

1986 Batch Reunion participants with Souvenir mugs Office Bearers with IITMAA Staff
containing mug shots of their past and present selves.

(Graduands get together 2011)

 (Mock interviews in progress)

EC Meetting in Progress
will get tired. But how can we miss the ―masala dosai‖ on Sunday morning? By 10AM with prearrangement some
people used to sneak into the backdoor of the mess, collect the dosas, bring them to the room and eat!
There are many more episodes of North Indian friends rescued from the tent theatre Tharai (floor) crowd as
they have uttered the wrong words in Tamil (rightly taught by fun loving friends!),how we have made the periodicals
(equivalent of the now Surprise tests/Quiz) fun, infatuations, enjoying the World History classes of Prof Vairava
Pillai (I think nowadays it is not there ) with his down to earth examples etc. May be they can be covered later ,if
there is demand!

Why have I covered the fun side only? I have been interacting with the present IITians from the Alumni Association
side for many years now and have reasons to have a nagging doubt that student life is more tensed up. May be I
am wrong and somebody come up with a counter to this write-up to tell us how life is enjoyed even now!

Secondly I believe that due to the social background of the intake at that time and due to the fun filled life the
closeness of the earlier batches was strong –we can see it even today after 40 years, when we celebrated Ruby
in July 2011! My sincere wish is that all IITians develop that bond. I used to say ―never get emotionally attached
to the job/organizations-when you move on your 110% is to be delivered to the new one‖. But when it comes to
friends and especially IIT friends it is always priority ONE

41
 WRITTEN FOR CAMPUS TIMES IN 1985
By Bhamy Shenoy (1965 BTME)

For each of us who had been in the second batch of IIT Madras, IIT has been a part of our life for the past five
and twenty years. Ours was the first batch to occupy the half completed Krishna hostel situated close to Taramani
village (or was it Velachery?) Thus if I concentrate just on being first, there would be hundred and one trivial things
to reminiscence. Instead, I will write about the random thoughts that come to mind when I think of IIT Madras.

After having been accustomed all my life to textbooks, I was surprised to find the absence of textbooks at IIT.
When I look back, I feel that it was indeed a marvelous thing not to have textbooks. As a result we were forced to
refer to many books and learn different views and explanations. Today I do not remember any books that I referred
to for scientific material but I distinctly remember reading Vivekananda‘s books. I should thank the librarian for his
foresight in having bought these books on Indian culture despite the severe shortage of stacking space. In the
first year, our library had just one room.

The much-dreaded open-book exam was indeed a welcome change. It forced the students to learn the basic
principles rather than score high marks because of our ability to learn the subjects by rote. In one sense, open-book
exams made it easier to take examinations. Alas, the open-book exams were discontinued beyond the second year.

Being engineering students, we did not understand the need to learn economics, history, literature and such
other art or ―less technical‖ subjects. Of course, now I feel that we should have had more of them. Since IIT could
offer high salaries we were able to get outstanding teachers. However, many of them failed to appreciate the need
for engineering students to learn arts subjects. This was indeed an opportunity missed.

When I think of perfection and excellence, I always think of Prof. Scheer. Even if a student answered all of the
questions brilliantly but made a ―small‖ fundamental error the student was likely to get a failing grade. According
to Dr.Scheer, a person who was not familiar with all the fundamental principles deserved this even if the student
could answer most of the questions. To him, quality reigned supreme over quantity. I will never forget this view.

Though, in the hostels, there was the usual confusion about north and south Indian food, students were never
divided along regional, state or religious lines. My classmates were from different parts of India belonging to various
religions, speaking different languages. Students often spoke in their mother tongues but the friendships were not
based on religion, language or state. Thus, the atmosphere at IIT was one of perfect integration.

I also remember negative aspects of IIT life along with the pleasant memories. Copying at the exams was
regular. In fact, those students who did not do so were almost treated as outcasts. It was considered a ―great
achievement‖ to score good grades the easy way. There was some kind of ―hero worship‖ of those who were
good at copying. I never could understand this twisted logic at that time and I understand it even less now. Our
German professors were totally frustrated with this sad phenomenon. At first they used to give test questionnaires

42
and then leave the examination hall; however, when they came to know of the goings-on they learnt fast to lose
confidence in the honour system.

When I reflect on our extraordinary emphasis on ―practical training‖ in terms of fitting carpentry etc., I seriously
question the usefulness of that type of practical training. When there is so much to learn in such a limited time,
our time would have been better utilized in learning about the theories underlying engineering principles. Since
the practical training emphasis was suggested and perhaps even imposed by the Germans, it was never even
questioned. I recall one of my friends, Mr.Sripathi Bhat, who was a rank-holder from the Karnataka University,
had the courage to criticize this system and drop out of IIT. Though I did not appreciate what he did at that time,
I now admire his foresight.

Being totally isolated from the outside world because of our hostels being located in the forest, we led a totally
sheltered (isolated ?) life, comfortable in its own way. But for two or three of our classmates who had the luxury
of possessing cars, scooters and the like, most of us managed with the minimum requirements of life. However,
we never knew about the villagers who were living in abject poverty in the nearby village of Taramani, right next to
our comfortable quarters. We knew even less about the grinding poverty of a significant population of India. It was
not often that we discussed the problems faced by India in raising its standard of living. The politics of governing
India did not catch anybody‘s imagination. Life in the U.S or Germany was more of interest than the obligation or
responsibility of IITians towards Indian development.

The suicide of Marilyn Monroe was discussed in great detail. Being a villager myself, I never could understand
why everybody was interested in the suicide of a Hollywood star. It is because of this lack of social (I would even
call it moral) responsibility that the IIT alumni association today has tremendous problems in raising a paltry (by
American standards) sum of $100,000 to donate personal computers to its alma mater. In the U.S, both the public
and private universities are able to raise millions of dollars from their alumni to support them. There are about 800
IITM alumni in North America and many of them are very affluent by any standards and it would indeed be a crying
shame if we cannot raise a mere $100,000. IITM was supported partly by the taxpayers of W.Germany who had
little or no obligation towards India. Today, if IITM alumni living in the comfort and wealth of the U.S do not feel any
responsibility towards it, then the blame rests with the education we so eagerly received at IIT.

43
 HOW I WAS NAMED
―GHOST‖
By K.Narayanan, 1.046/60, B.Tech., Chemical Engg, 1965 – 2nd batch

Our batch started on 16th August & I was a waitlisted student to join IITM on this great day, September, 13th,
Tuesday, 1960! So, I became one of the very few ―to be privileged‖ to be ragged by my own class mates.!

Our batch (2nd batch) was the FIRST EVER IITM STUDENTS to inaugurate the IIT Campus. Tharamani Hostel
was the original name of the Present KRISHNA Hostel and we were accommodated in the ground floor, 2 per room.
The farthest from the mess is the ―A‖ wing and the cremation ground was just 100 yards behind this wing. I was
given Room A-4, the same wing in which the warden Dr. Choudhury was also staying. (After few years I could say
with pride, I was the neighbour of one C.R.Muthukrishnan (1.051/60) who was the President Gold Medallist of our
batch, and also one of the youngest to become a Professor and Senate member of IITM as Dr.C.R.Muthukrishnan)

Once the class started, my worry and concern as to how to make up this 1 month of theoretical classes expanded
exponentially. I was exhausted by the time we finished the classes and I slept by 8 p.m. immediately after dinner.
What I came to know later was that few of my batch mates opened the room door through the window, opened my
suitcase, spread my dress all over the room and placed big boulders (football and basket ball size) around my cot.
I woke up at 5a.m. the next day and was puzzled – ―where am I? This is not my house? Why such decorations?
Etc. When I realized that I was in IITM hostel, my worry was all the more whether ―I did it amidst this earthquake
disturbance‖ in my sleep?

Just then the warden was passing my room towards the Bathroom and he was also shocked to see my room
in such a condition. He asked me what happened. I was stammering for an answer, (my Tamil medium school
education ―came forward‖ to block my tongue). I just managed to convey, ―SIR, ... sorry sir... don‘t know sir.... why
it is like this, sir..... may be sir .... some ghost from there, sir.... (pointing to the cremation ground)... having fear
sir.....‖ . He mistook it as I was having ―FEVER‖ and advised me to take rest, sent for a worker from the mess to
have my room cleaned and cleared of debris – what a gentleman we were going to miss as he resigned within
a couple of months to join Bridge and Roof. I managed to tell him I was alright and that I would attend the class
and proceeded further.

From that day onwards, wherever I went, my own batch mates used to exclaim, ―hey see who comes here
- the man who brought a ―ghost‖ to his room – you know he himself is a ghost and so on and so forth‖. Thus my
original name was totally forgotten! Once during NCC Parade, Under-officer Rajamani (he was very mean in NCC
outfit) barked, ―Ghost fall out‖ but I didn‘t. He came straight to me and shouted, ―Can‘t you hear me?‖ I managed
to answer, ―Sir my name is L/Cpl K.Narayanan‖ and that made even Rajamani laugh and I escaped a punishment
of doubling up the ground. Many a times I used to receive letters at home addressed ―To: Ghost‖. (My postman
used to think it was meant for one Mr Ghosh and wondered who the Bengali gentleman was staying in that Brahmin
locality) Even today, after 51 years, I am ―Ghost uncle and Ghost thatha‖ to the children and grand children of my
IIT friends! THANK GOD, my degree certificate was with the correct name K.Narayanan.
44
 GOD LIVES IN MY BACKYARD
By Jojy Michael (1981 - BTEE)

The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a
cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a lotus.

— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I believe God lives in my backyard. No, I don‘t mean the backyard of my home in Fremont. I use ―backyard‖ in
a larger sense to mean the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

Living in Fremont, I suppose I could get away with saying Mission Boulevard in Fremont is literally my backyard.
Go for a drive on Mission Boulevard in late winter towards Union City and what do you see?

Dazzling white apricot blossoms vying for your attention with the flamboyant pink of cherry and plum blossoms!
They are the early harbingers of spring and seem to bloom almost overnight.

Their sudden appearance always reminds me of a legend about Saint Francis of Assisi. In deep winter, the
good saint commands a barren tree to speak to him of God. The tree at once covers itself head to toe with flowers!
Indeed, the flowering trees of my backyard speak to me of God.

Turn left at Decoto Road from Mission Boulevard and keep driving. As you approach Dumbarton Bridge, imagine
time has fast forwarded to summer. It is early morning, the sun is just over the hills and the sky above is a clear,
pale blue. There are plenty of geese, cormorants, and storks in the water.

Now, what is that translucent net of black and silver that flits and floats just above the water, almost but not
touching it? It is a swarm of swallows having breakfast. Swallows are aerial hunters and the hunting swarm banks
and turns in pursuit of flies to snatch them up in mid-air. Verily, verily, I say unto you, not even the mightiest of fighter
planes manned by the cleverest pilot can match the agility of the swallows of the marsh. God lives in my backyard.

Driving along the hills or the bay in the early mornings or late evenings catapults me back to my childhood in
Kerala. Bus trips over the undulating terrain of Manimala and boat trips along the scenic waterways of Kuttanad
had taught me that the proximity of hills and rivers is soothing balm for the human soul. The cooling touch of
this balm is best sensed when the sun is low on the horizon. The transitioning night, or day, beckons our minds
away from our daily turmoil toward a more spiritual rumination. It helps to be out in the open near river, lake,
sea or mountain, at dawn or dusk, to clearly hear this spiritual call. So, I did not have to pause and think when I
came across a plaque in front of the fountain at Stanford University‘s visitor center with this quote from Melville:
―Meditation and Water are wedded forever.‖ Of course, they are!

I suppose I could also get away with saying Mission Peak in Fremont is in my backyard. It is, just like the rest
of the hills, a dull brown most of the year. But winter rains cover the hills with a lush green blanket. If you take time
to hike up the hillside, you will be greeted by myriad golden poppies sewn into the green blanket.

45
 At 2,517 feet, Mission Peak is noticeably higher than the rest of the hills. That height is sufficient for the peak
to be frequently hidden by fog. On a foggy morning, all you can see from the peak is cotton white clouds below
you. You could easily imagine that you have soared above the clouds to the abode of the gods. I believe God
lives in my backyard.

But wait.

I have sensed God‘s presence in the poppies and swallows, hills and lakes of my backyard. But I have sensed
God‘s presence in far off places, too. God was as much present in the resounding OM at the Isha Institute of
Inner Sciences of McMinnville, Tenn., as in the great AMEN at Mission San Jose Church of Fremont. While every
Sunday I meditate at Mission Church on the mystery of bread and wine transforming into spiritual food and drink,
I have also sensed the divine in rice and water while at Isha Institute.

The fall colours of Pennsylvania held the same divine enchantment for me as the spring blossoms of Bay Area.
A frozen creek on Mount Whitney bore the same witness to God‘s presence as the cloud cover on Mission Peak
as also the vision, through an airplane‘s window, of Mount McKinley soaring majestically to the heavens. And it‘s
often while peering out of airplane windows at land or ocean below that I hear my heart gently whisper of God‘s
presence. And certainly in India, when the temple Suprabhatham mingles at dawn with the muezzin‘s call and the
church bell‘s toll, then too, I hear the same whisper of God‘s presence.

I believe God travels in my backpack.

Jojy Michael lives and works in the Bay Area as an engineer. While Michael believes God lives in his
backyard, he continues to look for God everywhere.

46
 THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF TECHNICAL COMPUTING SOFTWARE
By Cabot Insights ―Srini Chari ―(1981 - BTME)

Beyond sticking processors together, Sticky Technical Computing and Cloud Software can help organizations
unlock greater business value through automated integration of Technical Computing assets – Systems and
Applications Software.

Most mornings when I am in Connecticut and the weather is tolerable, I usually go for a jog or walk in my
neighborhood park in the Connecticut Sticks. One recent crisp sunny fall morning, as I was making my usual rounds,
I got an email alert indicating that IBM had closed its acquisition of Algorithmics – a Financial Risk Analysis Software
Company and this would be integrated into the Business Analytics division of IBM. This along with a recent (at that
time) announcement of IBM‘s planned acquisition of Platform Computing (www.ibm.com/deepcomputing) sparked
a train of thoughts that stuck with me through the holidays and through my to-and-fro travel of over 15,000 miles
to India and back in January 2012. Today is February 25, 2012 – another fine day in Connecticut and I just want
to finish a gentle jog of three miles but made a personal commitment that I would finish and post this blog today.
So here it is before I go away to the Sticks!

Those of you who have followed High Performance Computing (HPC) and Technical Computing through the
past few decades as I have may appreciate these ruminations more. But these are not solely HPC thoughts. They
are, I believe, indicators of where value is migrating throughout the IT industry and how solution providers must
position themselves to maximize their value capture.

Summarizing Personal Observations on Technical Computing Trends in the last Three Decades – The
Applications View

My first exposure to HPC /Technical Computing was as a Mechanical Engineering senior at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras in 1980-1981. All students were required to do a project in their last two semesters. The
project could be done individually or in groups. Projects required either significant laboratory work (usually in
groups) or significant theoretical/computational analysis (usually done individually). Never interested in laboratory
work, I decided to work on a computational analysis project in alternate energy. Those were the days of the second
major oil crisis. So this was a hot topic!

Simply put, the project was to model the flame propagation in a hybrid fuel (ethanol and gasoline) internal
combustion engine using a simple one dimensional (radial) finite-difference model to study this chemically reacting
flow over a range of concentration ratios (ethanol/gasoline: air) and determine the optimal concentration ratio to
maximize engine efficiency . By using the computed flame velocity, it was possible to algebraically predict the
engine efficiency under typical operating conditions. We used an IBM 370 system and those days (1980-1981) and
these simulations would run in batch mode in the night using punched cards as input. It took an entire semester
(about four months) to finish this highly manual computing task for several reasons:

47
 First, I could run only one job in the night; physically going to the computer center, punching the data deck and
the associated job control statements and then looking at the printed output the following morning to see if the job
ran to completion. This took many attempts as inadvertent input errors could not be detected till the next morning.

Secondly, the computing resources and performance were severely limited. When the job actually began
running, often it would not run to completion in the first attempt and would be held in quiescent (wait) mode as the
system was processing other higher priority work. When the computing resources became available again, the
quiescent job would be processed and this would continue multiple times until the simulation terminated normally.
This back and forth movement often took several days.

Then, we had to verify that the results made engineering sense. This was again a very cumbersome process
as visualization tools were still in their infancy and so the entire process of interpreting the results was very manual
and time consuming.

Finally, to determine the optimal concentration ratio to maximize engine efficiency, it was necessary to repeat
steps 1-3 over a range of concentration rations.

By that time, the semester ended, and I was ready to call it quits. But I still had to type the project report. That
was another ordeal. We didn‘t have sophisticated word processors that could type Greeks and equations, create
tables, and embed graphs and figures. So this took more time and consumed about half my summer vacation
before I graduated in time to receive my Bachelor‘s degree. But in retrospect, this drudgery was well worth it.

It makes me constantly appreciate the significant strides made by the IT industry as a whole – dramatically
improving the productivity of engineers, scientists, analysts, and other professionals. And innovations in software,
particularly applications and middleware have had the most profound impact.

So where are we today in 2012? The fundamental equations of fluid dynamics are still the same but applications
benefiting industry and mankind are wide and diverse (for those of you who are mathematically inclined, please
see this excellent 1 hour video on the nature and value of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) -http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=LSxqpaCCPvY ).

We also have yet another oil crisis looming ominously. There‘s still an urgent business and societal need to
explore the viability and efficiency of alternate fuels like ethanol. It‘s still a fertile area for R&D. And much of this
R&D entails solving the equations of multi-component chemically reacting, transient three dimensional fluid flows
in complex geometries. This may sound insurmountably complex computationally.

But in reality, there have been many technical advances that have helped reduce some of the complexity.

The continued exponential improvement in computer performance – at least a billion fold or more today over
1981 levels – enables timely calculation.

Many computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques are sufficiently mature and in fact there are commercial
applications such as ANSYS FLUENT that do an excellent job of modeling the complex physics and come with
very sophisticated pre and post processing capabilities to improve the engineer‘s productivity.

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 These CFD applications can leverage today‘s prevalent Technical Computing hardware architecture – clustered
multicore systems – and scale very well.
Finally, the emergence of centralized cloud computing (http://www.cabotpartners.com/Downloads/HPC_Cloud_
Engineering_June_2011.pdf) can dramatically improve the economics of computation and reduce entry barriers
for small and medium businesses.

One Key Technical Computing Challenge in the Horizon

Today my undergraduate (1981) chemically reacting flow problem can be fully automated and run on a laptop
in minutes – perhaps even an iPad. And this would produce a ―good‖ concentration ratio. But a one-dimensional
model may not truly reflect the actual operating conditions. For this we would need today‘s CFD three dimensional
transient capabilities that could run economically on a standard Technical Computing cluster and produce a more
―realistic‖ result. With integrated pre and post processing, engineers‘ productivity would be substantially enhanced.
This is possible today.

But what if a company wants to concurrently run several of these simulations and perhaps share the results
with a broader engineering team? What if this team wishes to couple this engine operating information to the
drive-chain through the crank shaft using kinematics and then using computational structural dynamics and exterior
vehicle aerodynamics model the automobile (Chassis, body, engine, etc.) is used as a complete system to predict
system behavior under typical operating conditions? Let‘s further assume that crashworthiness and occupant
safety analyses are also required.

This system-wide engineering analysis is typically a collaborative and iterative process and requires the use
of several applications that must be integrated in a workflow producing and sharing data. Much of this today is
manual and is one of today‘s major Technical Computing challenge not just in the manufacturing industry but
across most industries that use Technical Computing and leverage data. This is where middleware will provide
the ―glue‖ and believe me it will stick if it works! And work it will! The Technical Computing provider ecosystem will
head in this direction.

Circling Back to IBM‘s Acquisition of Algorithmics and Platform Computing

With the recent Algorthmics and Platform acquisitions, IBM has recognized the strategic importance of software
and middleware to increase revenues and margins in Technical Computing; not just for IBM but also for value
added resellers worldwide who could develop higher margin services in implementation and customization based
on these strategic software assets. IBM and its application software partners can give these channels a significant
competitive advantage to expand reach and penetration with small and medium businesses that are increasingly
using Technical Computing. When coupled with other middleware such as GPFS and Tivoli Storage Manager
and with the anticipated growth of private clouds for Technical Computing, expect IBM‘s ecosystem to enhance
its value capture. And expect clients to achieve faster time to value!

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 ARRANGED LOVE
By
Prof. R. Nagarajan (1981 - BTCH)

On a Friday in July, Manasa‘s parents informed her that they had been looking for sometime for a suitable boy,
and had one or two in mind. They had the photo of the most suitable one at hand, and could she take a look at it?
Manasa, being all of 25 and very much of marriageable age by Indian societal reckoning, was indignant at first,
but being easily amused, soon was giggling merrily at the silliness. Since her teenage years, she had considered
love a prerequisite to marriage, and had assumed that love would precede her own. But here she was, confronted
in her own home by an arranged alliance.

She glanced idly at the photo. The boy was typical of hundreds she saw everyday at work and on the road. The
only features that registered on her were the crooked eyeglasses; they were slanting left to right. With a few more
peals of laughter, she tossed it back to her father, who caught it neatly with the reflexes of a retired cricket coach.

Manasa drew her chair close to the sofa where her parents were sitting, and with great affection, informed them
of her cherished belief that love was a preexisting condition for married bliss. Her parents listened with equal care
and concern, and her mother leaned forward after a brief exchange of looks between them. ―Manasa‖, she said,
―you‘re quite right. Marrying someone you love would be terrific (though your father and I did have our marriage
arranged, and look how happy we have been!). But you are 25 now, and haven‘t found love in all this time. What
makes you think it‘s just around the corner?‖

Manasa nodded in partial concurrence, but retorted, ―True, Mom, but it maybe because I haven‘t been looking.
There have been plenty of guys whom I liked, who seemed to be my kind, who were nice to me… but I never
pursued them further, nor did I let them pursue me. Maybe if I gave them, or myself, half a chance, something will
click. I have to give it a try, otherwise I‘ll regret this for the rest of my life‖.

Mom and Dad exchanged another quick glance. It was almost as though they had scripted these exchanges.
It was Dad‘s turn to speak: ―Dear girl, you are right, as always. And we are right, as usual. I have a proposition for
you. Take a month to look for a soul mate (that should be plenty of time, right, given that you have such a handy
selection to choose from?) At the end of the month, if you haven‘t found Mr. Right, you put your trust in us, and
go with our choice. Deal?‖ Now, Manasa had always been a sucker for a sporty ploy, as her parents knew only
too well. One time, her little brother had got her to munch on a grasshopper by betting her that she daren‘t. Her
parents were now playing the same game, but she didn‘t mind. Manasa felt a tingle of excitement; the next month
would be fun….

The next day (Saturday, but unfortunately a working day for her IT employer) dawned sunnily and steamily
as ever in Chennai. Manasa spent a little bit more time than usual on her dress and makeup. She knew she was
pretty, since everyone said so, and mirrors don‘t lie. She was slim, bouncy, energetic, friendly, cute, gracious….

50
She sometimes embarrassed herself with her compliments. But everyone around her thought so too. She had
three dress codes: churidar when she was being practical, sari when she felt like dressing-up, jeans and T-shirt
when the playful mood took over her. She normally used cosmetics minimally, just dabbing on some powder and
eyeliner. That day, she added a touch of lip-gloss, and went with the sari. Her hips didn‘t lie either; she was well-
versed in how to enchant the guys with near-accidental glimpses of her shapely navel. Medium heels, rather than
the flats she habitually wore completed the ensemble that she quickly approved on her reflection. She was ready
to go hubby-hunting.

Manasa hopped on her two-wheeler, clipped her helmet on, and started to plan her approach to the eligible
males in her life. Sudhir popped up first on her romance radar. The guy was a hunk, they had gone to college
together, and wound up working in the same office after graduation. They always got along like sailors on shore-
leave, which, come to think of it, worried her a little bit. Had they gone irrevocably far on the pal-pal side? Then
there was Madan, a couple of years older than her but her subordinate at work. She bullied him mercilessly but
fondly, like an older sister. He was a little on the mousy side, but she wasn‘t sure if that was his true self. On the
other end of the power scale, there was her boss, Chandru Sir, devilishly handsome, with a handlebar moustache
to die for. They kidded around a lot, and she knew he was a playboy, but like all good women, she was convinced
she could reform him. From her circle of non-professional friends, one or two hovered on the fringes of romance;
at least, she could associate them with tender feelings, unlike the many boys in her friends & acquaintances
circle who apparently thought of her as a gender-neutral source of mirth. She could ring up her vast network of
girlfriends, and enquire about available brothers and cousins… Manasa figured she would need to tap all resources
to fill the pool of potential grooms, and got down to it with typical efficiency and single-mindedness. She lined up
lunch with Sudhir, tea with Madan and dinner with Sir. She thought of a bright idea— snapped their photos with
her cellphone so that she could study them later at her leisure… She was a great believer in her ability to read
faces and judge character.

Lunch went well from a gastronomic viewpoint, but was less-than-satisfying on the romance meter. Sudhir was
talking about girls, but clearly in a present-company excluded way. Manasa finally asked him point-blank what he
thought of her as a prospective girlfriend, and he almost choked on his gobi. But once he had the hang of it, the
idea seemed to intrigue him, and he proposed future dates to explore the concept further. She took his photo,
fortunately before the incident with the cauliflower.

Tea with Madan was a nervy affair to begin with. He was calling her ―Ma‘am‖, and trying to figure out if he would
still have his job next week. But as they eased into it, and Manasa let it be known that she was scouting him as
husband material, his demeanour changed, with some macho inclinations becoming manifest. She clicked him,
and promised to carry the tryst further the following week.

Her boss, Sir, whom she met at his Gentlemen‘s Club, was surrounded by a bevy of beauties, and the liquor
flowed as freely as ever. You had to admit that the man loved women, a good starting point for any man-woman
relationship. Once she announced her intentions to him, he became very circumspect in his behaviour, shooing
away the girls (all except the sexiest one). He earnestly declared his amorous intentions to Manasa, and swore
to give up (nearly) all other worldly pleasures if he could gain sole rights over her. She angled her camera shot
carefully to leave out the girl dangling on his right arm.

Over the next month, Manasa‘s dalliances continued apace. Being a well-brought-up traditional Indian girl,
premarital sex never reared its hoary head, and all her suitors respected that. As she met with some of the guys
more than once, she started looking for that spark, that hint of something about to ignite. Sure, she had slapped
Sudhir on the back when he was choking, but was that love? She would straighten Madan‘s tie before a customer

51
meeting, but that was just business protocol, right? She knew her boss‘s every whim and fancy, and could cater to
each, but that was just being a good employee, or was it more? The 28-year-old boy in their neighbouring house was
always coming to her to vent his frustrations with a domineering father, and she would listen with sweet patience,
but was that love in the offing, or simple goodwill towards a fellow human? Her best girlfriend‘s older brother had
escorted the two of them to many a movie, and bought her pop-corn and soda, but of such small intimacies, is love
born? Her own cousin, twice-removed, had the hots for her, and she had caught him peeking more than once, but
wasn‘t that more like post-adolescent lust? Her photo collection was growing, and she started winnowing it after
about 20 days. By the last week, she was down to about 8, and no, Madan was not one of them.

Manasa thought she had felt something when she once met her cousin for breakfast at Woodlands, but it turned
out to be heartburn from the spicy sambhar. She flirted with the matrimony sites on the web, though her online
forays mostly ended with her dissolving into guffaws. She admired these website honchos for their enterprise,
but come on… If she wouldn‘t trust her parents to make her a match, why would she trust these internet kiosks
to catch her a catch? Manasa would rather find
herself a find all on her own….

She spent more time with her shortlisted beaus, looking for that magical connect. She liked them all a lot, but
that missing link bothered her. She knew she loved her parents and her brother, because of a certain way she
felt when she saw them after an absence, and a different (connected?) way she felt in their presence. However,
when she was with these strangers who were not her blood-relatives, nothing seemed to run as thick as the blood.
If love flowed, it was a thin stream.

On the night of the 30th day, Manasi lay on her bed with the photos spread out before her in a smorgasbord.
Sir, with the love-moustache; Sudhir, with the unruly cowlick; Madhav with the manic glint; Bharat with the beard;
her cousin, with the perpetual leer; the neighbour boy, with the tilak on his forehead…. She studied them intensely,
trying to make a karmic connection. Then, like the sensible girl she was, she decided to sleep on it.

As she opened her eyes on the 31st morning, one image—clear, indelible, undeniable—floated across her
mind. The good old subconscious had come through again. She smiled at the delicious irony, and went to find
her parents with a light heart and a cheery gait. Those darned crooked eyeglasses… she‘ll take him to a good
optometrist the day after they got married….

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 DRINKING GRADE WATER FROM CITY SEWAGE-A
REALITY
By
S. Sundaramoorthy-Ph D-Environmental Engineering-IITM-1992

Industrial Reuse at Chennai

Everyone is aware that fresh water is becoming increasingly rare and the age old practice of once used water
being wasted out though after treatment has to be reoriented. There are grades of water use which can tolerate
such treated water like (a) make up water to replenish the evaporation and windage losses in the cooling system
in industrial uses with no direct human contact, (b) deep into ground recharge after appropriate treatment to arrest
seawater intrusion in coastal locations heavily dependent on such ground water and (c) uses for greeneries in road
medians and farm forestry. Examples of these are fairly accepted practices as site specific practices in advanced
countries.

In India, the reuse for industrial cooling was first installed at Chennai in 1992 at the local Petro Chemical
complex by advanced treatment of the city sewage to drinking grade purity and deploying for the cooling with due
acceptance by the health and pollution control authorities and the work force in the industry after validating the
technology in a pilot plant locally at the local Kodungaiyur sewage farm. At that time the public water supply was
225 million liters per day (MLD) and the cooling water was 30 MLD which was wasted from limited freshwaters
of rain fed reservoirs. This 30 MLD of fresh water was thus saved and diverted to the public water supply and
continues to be the case. This has since been practiced almost as a routine procedure in later installations in India.
The beauty of the 1992 installation is that the technology for such an advanced treatment of the city sewage was
developed locally by a combination of R&D works of Government of Tamilnadu and the Doctoral work done by
the author at IITM and as of that time was the first of its kind in Asia.

Indirect augmentation of drinking water at Bangalore

A little later during 2007-2008, the author served as team leader for sewerage projects of Bangalore Water
Supply and Sewerage Board and worked with overseas consultants from Japan and USA to evolve a possible
technology for indirect augmentation of the local drinking water source which is precariously dependant on the
interstate accord and limits the drawal to 1500 MLD which is to be exceeded in the demand of 1720 MLD even
by 2015 in that metropolitan city.

A potential project was identified as a pilot plant whereby 135 MLD of city sewage will be treated to an advanced
degree to free it from organics and water borne disease causing pathogenic organisms and endocrine disruptor
chemicals and discharge into a fresh water course for cascading over some 7 km and thereafter naturalizing it
with blending in a fresh water reservoir where there will be a detention period of at least two years before the
blended naturalized water will be drawn into a water treatment plant, treated and conditioned to blend with the
public water supply.

53
 The project has been appraised through the Government of Karnataka (GOK) and Government of India (GOI)
and was accorded sanction by the GOI with grant funding as a pilot plant. The public consultation and acceptance
process is to follow. The project was an improvement over the technology being used at Singapore to an extent of
about five per cent of the city water supply. In due course, some day, this project will also put India on the reuse
map in the future.

Truly, these are proud moments to recall in that the academic work at IITM has been immediately transformed
into real world public benefit project and has set a trend in water reuse.

54
 ONCE UPON A TIME…. AND NOW
By S. Mayadevi
1981 MTech Chem Eng.

I spent 3 days at IITM after almost 30 years. It was a nostalgic trip looking for remnants of the old among the
new IITM. The passing years have left a mark on IIT. The wider roads replace the wilderness, new buildings have
shrunk the open spaces, the number of trees has considerably reduced. There are more old trees in slanting or
horizontal mode.

IITM has STOPPED Moving Mountains

Almost three decades ago, I came to IITM from Adayar by Kailash. The institute had five buses and all were
named after mountains. According to the IIT mythology orally passed on from seniors to juniors, the first Director
believed that engineers can move mountains and make still rivers. So the buses were mountains and hostels,
rivers. I was staying in Sarayu.

The moving mountains have disappeared!!! The yellow colored match-box buses plying in the campus now are
just college buses (around 7 buses?). Looks like the present engineers doubt their capacity to move mountains!!!
Or is it that they want to move the real mountains and not the make-believe ones?

GC should be RENAMED as GP

When the moving mountains disappeared, the roads started moving!!

If I remember right, the road from GC used to reach Krishna gate before taking a left turn. Now it reaches
Cauvery and one has to take a right turn to reach Krishna! New shops near the kiosk at the hostel side. And there
is a Himalayan mess feeding umpteen numbers of hungry stomachs wandering in the campus.

OAT looks old and washed out in the rains. The trees and the open space around it are taken by crisscrossing
roads going to SAC, swimming pool etc.

Among all these changes, I was very happy to see the two old elephants, telling me ―Look, we are still here,
as sentinels of change.‖ During the morning walk, I stopped a moment to say hello to the elephants. WHAT A
SURPRISE!!!! THE CIRCLE IS NO MORE A CIRCLE!!! IT IS MORE A PARABOLA!!!

Gajendra Circle (GC) is now more like Gajendra Parabola. We must start calling it GP instead of GC. Otherwise
the new generation might think…. what is the big deal about these IITians, they cannot differentiate between a
circle and a parabola!!!!

And … the wiser of them may conclude…. may be, once upon a time it was a circle.

55
Looking for the Black Buck

The IIT I remember was full of deer and monkeys. The docile deer used to move around unobtrusively in
dozens (a slight exaggeration?) – near the stadium, behind OAT, around OAT… Monkeys were so many that
they had a high nuisance value. Prof. Ananth, during his speech said that the deer were decreasing and fawns
were attacked by the dogs thriving in the campus. The fawns are now being protected by an enthusiastic group of
residents. The numbers are on the rise, including that of the endangered species…the black buck. He said that
you can find them during morning walks.

I started at 5 in the morning and it was dark. As I walked along I first saw large groups of security people on
bicycles; many of them pedaling and talking on their mobile… the duty change time, I suppose. I went to the stadium.
It appeared as though the big group of students (practicing for inter IIT?) and fitness lovers had frightened off the
deer from the stadium. Peeliamman temple was my next stop. The temple is completely transformed. That old,
divine, natural, down to earth abode of Goddess is no more there. The main temple is elevated, new mandapam,
completely tiled premises. Many new deities give company to Peeliamman now.

Behind the temple was a family of three spotted deer, happily grazing. The male stared at me for a few moments.

―Who is intruding into my privacy early in the morning?‖

When I took out the camera to capture his look, he nonchalantly turned around and walked away, with the
females towing behind.

Walked to the lake view side…. Here was where the German Professor who taught us his language twice a
week lived, once upon a time…..

There was a sudden ruffle of leaves and swaying of branches in the Banyan Avenue, as I walked through.
There was no breeze. I looked up and saw monkeys of the campus for the first time. Many were on the KV grounds
having their morning lessons before the school started.

I cut across to have a look at the IIT Hospital. I found on the way the SBI and post office with minor cosmetic
changes. (By the way, there is a Canara bank branch in the campus now). I realized that I have forgotten how the
hospital looked. But the road to the hospital definitely looked different. The short cut is blocked by the IC & SR
(Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research Building).

I went from there through HSB, behind Admin, to the Taramani guest house. That is when I saw the ―white
buck‖. He was alone dancing in the morning glow — sun‘s rays seeping through the leaves. He was completely
white; no spots, sported just the antlers. There was no black buck that morning.

I finally found one the next day evening between the HSB and Chemistry buildings in the rain, on my way to
Taramani.

The Wood Roses

…. In those days there was no wall separating Admin and HSB. The small canal separating the two was dry
during summer. And on the sides were wood roses. We used to cross them during our trip to the computer center…
at least twice a day, through the short cut. And whenever they flower, there was a lot of excitement. Sindhu‘s room

56
was adorned by those beautiful roses. Those of us who were not early enough to find them used to admire the
wood rose decoration in her room enviously (No need to say, I was one of them).

I spend quite some time during my stay, looking for the wood roses. The area is modernized. Walls separating
buildings, nicely built small canals for the rain water to flow, well cared for lawns, plants …. The wilderness has
disappeared. And so have the wood roses.

…. May be they just changed the place. Just like my youth…. It has gone to the new generation….

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 RAGTIME REMINISCENCES
Tee Square (Thomas Tharu 1969 - BTME & 1987 - MSME)

Memories of the ragging scene in IITM from my fresher days in 1964 have inevitably faded and got distorted
with time. Nevertheless let me try to recount my experiences, though this is a matter which neither victims nor
perpetrators would ordinarily care to publicise. I think much of what follows would surprise my own batchmates,
as I don‘t recall having discussed the details with anyone at the time.

Before that, a little bit of campus geography from forty years ago may be in order, so that one can picture the
scenes in their relevant context. In contrast to the institute zone and staff quarters which were carved out from the
dense jungle forming part of the government estate, the rest of the campus (hostel zone, playgrounds, wardens‘
quarters, and up to the stadium) was originally barren land lying outside Madras city limits in Chingleput district.
Perhaps a goat population and firewood gatherers saw to it that no vegetation except for a few isolated full-grown
trees and a few dozen palm trees existed in this area when IITM was created in 1959. Taramani and Velacheri
villages were of course there, but in very primitive form. By the time my batch came in some shrubs had started
sprouting, and a number of planted saplings were struggling to survive within their tree-guards. So if one stood
on the main hostel road, one could see clear across the Buckingham canal to the new settlement which is today
Indiranagar, Mandakini having come up only later. Essentially one had a clear unhindered view between and
around the hostels, unlike today.

Coming to my bit in the story, there were two reasons why I was an object of some curiosity as a fresher. One
was that I happened to top the JEE merit list of those joining IITM, though more due to circumstances, rather than
any particular merit on my part. I had to do an extra year and a half of junior college (the old Intermediate) after
finishing school, just to meet the minimum age requirement for JEE. The second was that I happened to come from
one of the well-known English-medium boarding schools in UP. The latter was cause enough for me to be a prime
ragging target, but the former may have made the seniors cautious about how far they went with me. Godavari
was then a new hostel, occupied entirely by us freshers, with some spill-over mainly in Ganga. So any interested
seniors had to waylay us enroute, or come and fetch us from Godavari, there being no serious restrictions on
anyone entering any hostel in those liberal times!

Initially I was naive enough to imagine that I could brazen it out, and indeed I did for a few days. But to start at
the beginning, I think on my second day itself I and some others were accosted by (late) Basu John of 4th year and
Vijay (MTech?) and told to show up in the evenings for hockey practice. It is another matter that they were soon
disenchanted with my field skills, though Vijay was later good enough to treat us to a dinner at Bilal restaurant on
Mount Road. So on one of those early evenings I was heading out briskly from Godavari to the hockey grounds
south of ESB, wearing white shorts and a bright red teeshirt (games shirt from school with my house colour).
While cutting across the then open space in front of Narmada I was hailed by a couple of 2nd-years, ―Hey fresher,
cm‘ere‖. Without slackening my pace, I called back to say that I was going for hockey. This kind of affront to their
dignity was obviously quite damaging, and since there were quite a few onlookers, I soon found myself surrounded
by a very indignant mob. Being still in no mood to act deferential, I must have said something like ―B...s, I have to

58
go for hockey as Basu John will be waiting‖. But rather suddenly the questioning stopped and the crowd started
thinning out. What happened was that a faculty member who chanced to come by, decided to investigate the
cause of the gathering, and by the time he got to me in my conspicuous red shirt everyone else had vanished!
Since he found me quite composed, with no complaints about the seniors who had accosted me, and my hockey
story convincing enough, I ran off to the grounds without further ado.

On reflection I realised that that I was being too cocky, and decided to play along henceforth with whatever the
seniors wanted, which mostly consisted of addressing them as sir, and performing some ridiculous antics. I think
the majority of seniors tended to ignore us freshers. Among the 2nd-years maybe 20 to 30% would have accosted
us, and of these only a small number indulged in what could be described as ‗ragging‘, a term whose definition
has always been delightfully vague and extremely variable over the years. Some of our immediate seniors tended
to be more crude in their behaviour and often vulgar in their speech, whereas the few 3rd and 4th year guys I
encountered seemed more adept at intellectual ragging. This was largely inoffensive though sometimes quite
nerve-wracking, and consisted of making us contradict ourselves while answering questions on scientific or other
topics. Unfortunately I cannot recall details of any specific session by way of illustration.

An encounter I remember involves the more senior crowd from Krishna hostel. One evening I was hauled off
to their mess by George Verghese (the mountaineer) and his friends. He was in fact masquerading as Lionel
Paul, and the first item consisted of my telephoning a young lady at the WCC hostel (the real LP‘s girl-friend) and
conveying a message. I bungled the job somewhat because I was not used to telephones, and I got quite confused
when she asked me something, so she must have realised it was a hoax. I think Krishna was the only hostel with
a phone at the time. Anyway, after the guys had some more fun at my expense, I had to sing for my supper, which
meant standing on the table and entertaining all the diners present, not to mention the mess workers. I managed
to give a passable rendering of a few pop hits of the time like ‗Lemon Tree‘ and ‗Bachelor Boy‘, after which they
treated me to dinner and sent me packing. No doubt Lionel Paul took the matter sportingly.

With the 2nd-years, much of the ragging consisted of going up to Mussoorie, which was the label given to
the alcove above the built-in wall shelves. This could be either in my room or one of their rooms, and was a
bit tricky because one had to get up there backwards, as it was considered improper to show one‘s back to a
senior. Sometimes it also involved wearing one‘s trousers inside out or back-to-front. Once up there we would be
bombarded with all sorts of questions, mostly inane, sometimes vulgar, and sometimes quite tricky too. Another
feat some of us had to accomplish was to sit across the top of the hostel room door and pretend to ride it like a
bucking bronco — obviously something which had to be done very carefully!

Let me recount one more specific episode before going on to some general comments. On a Saturday afternoon
(half-day classes at the time) when most prudent freshers had vanished from their rooms or the campus altogether,
a few seniors from Saraswati came across to Godavari and found a convenient victim in me. On the way to their
hostel terrace I had to catch hold of a baby goat and carry it up. It did not seem to protest very much! Among the
antics I was made to perform, one was to ‗ride‘ the goat along the hostel terrace to the far end and back, holding
on to its ears, and shouting ―Giddyap‖ every now and then. I may mention that as a concession to modesty I was
permitted to keep just my shirt on. It must have been quite a sight, and I noticed that there were some curious
onlookers among my fellow-freshers on Godavari terrace which provided a clear view from a higher level. Finally
when the session was over in an hour or so and I was decently dressed again, we went down and I restored the
baby goat to its clan, though it seemed to be in a playful mood and butted my legs a few times before prancing
away. This last bit naturally drew forth loud guffaws and some suggestive comments. However, I never got so
much as a cup of tea out of those guys.

Looking back, or even at the time, the instances of ragging did not ruffle me very much. Maybe the long spell
in an Anglo-Indian boarding school had prepared me for some ups and downs in life. Quite possibly some of the

59
other freshers coming directly from a more protected home environment would have been quite traumatised by
some of my experiences. Even the Saraswati episode is something I could dismiss without rancour, and though
I would have then known the names of the seniors involved, I never had anything to do with them later. Nor did I
hold any grudge against them or anyone else. In fact even I could see the humour in the business with the baby
goat, though some of their other suggestions were more vulgar than funny.

All that is roughly what I can recall of my personal experience as a fresher. Following my ‗capitulation‘ I tried
not to react visibly to any of the provocations. Rightly or wrongly, my reasoning was that as long as I could take it,
I should deny them the pleasure of seeing me in distress. So mostly I played it cool, imagining that I still had the
upper hand. If I sensed that the seniors were essentially the crude type I could be discreetly uncooperative, but
some of the interactions were such that I too could derive some enjoyment from them. Perhaps such a strategy
was possible in IITM, but may have back-fired disastrously in other places with a reputation for serious ragging.
I was sufficiently agile to manage the Mussorie-type stunts, so I guess the seniors may have had a lot more fun
in dealing with the reactions [of] my batchmates who didn‘t have my kind of mental make-up. But I never really
found out, as I was never a gregarious type, and hardly discussed these experiences with others as far as I can
remember. I should also clarify that I was not manhandled or physically harmed in any way. If there were any
serious victims of ragging in my batch I never came to know of it.

When we came to 2nd year, there was a drastic change in the circumstances regarding ragging. One of
the freshers happened to be from a VIP family (there being no VVIP category in those days), and the institute
authorities were naturally anxious about any ‗untoward‘ incidents occurring. Personally I was not the sort to even
accost a fresher, but many of my classmates felt quite cheated at being thwarted in their attempts by the overt
and covert warnings. There was also the phenomenon of faculty members patrolling the hostel zone, supposedly
in a discreet manner, though it hardly fooled anyone. Still, I guess it is impossible to keep college students in a
straitjacket, so it came to pass that a dozen or so from my batch, who may have indulged in even the mildest bit
of ‗ragging‘, were hauled up as an example to others. The ingenious ‗punishment‘ devised by the powers-that-be
was to make them enjoy the hospitality of as many professors for a month while still attending classes, to teach
them ‗civilised‘ manners. I suppose the faculty concerned were reimbursed the boarding and lodging charges by
the IIT, and we heard that those with grown-up daughters were exempted. But I am simply not the right person to
report on this. Hopefully a firsthand account will be forthcoming from one of my batchmates so that JOURNEYS
readers get an authentic picture with all the juicy details.

More generally, if any readers of my vintage feel that the scenario I have painted is too wide off the mark, I
hope they will provide appropriate feedback to set the record straight, as I lay no claim to my account being a
representative or balanced one, but merely what I can recall today. Alumni from other periods of IITM history might
also wish to describe the situation in their times.

When I was in 3rd year, Campastimes published a parody on the theme, based on a duet from the Broadway
musical ―Sound of Music‖, whose Hollywood version released around that time was quite a hit with young and
old, including IITians. The US consulate also used to arrange occasional programmes in the OAT to promote the
popularity of Broadway hits and US culture generally. The text of that piece is reproduced below, alongside the
original, for the benefit of younger alumni who may not have even heard of the musical. The reference to ‗candles
lit at ten‘ relates to an obnoxious mode of ragging, which was talked about at the time, but to my knowledge was
not put into practice, so I‘ll refrain from any attempt at explanation.

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[The original lyric from ―The Sound of Music‖ ] [From Campastimes ca. 1966-67, by TeeSquare]

SIXTEEN GOING ON SEVENTEEN THRENOS FOR A DEAD INSTITUTION

Rolf : The Advance

You wait little girl on an empty stage You wait, little lad, in the fresher stage
For fate to turn the light on For Fate to turn the light on.
Your life little girl is an empty page Your mind, little lad, is a vacant page
That men will want to write on. That many a fox would write on.

You are sixteen going on seventeen
Baby it‘s time to think
Better beware, be canny and careful
Baby you‘re on the brink;
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Fellows will fall in line
Eager young lads and roues and cads
Will offer you food and wine.
Totally unprepared are you
To face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared are you
Of things beyond your ken.
You need someone older and wiser
Telling you what to do;
I am seventeen going on eighteen
I‘ll take care of you.
You are sixteen going on seventeen,
Sonny it‘s time to think.
IIT life with hazards is rife
And you might be left to sink.
You are sixteen going on seventeen ––
Seniors will fall in line
Mystic experts and gastric perverts
May offer you grass and brine.
Totally unprepared are you
For tortures in this den;
Timid and shy and scared are you
Of candles lit at ten.
You need ‗guidance‘ from someone who‘ll
Tell you just what to do.
I am seventeen going on eighteen
I‘ll ‗take care‘ of you.

Leisl : The Rebuff

I am sixteen going on seventeen I am sixteen going on seventeen,

I know that I‘m naive Innocent as a doe.
Fellows I meet may tell me I‘m sweet Seniors I meet may tell me I‘m sweet,
And willingly I‘ll believe. And I must believe, I know.
I am sixteen going on seventeen Though I‘m sixteen going on seventeen,
Innocent as a rose Hoping to save my pride,
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies, I am aware my chances are bare,
What do I know of those? But I know who‘s on my side.
Totally unprepared am I Still unprepared I well might be
To face a world of men But I am backed by Sen [*].
Timid and shy and scared am I Timid and shy, I do agree.
Of things beyond my ken. Now I‘ll be bold again
I need someone older and wiser Warden‘s Council robed in gowns‘ll
Telling me what to do; Willingly see me through.
You are seventeen going on eighteen Since you‘re seventeen going on eighteen
I‘ll depend on you. I‘ll beware of you.
[*] Prof. B Sengupto, then Director

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 A COMPILATION OF RAGHU
NANDAN‘S (1969-BTME) ONE
LINERS
Raghu Nandan (1969- B.Tech) is famous in his Yahoo Group for his one-line responses to various issues under
discussion. Most of them are humorous, but some of them rather profound. The following are some the one liners

Raghu‘s one liners- a selection from the last one year‘s posts

1) ‖Christianity and Islam are about how to enter heaven; Hinduism is about how not to return to earth...‖

Raghu‘s response ( RR): End result is the same - either way you do not come back. Go to heaven and live like
a nawab; go to hell and live like a kabab.

2) India story going downhill, says Washington Post

RR: I do not think there is anything wrong with an article in Washington‘s Posterior.

3) That was highly provocative and in extreme bad taste. I agree that this kind of hate mail has no place in
our group.

RR: What is ‗hate‘ mail to some would be ‗love‘ mail to many others. We have debated this ‗censoring‘ topic
in the past and the decision was, if I am correct - anything and everything is welcome as long as it does not get
personal.

4) I recall when Kushimbu (a Tamil actress) hinted that pre-marital sex was OK, she was prosecuted (read
persecuted) by the stupid state of TN and of course they lost in court.

RR: I think the lady in question (actress) is Kushboobs

5) In the book I gave you, the article on the Chenna Kesava Temple (the first article) talks about left and right
hand castes fighting each other in old Chennai.

RR: Only 2 are existing today - political caste (always right) and out castes (always left out).

6) How to respond to a bully: This translates to ―If someone tries to Piss on you, hold him down and shit on
him so he will never attempt it again.

RR: Wonder what a constipated guy would do?? Take Laxatives first to loosen the bowels!

7) I‘m reading a book about anti-gravity. It‘s impossible to put down

RR: Are you saying that you are in a state of permanent erection??

8) Sitting too much is dangerous, says New York Times

RR: Shitting (verbal and written included) too much is equally if not more dangerous

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 9) You are doing such a good job; you should seek a ―raise‖!

RR: Trust me to rise to the occasion - maybe more than occasionally!!

10) I am not sure if this is politically correct to say, INFOSYS to me is nothing but a Mega Body shopping company,

R R: If you remove the blinkers, you might see the larger picture.

11) Mallya‘s Presentation to the DGCA.

It is quite evident that he misunderstood their request for him to present his model for turning Kingfisher Airliines
around.

R R: Heard that the DGCA has approved all the models! Did you say Miss Understanding ??

12) Pete did you know they have what is called a nut bra for men with adiyile thonguthu ganam?

RR: Weighty discussions???

13) I am sure you meant Wren & Martin

R R: You mean Rum & Martini???

14) BBC: Is India‘s lack of toilets a cultural problem?

RR: Wonder what kind of crap the BBC is referring to??

15) Warning:Dont buy Iddli/dosa Batter in shops

R R: Why batter the poor idli and dosa??

Another response: What goes into making the batter is not controlled by the machine but by the person adding
the ingredients.

R R: That sounds batter!!

16) Problem: Pigeons shitting on the balcony:

I have a huge problem with pigeons crapping all over the place on my balconies. Now can the bright ones
group of this group come up with something? Raghunandan, you stay out of this!

R R: Can I join the pigeons??

Why not let a potty trained cat among the pigeons!!
Imagine customers having to walk through pigeon shit to listen to bull shit!!
At the rate that shitty ideas are flowing in it appears that PS will be a secondary
problem! Will someone consult a pigeon??

17) The scientific explanation for visiting temple regularly

R R: You get to see some nice ‗chicks‘ too - before they hatch!!!

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 18) There have been lots of pledges for varieties of wines. But even with the pledge from Mundi, we may be
short of hard stuff. Hopefully some more hard stuff will come from others.

R R: Alas Gopi - wishing for ‗hard‘ stuff at our age is but a pipe dream.

19) Thomas Friedman writes in New York Times today that there is only one traffic light for 1.2 million people
in Jodhpur.

R R: We live in green cities - no power most of the time !!

20) If evolution is real why are there still monkeys?

R R: Stop monkeying around!! We are still debating whether humans evolved from a monkey or vice versa!!

21) Meeting with Santhakumar in Toronto

R R: Should we fly over (maybe he can get us over with his aeronautricks) - impossible to meet him in Chennai!!

22) BERLIN: Patrick Makau of Kenya broke the world record to win the Berlin Marathon on Sunday.

R R: Kenyans are racists. They discriminate and never let other races win the races.

23) I could see the cars alright. But where are the beauties

R R: You are absolutely becar Gopal !!

24) India‘s value system is contrary to Western values such as equality of all humans before God and the rule
of law. Unless there is a value system change in India, things will remain the same into the foreseeable future.

R R: Slavery in the US must have then been an illusion??

25) Advance happy onam

RR : A lot of mallus do get (it) upright after 9 pm. Sorry - I meant to write uptight!

26) He has been elected Treasurer of IIT Club of Chennai. Congratulations and best wishes to Raghu.

R R: Elected??? Enlisted may be the right word.

I walked in for a glass of water and even before I realized I had been proposed, seconded and
screwed??

64
 WHILE GOING FOR A WALK
– By V.Gopinathan (1969 –BTCH)

Do you remember the dispute between Big Endians and Small Endians in ―Gulliver‘s Travels‖. The dispute,
running for few decades was about which end of the egg should be broken before the egg is eaten. Apparently,
in earlier times the eggs were broken from Big End, till a little Princess cut her finger while breaking the Big End
of an egg. Then the King ruled that from then on all eggs should be broken from the Small End. This, of course
angered the traditionalists and many battles were fought over this issue, till Gulliver intervened on the side of Small
Endians and defeated the Big Endians.

Somehow, I am reminded of this story when I go for morning walks in my old school ground. Here the dispute
is not about which side of the egg should be broken first. It is about which way to start the walk. Some walkers
prefer to turn right and walk around in Anti Clockwise direction and others prefer to turn left and go around in
Clockwise direction. I have done a bit of research on this subject, meaning I had asked the new walkers a week
after they started walking as to why they chose to go left or right.

It would appear that your body decides whether you are an Anti Clocker or Clocker within one week after you
start walking. And within this week, the choice is made by the body and after that you are a lifetime Anti Clocker
or a Clocker. This presents a serious problem when you acquire a walking companion. It could be your better half
who is curious to figure out as to why you have become a serious walker or a colleague who lives in the same area.
If both of you have the same directional indication, there is no problem. Otherwise one of you feel uncomfortable
and may try to change the time of the walk.

In the recent past, some walking areas have taken the fun out this by insisting that all joggers and walkers should
go in one direction only. What is the big idea? What is the fun in walking if you have to keep seeing backside of
other walkers all the time? The fun in some walkers going Anti Clockwise and some in Clockwise is that you have
an option of seeing some people, preferably the opposite sex, face to face. And if these people are interesting,
you will see them again on the other side of the ground. That is why I like my school ground which has directional
diktat on walkers.

I am personally an Anti Clocker and one of these days, I hope to get a grant to do research into factors that
make some people go Anti Clockwise and some Clockwise. Wish me luck.

65
 STUDY OF WATER BODIES ALONG OMR / IT CORRIDOR
Class of 1978

Chennai city is witnessing rapid urbanisation and development resulting in the destruction of the surface water
bodies. In a coastal city like Chennai, the surface water bodies play multiple roles as flood moderators, rainwater
harvesting / groundwater recharge structures, and also in balancing the fresh and salt water interface in the fragile
groundwater regime. The destruction of water bodies leads to limited groundwater recharge, increased area under
flooding / water stagnation, water table depletion and salt water intrusion.

One area that witnesses massive development in and around Chennai is the stretch along the IT corridor
called Rajiv Gandhi Salai. The surface water bodies in the region are under severe threat due to encroachment,
pollution and destruction. Realising the importance of conversing the water bodies in this region, the Class of 1978,
as part of their Pearl Reunion Celebrations, decided to commission a study on enumerating the surface (fresh)
water bodies to assess their present status, to arrive at suitable solutions for rejuvenating the water bodies by
creating awareness that will result in rehabilitation of the water bodies. The Class of 1978 entrusted the study to
DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation, a professional, developmental grass roots organization that has decades of
experience in rejuvenating water bodies including lakes, tanks and ponds through active community participation.

The area considered was a linear stretch extending from Madhya Kailash Temple to where the IT corridor joins
the East Coast Road near Mahabalipuram, an area of around 2,500 sq. km. It included parts of Chennai city
and parts of Thiruporur, St. Thomas Mount and Thirukalukundarm talks of Kancheepuram district. The present
groundwater draft in the region is semi-critical and is between 70 – 90 % of the annual recharge.

The study methodology included application of remote sensing techniques coupled with field visits. The Institute
of Remote Sensing, Anna University was co-opted to prepare the field map using the latest satellite imageries
and with the help of GIS to integrate the field data.

The Study enumerated 153 water bodies which include village ponds / ooranies, PWD and Panchayat tanks.
With respect to usage, 24 water bodies are used for irrigation purposes irrigating even today around 1,700
acres. Of the village ponds studied, thirteen ponds in as many villages serve as the major drinking water source
catering to about 5,300 households. In all about 43 water bodies are used for domestic washing and bathing by
the communities and also for livestock maintenance. Fresh water fish rearing is practiced in six water bodies.
About 32 water bodies act as a direct recharge source for 250 open dug wells and 399 bore wells that are used
for irrigation and domestic purposes.

A total of 34 water bodies are polluted due to domestic sewage, solid waste dumping and industrial waste
disposal.. About 51 water bodies are under different phases of encroachment. Two water bodies have been fully
encroached while the rest are partially encroached. In 42 water bodies, the water spread has been encroached
thus limiting the overall water spread area. Four water bodies are encroached by slum dwellers of which two have
been fully encroached. In the case of two water bodies even the tank bund has been encroached and fenced. In

66
about 90 water bodies, the catchment has been converted to residential areas. In 61 water bodies the catchment
has been fully converted and in about 29 water bodies the catchment is under the process of conversion. In 26
water bodies both the catchment and command area have been urbanised.

What can be done? To start with, it is imperative to demarcate all the water bodies at present available in
the region and classify them as urban wetlands and evolve special policies similar to those enacted for forest
protection. The water bodies in fully urbanised areas can be renovated and maintained as rainwater harvesting
and groundwater recharge systems. Suitable rainwater harvesting structures can be introduced inside the water
spread which will act as a conduit between the surface and groundwater regimes. The threat of pollution from
domestic waste (both solid and liquid) needs immediate intervention though alternate eco-friendly systems to
protect the water bodies from pollution. Irrigation tanks still in use need renovation.

Community service organizations and companies located along the IT corridor may be encouraged to sponsor
the rehabilitation of the water bodies with the active participation of the villagers (including a not insignificant
financial contribution from them) which alone will ensure the success in the rehabilitation effort.

For a soft (electronic) copy of the study, please send an email to alumni@iitm.ac.in.

67
 OVER A CUP OF AI AI TEA!
By K.Seetharaman
1968 B.Tech(Mech.)

I fondly remember the column with the above caption in The Campus times of the sixties, besides the editorial page
of Gautam Mahajan..The special edition during NCC Camp in Ganga Hostel during the summer of 1966 carried
interesting anecdotes of Nambiar on the camp activities.(Bada khana in the camp, when?) Major Jaffrey made all
of us parade with luggage to Adyar gate as punishment for someone‘s misbehaviour in the camp. Even my room
in Jamuna was out of bounds for me during the camp period. Major Jaffrey was a real terror!

A concrete example, told quite often by Shankar, the Oratorian was the swimming pool for which we had carried
loads of concrete! But it was not completed till our final semester in 1968.We built it for the benefit of the future
generation!

68