Very cautiously the classmates of Madhav Narayan picked their cup of tea, only after they learnt it was sugarless. Some of his friends are now with new set of dentures.

Old age would have weakened Madhav Narayan’s friends physically but it could not affect their zeal to meet classmates after fifty years. Madhav Narayan and his friends were at the sprawling courtyard of UVCE College in Bangalore on Saturday to reminisce about their golden days as students of this historic college. The occasion was the Golden Reunion of golden 1957-61 batch, which include two Padma Bhushan and one Padma Sri award winners.

A civil engineer and a prominent builder Srinivasan remembered how his professor in mechanical engineering, A V Thippaiah used to teach about drawing diagrams of a blast furnace.

“He used to spend half of his period in drawing the diagram and the remaining he spent on asking each one of us whether we understood,”Srinivasan recalled, causing much mirth among his friends.

Committed teachers
Madhav Narayan was in tears when he remembered the principal Prof B R Narayan Iyengar. “He was a towering personality and a committed teacher. I never saw such a dedicated teacher in my life. He used to teach mechanical engineering and never hesitated even to teach the fresh batch of BE on the very first day. The way he used to explain the subject was exemplary,”this ex-student, who retired as GM of BEL remembered his professor.

For N Muniswamy, arriving at this college reminded him of his struggle during his college days.

“I walked 70 kilometres from Chikkaballapur to Bangalore to study engineering. I chose Srinivas Bhat Intermediate College instead of National College, which was considered to be the best in those days. When my principal asked me why I chose S B Intermediate College, I said, I wanted to become an engineer and to take inspiration, I went to see engineering students studying in the UVCE college, close to our college premises,” said Muniswamy.

Muniswamy remembered how he could not choose the medical seat. “I had to pay Rs 50, which I did not have. My financial condition was such that that I walked from Chikkaballapur to Bangalore to save 10 paise. I had to opt for engineering  simply because it did not require any fees,” remembered Muniswamy.

On the occasion, professors and classmates who won national awards and brought laurels to the college were felicitated.

A souvenir, ‘Golden Get Together’ was also released.