A camp in the hills

From the albums

This photograph was taken in 1958 at a survey camp in Nandi Hills outside Bengaluru(50 km away) in the middle of September.    It was taken as part of the extensive survey work for civil engineering students of BMS College of Engineering where I studied between 1956 and 1960.

Those were interesting times. Ours was the first batch under the new scheme introduced in 1956 with special elective subjects like soil mechanics and foundation engineering, pre-stressed concrete structures, basic electronics etc.

    Our batch comprised of only 16 students of which five passed out in the first attempt in 1960, me being one of them.

The survey camp lasted for 20 days during the second year of the Degree course (BE) and we had to stay there for the entire duration and divided into teams.    Our team comprised of nine students, six from Bengaluru and one each from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, besides four faculty members including one Prof KS Krishnaswamy who taught us soil mechanics. The faculty members supervised and guided us during the survey work on field which enabled us in the preparation of drawings required and project reports evaluated as part of the internal assessment.

Prof D Mukherjee from West Bengal as the principal of the college was also the professor of Mechanical Engineering. SS Kakade as vice-principal was looking after the administrative matters and also as the Professor of Electrical Engineering.

 Prof Venkatachala Murthy, as the professor and head of the department of civil engineering, taught us the subject of pre-stressed concrete and structural designs.

The survey work, though rigorous, was educative with field surveys for irrigation projects, highway and drinking water supply projects involving compilation of field data after taking levels of the natural ground with levelling instruments, tacheometers, prismatic compass and plane table surveys for mapping of field at site facilitating preparation of project reports with technical and financial evaluation.

 During the evenings, subject to availability of time, we strolled around nearby places.
   We went to Chikkaballapur six km away for a second show and returned walking around 12 am with the permission of the staff in charge of the camp.

Dormitory accommodation was arranged in the traveller’s bungalow. We had to remain there for the entire period of survey adjusting for the camp life with food and the available facilities for the stay.

This experience in the later days of our service was very helpful during our career as engineers in the profession.Having spent nearly six decades after leaving the college, we cherish the unforgettable memories of those days in the evening of our life. Most of the classmates must have retired from service or active participation in professional field.

Apart from four members who are in Bengaluru, viz, A Ramachandra Rao who has been working as a guest faculty in a well-known University acquiring a Doctoral degree in the field of Hydraulics leaving his family in Bengaluru.

L Ramachandra Rao retired as Director of Indian Standards Institution Delhi and has settled in Bengaluru. VS Jagannath, who joined the Navy, retired as Lt Col/ Col and is also in  Bengaluru.

Prannath Kaul from Kashmir (J&K) as chief engineer in the Irrigation Department of J&K must have retired from service.    I completed 37 years of service in Karnataka PWD and retired as the engineer-in-chief having worked in the fields like drinking water supply and as Government Advisor Water Supply in DANIDA (Danish International Developmental Agency) assisted Rural Water Supply Projects. I also visited Sri Lanka where such projects were taken up under DANIDA assistance.

Other activities include construction of major buildings and major irrigation projects like Hemavathy in Hassan district and other Irrigation Projects in Gulburga District.    I also worked as research officer in Karnataka Engineering Research Station (KERS) and as a faculty in the Engineer Staff Training College there.

I worked as the engineer-in-chief in Water Resources Development Organisation administrator (WRDO) and retired as administrator Command Area Development Authority of Bhadra project in Shimoga in 1997. As far as the rest of the classmates are concerned, I lack information about their present situation.

Post-retirement, Government of Karnataka assigned me with the task of conducting study on evaluation of machinery and vehicles in Irrigation Department in major irrigation projects along with AM Nadaf former Managing Director KSRTC  as Co-member and study on Strengthening and Restructuring of Karnataka Engineering Research (KERS) Station at Krishnarajasagara in Mandya district.         
  
When I look back, I feel indebted to the institution — BMS College of Engineering and the faculty members who provided us an opportunity and taught us to be responsible citizens of the country.