Rewind to the fifties

From the albums

To write about our college days in the 50s would mean going back in time by more than 60 years. Still, if my former classmates happen to read this and relive our happy college days, I am more than rewarded.

Our batch was the eighth since the inception of the college in 1946. We had just one workshop and a few classrooms. Our electrical and mechanical practical classes were conducted in the Government Engineering College, now known as UVCE.  Cycling from Basavanagudi to UVCE those days was a fun-filled experience.

Admission to the college was simple. You just had to fill up a form attaching your Intermediate marks card. Capitation fees were unknown. We paid a monthly fee of Rs 18.75  throughout the course. Our lecturers were not only good but had a great sense of humour as well.

When a student in the back bench once said, “Sir we cannot understand you!”, our lecturer, YG Krishnaswamy replied, “When you say ‘we’ are you speaking for the backbenchers or the whole class? Or, maybe it is the royal ‘we ?’.” To this day, I remember KS Krishnaswamy’s advice, “If you err, err on the safe side!”

Life was simple in those days. Bicycles were the main mode of transport for us. We envied the only two students who had motor bikes, a Twin Triumph and a Royal Enfield. Our favourite haunts were Geetha Restaurant, Vidyarthi Bhavan and ‘Bhattara’ Hotel.

Three by five coffees was the standard order! Our greatest pleasure was watching English movies in a cantonment theatre. A familiar sight was the stern looking Begum standing at the ticket counter of Liberty theatre, making sure that we behaved properly. Coming out of Rex theatre, there stood the beggar with his upturned hat saying, ‘Blind man, Sir’.  South Parade (MG Road) had only a few cars parked, the most prominent being that of KN Guruswamy near the Deccan Herald office.

On the adjacent Brigade Road, we could see ‘Gun-Boat Jack’, the West Indian daredevil who drove his motorcycle on a circular wall in the circus. At Tom’s Billiards Parlor we used to watch Selvaraj, world billiard champion, trying his shots.

After college hours, we would walk across to the National College grounds to watch greats like Appiah and Aswath play basketball or Adisesh and Kasturirangan practising cricket. Some of our college mates made a name for themselves, like Narahari who became a Lieutenant General in the armed forces; Balaji Srinivas who excelled as a Test cricketer; TLRamaswamy in photography, KS Krishnaswamy as the State table-tennis champion and SR Krishnamurthy as the State badminton champion.

My classmates retired after memorable careers in various positions. N Keshavamurthy as Major General, KR Sethu Raman as  Major, Dhananjaya as the Principal of JCE in Mysore; Venkatadri as Chief Engineer, CWPC, BS Purushotham as Senior Executive of Kirloskar Electric, HP Krishnamurthy  as General Manager of NGEF, Venugopal as the Dean of IIT Madras, SR Krishnamurthy as the Principal of BMS College and I as a Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force. Unfortunately, I have not been able to establish contact with the rest.

The other day, I went to see my alma mater. It had changed beyond recognition, with several departments of engineering in new, impressive buildings.  But, as I stood there remembering the modest college that made me an engineer, my heart went out with gratitude to its noble founder, BM Srinivasiah who started the first affordable private engineering college in Bengaluru which helped so many of us have really glorious careers in life.

(The author can be reached at [e-mail])