I bet you are now wondering where in the bloody hell this Karaikudi is! Well, you are not alone. Not many of us knew about it until we applied for admission to CECRI. One of my friends applied here thinking Karaikudi was some hill station! It took him more than a couple of semesters to overcome the shock... Karaikudi is a small town in remote south India, the home of the famed chettiar families. So, why the hell did someone decide to locate a national researchlabaratory in this remote hamlet? The credit for this act goes to one Mr. Alagappa Chettiar, the guy who owned more than half of karaikudi(well, he owned all of it, but you know settlements tend to grow, and our man died sometime back). Madras was chosen as the place, but our man decided to donate as much land as needed and Rs. ten lakhs(about 65,000$) in cash towards the construction of buildings... In 1948, that was too much even for Nehru to resist and hence was born CECRI, in Karaikudi. One would generally believe that in 50 years, a human settlement would grow, not only in size, but it other aspects too. Well, you need to take a look at Karaikudi. My friend's father who did his undergrad in the govt. college next campus, doesnt think so... he says, a guy from kkdi who died a hundred years ago could fit right back into the scheme of things in kkdi, with minimal changes to his life style. However, it would be unfair to say, no one is trying.. where else would you find people drinking coke with a straw out of a can in a cool bar?!
Fresh from our rigorous, albeit unsuccesful, preparation for the (in)famous JEE, and with a Prof.Santhanam-induced impression of Electrochemistry, it was with a certain fear that most of us stepped into the campus. Guys used to have nightmares of Santhanam saying "Ecell = E0Cell + 2.303...". The more imaginative folks were jolted awake by dreams in which they were part of some cruel electrochemical experiment. They were used as some form of a solid electrolyte, with a graphite electrode shoved up their ass, and a platinum electrode down the throat. And then time, the great healer, did its job. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and seniors(raggers) into friends. And this day is very clearly etched in my memory- the end sems for the second sem was fast approcaching. We had this course on electro-analytical techniques(part of the course). Someone started this fad that he "really liked" electrochemistry, because... he had to put up with it for three more years, and so he better like it!! From then on we were the proud students of the "unique four year/eight semester" B.Tech course.
ACCET, bajji kadai, rao kadai, mess top, 4-9 concept, night-out bridge sessions, Interface, "GET OOOOUUUUTTTT"-these are the memories that i will carry with me.
Look here for my impression of my
fellow btechos from the Class of '98.