I
had always found Physics an interesting subject in my educational career. It
used to be a high scoring subject for me. In our college this subject had the
best faculty. Under the able leadership of Krishnappaiah the department was in
real limelight.
I
always had a special relationship with Krishnappaiah. I respected his no
non-sense attitude. I should record our first reaction when we heard his name.
It brought us the memory of the proprietor of a famous hotel in Thirthahalli.
In those days, Krishnappaiah’s hotel
in Thirthahalli was as famous as the MTR in Bangalore
Basing
on the looks of the said proprietor, we had expected to see a middle aged business
man like personality as our Physics lecturer. But we were pleasantly surprised
to see an impeccably dressed smart young man instead! Our spirits suddenly went
up on seeing him. But we had to wait and see his performance as a lecturer. We
were not disappointed. He was the best teacher and a professional we could ever
find in our college. However, heart of heart, we still felt “if only he could
delete ‘appaiah’ from his name and
make it as simple as Krishna , things could
have been quite different!”
Krishnappaiah
carried lot of respect even from students who had no opportunity to attend his
classes. But basically he was a reserved man and always meant business, I mean
his subject. On only one occasion I had a small showdown with him. He had
handed over the corrected answer papers of the first terminal examination in my
final degree class. He had committed an error while totaling, by leaving out an
answer for 5 marks. I had been all along very sensitive when it came to
valuation of my papers. While I never questioned the basis of valuation, I
would strongly object for mistakes in totaling or exclusion of certain marks inadvertently.
In
this particular case also I went to Krishnappaiah in a highly agitated mood. He
coolly rechecked the totaling and then handed over the papers back to me duly
adding back the marks. As an offside remark, he told me that it would not have made
any difference if those marks were left just like that. I really got wild and
told him that it made hell of a difference to me! He kept his cool.
After
some time I repented my behavior. I thought I had gone too far with a teacher
whom I respected so much, just for a petty matter. I went back to him and
apologized. He consoled me and told me to forget the matter.
We
were at the fag end of our final year classes. One day Krishnappaiah asked me
to meet him at his home. He remained a bachelor and was living with another
colleague. I met him at his home. He was in a relaxed mood. He asked me what my
future career plan was. To be frank, I had not seriously thought over the
matter. Things were very hazy for me on account of my family problems. But I
told him that the only possibility for me was to go for postgraduation in
Physics.
Krishnappaiah
took out a book from his book shelf and gave it to me. I just went through it.
It was the prospectus of Indian institute
of Science Bangalore
Krishnappaiah
wanted me to take up metallurgy which was in great demand in those days. IISC
had thirty seats for each branch on an all-India basis. I was told that the
students in metallurgy on completion of the degree with overall distinction
would straight away land in US. All others would be offered jobs by TISCO. In
those days other than IISC, only Benares Hindu University (BHU) offered the
courses in metallurgy. Krishnappaiah asked me to keep the book and to work in
the direction getting admission in the Institute.
Under
Krishnappaiah’s leadership our college arranged for a picnic to the famous
Coffee Research Station at Balehonnur. Balehonnur is located just before
Jayapura in the Chickmagalore-Sringeri road. Even though we had heard about the
Institute, none of us had the opportunity to visit it till then. A brother of
one of our students was working there. He took us around. We had a great time
at the Institute.
It
would be appropriate for me to write in brief about this Institute:
History
The
district of Chickmagalore has the distinction to be the highest coffee growing
district in India/Asia. Research work on coffee was initiated during the year
1915 by setting up a temporary laboratory at Koppa. Initial studies
focused attention in combating the dreaded leaf disease of coffee. Later
it was deemed necessary to have a full fledged experimental station to tackle
the multifarious problems that the coffee industry had been countered
with. Accordingly the Government of Mysore started a field research
station and officially named it the “Mysore Coffee Experimental Station"
during 1925. The land for the research station was gifted by Major
C.S.Crawford of Guntanaik estate. Subsequently the erstwhile Government of
Mysore handed over the established farm to the Coffee Board, which had come
into being during 1942. Organized research on Coffee started from 1946 onwards.
The
Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) at Balehonnur is presently one of the
premier institutes in South East Asia .
There are seven different disciplines viz. Agronomy, Soil Science and Agricultural
Chemistry, Botany Entomology/Nematology Plant psychology, Biotechnology, and
post harvest technology striving to evolve strategies aimed at increasing
productivity and improvement in the quality of coffee. There are about 60
scientific and technical personnel who are involved in carrying out research in
various disciplines.
The
total area of the institute is 130.94 hectares. The area planted to
coffee is 80.26 hectares comprising 51.32 hectares of Arabica and 28.94
hectares of Robusta. In addition about 10.0 hectares has been
planted to C X R during 2000 with 28.3 hectares. Jungle remaining for future
expansion, about 12.38 hectares of land, is utilised for nursery roads and
buildings.
The
picnic was a great success. There was a singing competition. A group of girl
students singing the Kannada song- “Undaadabahudu,
Odibaa ennappa, Ootake baaro krishnappa”-created lot of amusement to all of
us as the song referred to the name of Krishnappaiah.
Just
before our academic year came to an end there was a big news. The UGC had
permitted the University
of Mysore
Our
examinations commenced in the last week of March. I could answer my Physics
papers to my full satisfaction. However, I was not exactly happy with my
performance in Chemistry papers. But I did the practicals extremely well in
Chemistry.
I
had a problem with the Physics practicals. The University had a system of
giving the students in advance a list specifying the experiments in which
practicals would be conducted. The examiners had to select the experiments from
this list only. We were expected to get prepared for those experiments only. A
visiting Professor from a different college conducted the examination along
with Krishnappaiah. I had prepared well for only those experiments covered in
the university list.
To
my utter shock I found that one of the experiments given to us was not from the
said list. I thought it was pure injustice. I wanted Krishnappaiah to talk to
the examiner. But he said he was helpless. We had to write the formula first
and show it to the examiner. I was not able to recollect the formula.
Krishnappaiah then just told the formula to me in a low voice. I could
recollect it then and wrote it in full and presented it to the examiner.
Ultimately I could manage to complete the examination to my satisfaction.
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(To be continued)------
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