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Down memory lane at S.N. College
The cover of the Silver Jubilee souvenir.
The Silver Jubilee souvenir of the Kollam Sree Narayana College Alumni Association, which was formally released today by O.N.V. Kurup, poet, offers glimpses of the milestones of the institution and of the contributions made by its students to the literary, social, cultural and political history of the State.
The souvenir begins with the campus memories of Prof. Kurup, a former student. He describes the Alma Mater as a ventricle of his heart. "The college has played a big role in making me what I am today'', he says. He recalls that Thirunellur Karunakaran, Puthuserry Ramachandran, Kakkanadan and V. Sambasivan were his contemporaries at the college.
The former Maharashtra Governor, P.C. Alexander, remembers his "brief, but memorable spell" at the college. He was the first head of the Department of Economics, but was there for only five months. "Yet, it is one of the most memorable periods in my life," he says. He left the post when he got selected to the Indian Administrative Service. Dr. Alexander recalls his relationship with the former Chief Minister, R. Shankar.
The CPI State secretary, Veliyam Bhargavan, says in his memoirs that it was at the instance of Prof. K.J. Mathew Tharakan, who succeeded Dr. Alexander as head of the Economics department, that he began reading the works of Karl Marx. Many of his doubts on Leftist ideas were cleared by Prof. Tharakan. He says that the college has played a great role in shaping his political career.
The veteran actor, O. Madhavan, first chairman of the college union,
talks of the first students' agitation in the college The souvenir carries the photograph of the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, addressing students at the college on September 30, 1955.
There are also photographs of the students with the late Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1959 at Delhi, during an all-India tour, of the former AICC president, K. Kamaraj, at the college and of all the principals.
Paris Vishwanathan, artist and a former student of the college, has designed the souvenir cover. He also recollects his days at the college.
The others who have made interesting contributions to the souvenir include the first head of the English department, S.A. Vasudevan, a former student and former BARC scientist, K.K. Damodaran, the literary critic, K.P. Appan, the former Janayugam editor, Thengamam Balakrishnan, the novelist, Kakkanadan, Justice K. Sreedharan, the actor, Thilakan, the poet, Vishnu Narayanan Namboodiri, and the IT expert, R.P. Lalaji. The souvenir was brought out by a 19-member committee with R. Pavithran as the chief editor, S. Ratnakumar as convener and K.P. Ramachandran Nair as chairman.
By Ignatius Pereira
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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