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 Last week I said that a turning point in Dr. Kalanidhi’s life was joining the A.C. College of Technology (A.C. Tech.) in Madras, as a lecturer, in the year 1975. It proved fortunate for him in many ways. At that time he was threatened by his colleagues and friends that he would not be able to cope with the Don Bosco educated students of AC Tech., due to his rural background and village accent. Kalanidhi took the challenge and said the boys were coming to learn from him and not to have an oratorical contest with him. At that time AC Tech. was a prime institute. Dr.Ganesh Sankaradas Laddha, who was the Director was a strict disciplinarian and students showed great respect for the teachers. Fortunately, Dr. Kalanidhi became a part of this well organised institution. For the first time in his life he experienced financial safety and security essential for the peaceful pursuit of knowledge. While there he met his wife who is a very creative architect, a musician and a Bharat Natyam dancer. Both his daughters, Charu and Gayatri – currently students of engineering, were born while he was in AC Tech. He also completed his Ph.D. in 1978 much ahead of his colleagues in Guindy Engineering College as Guindy was not yet recognised for Ph.D. while AC Tech was.
 Interestingly, even though he joined at a salary of Rs. 400 per month, it was soon raised to Rs. 700 hundred and then to Rs. 1100 per month by the Government from retrospective effect. As a result, years later, he got a substantial amount of money in arrears from the date of his joining. This money along with the savings from his architect wife, was invested by the young couple in buying a piece of land in Tiruvanmiyur village, the value of which has increased many fold by now. It was all a matter of sheer luck and since then financial tension was no more a part of his life. At AC Tech., he also volunteered to become the NCC officer in order to discipline the students and to keep his own body fit and disciplined. He introduced a new policy in college that every student should undergo compulsory disciplined training and join one of the following programmes, namely, NCC, NSS or NSO. The same policy was later suggested by the then Vice Chancellor Dr. Kulandai Swamy to the University Grants Commission and became a national policy. As an NCC officer he organised eye donations, laying of village roads and cycle expeditions with the help of the students. According to Kalanidhi being an NCC officer helped him in several ways such as:
1. disciplining students
2. disciplining himself
3. evolving new policy for the students
4. creating opportunity for students to show their talents
5. making his own creativity known to the higher authorities.
As a result he was selected to go on a Common Wealth fellowship to UK and did his post doctoral studies at Southampton University. He also was able to tour Europe and visit some of the finest universities and institutions. This exposed him to the European culture and advancements in education. On his return he made several contributions to the university both in administration and research. He reorganised the transport department of the university. He added new buses to the fleet and made the department cost effective. As Professor of Energy he contributed greatly to the field of energy conservation and co-generation. He has devised techniques for the simultaneous use of energy from power plants for desalinisation of sea water. He believes that with some simple changes in boiler and turbine capacity it would be possible to use the energy from Ennore power plants to desalinate 55000 lorry loads of sea water per hour. Similarly co-generated salt could be used for producing several other products by setting up the ancillary units next to the power plants for making salt, sodium, magnesium, etc.
 He has also contributed to the area of refrigeration cryogenics and developed low temperature refrigeration by utilising liquid nitrogen. A private ice cream manufacturer has been using his technology from 1987 in transporting ice cream from Dharwad to Goa. He feels that this technology will also be very useful in transporting fish cost effectively on our long coast line where roads are not good enough for modern US type refrigeration trucks. He also worked on alternate air-conditioning (by spraying liquid air) and sees great potential in this. According to him a medium size hall to 100 could be kept cool by spraying liquid oxygen at a cost of three hundred rupees for a duration of two hours.
After many years at AC Tech and Guindy, he joined the All India Council of Technical Education and was posted as Director of its continuing education centre. He designed hundreds of new courses which could be made available to professionals who could not go for regular education and firmly established the reputation of the centre. As a result of this major contribution to the cause of technical education he was invited to become the Member Secretary of the National Board of the Accreditation which accredits MCA, MBA courses at Engineering colleges and polytechnics in the country. During the two years he served the All India boards, technical education in the country touched newer heights. Hundreds of new institutions were encouraged in educationally backward areas. After serving the cause of technical education with such credit it was only natural that he should be selected to hold the office of the Vice Chancellor of the Anna University, the prime technical university in the country. Having a background knowledge of the university he has settled down in no time and has launched an ambitious agenda of converting the university to meet the challenges of the new millennium.
His ambition for Anna University is:
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To elevate Anna University to a world class university.
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To make it financially self-supporting and not look for funding from the government all the time.
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To make it an innovative and creative university.
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To make education credit based.
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To open up the opportunities to students internationally, by offering Web-based educational programmes across the globe.
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To establish a technology gateway by taking innovations from the research and development labs to industries through the Anna University platform.
The Centre for Academic partnership in Anna University
He is passionate about upgrading the technology education in the country. Towards this goal he has established the Centre for Academic Partnership in Anna University. Any institution of Engineering and technology, in the country, can enter into ‘partnership for excellence’ with the Anna University and,
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obtain intellectual and organisational support
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human resource development training for their professionals
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undertake joint research projects
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get involved in joint consultancies
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undertake academic exchanges
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Give opportunities to the faculty to register for Ph.D. degree with Anna University and helping them upgrade their knowledge.
The centre has a potential for creating an overall impact on the quality of technical education nationwide and has far reaching implications for India in the new millennium.
Paranayama - the other passion
The other passion of Dr. Kalanidhi is the practice and preaching of Pranayama. He had already been introduced to yoga by his mother but he got to really understood Pranayama at the Vivekananda Kendra in Bangalore, when he was suffered from a wheezing problem. As he started benefiting from the practice he started collecting literature on Pranayama. He realised that some of the literature was not correct and went back to study the Tamil scripture called ‘Thiru Mandiram’ which he had earlier studied at the age of ten under the guidance of his mother. Apart from practicing it, he studied its scientific basis; he wrote a thesis which got him a degree of D.Sc from the Sri Lanka Open University. He is very keen to promote the concept and has delivered more than hundred talks on the subject. To him, Pranayama not only improves the quality of life but is the very breath of life. He is an ardent believer in Indian Medicine and Yoga.
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