 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:
- disciplining students
- disciplining himself
- evolving new policy for the students
- creating opportunity for students to show their talents
- 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:
- To elevate Anna University to a world class
university.
- To make it financially self-supporting and not
look for funding from the government all the time.
- To make it an innovative and creative university.
- To make education credit based.
- To open up the opportunities to students
internationally, by offering Web-based educational programmes across
the globe.
- 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,
- obtain intellectual and organisational support
- human resource development training for their professionals
- undertake joint research projects
- get involved in joint consultancies
- undertake academic exchanges
- 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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