Mr. V. Koteeswaran in conversation with Prof. R. Nagarajan and Prof. C. S. Swamy
Good afternoon Mr. Koteeswaran.
Welcome back to your alma mater.
Good afternoon Professor Nagarajan.
Very glad to be here. Yeah. So, nice to have you.
But I do come here once in a while. Ok.
I have been here about 6 months ago. Right.
But before that a couple of years, before. Ok.
So, I got a special attachment to this place.
And you graduated with the first batch 64. Yes, it is true.
Civil Engineering. Yeah.
So. Long time ago.
Yeah. Just tell us about your life journey afterwards, just briefly.
Well, once I finished my studies here,
I went looking for a job in Mumbai.
And I did get a job with a consultant,
for salary of something like 400 rupees a month or something,
which I thought was too low.
Yes, I thought did, but too much about myself even then.
So, I I said I will think about it and I I did not fancy that anyway.
And in the meanwhile, I my father had contacted a friend of his
to see whether he can
get some contacts to offer me a job, and
I got an offer from London saying that
if I am willing they are prepared to take me on and try me.
So, so I have came back from Mumbai fairly quickly
to get all the visas and things were arranged and
I left India in August 64, about 6 months after I graduated.
Went to London, and joined
the company was then called CJ Belle and Partners.
They were consulting engineers, structural engineers.
And I joined them as a
the designation was an assistant engineer
and slowly from there I went up.
I was there for about couple of years before I
went and did a postgraduate at University of London
at Queen Mary College.
Did a Master’s Degree in Advanced Structural Analysis.
And came back and joined the firm again
because they wanted me back.
And slowly I went went up in the ladder,
5 years later I was an associate of the company.
10 years later I was Director of the company
and I stayed as a Director until I retired.
With the same company.
So, I did work with them for about 39 years and a few months.
So, it was, I enjoyed my work.
I think it is very important for people to
enjoy the work rather than
treating it as a chore and a necessity.
I enjoyed my work tremendously.
So, there are some some buildings
in London which are my hallmark.
And slowly and gradually
of course, as you know when you go up the ladder
you you forget the engineering part of it.
And you become more of an administrator
or a planner for the firm
and I tried to avoid that as much as possible.
So, I was, I had my hand in design Ok.
for very long time as a Director
which I think I was the only doing that. For very long time as a Director
which I think I was the only doing that.
Enjoy, I enjoyed designing especially conceptual design.
So, I did then more than 100 buildings conceptually.
Most of it in England a few in the far East.
I was sort of little bit involved with the
Stock Exchange Building in Mumbai.
And the Asia Stadium in Delhi.
Not much, but a little bit.
My speciality was tall buildings basically. Ok.
Especially, the lateral stability of tall buildings.
And I always, was one of my ambitions
to design a seismic resistant building.
But I did not get a chance because England is not a seismic area
and because of that I wanted to go to California
which is the place to be.
In 1970, I think it was
I did get a scholarship to go and do a PhD at Berkeley. Ok.
University of California.
And we were all set to go my wife and I,
and we had applied for a resident permit,
and not, in those days it was not that difficult
it took a bit of time, but we had
we had our green cards ready when we land there
But a last minute I changed my mind.
Did not go and stayed in England.
And I had a lot of incentives to stay as well,
which I used and at that time we were
looking for a house to stay
because once I decided that I am going to stay in England,
then there was not much point in renting a place.
So, so England is a place where people
would like to buy their houses
rather than rent, sure
which is prevalent in Europe.
So, we bought a house and stayed there and carried on. Ok.
So, how did, how do you think your education at IIT Madras
play a role in your, enjoying your career?
Yes, I think my education was primarily the
the reason for my jumping up from the ladder.
In in England because by far I was the most liked graduate
in the company because of the acute knowledge of
structures that was imparted to me
while I was here.
One thing that I did miss was
not knowing the codes of practice.
Which comes on by experience.
But I I would say if I were I give some advice to
any institution or anything like that,
I would say they are part of the curriculum must also
be the rationalization of the codes,
with what you are learning in theory.
Why is the code slightly different to, what you learn,
and why why is that in such a way
and what is the basis for it.
That would give a lot more
incentive for people to go into
private practice or things like that instead of a a public service.
I think that is very important and that is
one thing that I had to learn
but I think the basic education and the basic
structural knowledge that I had even at a Btech degree was Right.
quite something compared to the local boys. Sure.
So, I found that
even though it is only an undergraduate degree,
some of the things we teach are not taught
at least at that time in England
until you come to do a postgraduate.
Of course, different countries have different ways of Right.
imparting knowledge.
So, I am not saying it is wrong or right
It is just in my case it was used for sure.
Did you also go through the extended
engineering drawing and workshop classes and?
Either here? Yeah.
We we had workshop classes here Yeah.
and we had engineering drawing
Yeah. as a subject.
Both machine drawing as well as Civil Engineering drawing
But funnily enough,
once I joined work I I never did a drawing
because they wanted me to be the designer
rather than their draftsman,
which I did not appreciate that very much to start with
because sometimes it's
it's better to draw something
to know what you are designing
instead of just designing and leaving it is for
somebody else to interpret your design and draw it.
If you do it yourself you know what you want
But that was the way it was in England. Sure.
They have a draftsman as a separate set of people
and their design is- it's a separate set of people.
They work together, but one does not do the other.
So, one of the reasons for that was
possibly the draftsman are not engineers. Ok.
They are basically draftsmen.
They do a little bit of engineering,
so that they understand what the engineer says. Right.
But that's about all.
Maybe that was the reason for it.
And the the the in the UK the
the feeling was that a designer
should not waste his time drawing
which I thought was not the right
way to look at it, but that was how they were.
So, I could not change it Sure.
because that was their country’s practice
It is a it is different for an architect.
An architect designer also draws his own drawing,
but for an engineer it is they are completely bifurcated.
And it it goes on on different planes basically.
But, so do you think design should be a part of the curriculum? Sorry.
Should design be a part of the undergraduate curriculum?
Definitely I think so, I think so, because the first thing
that hits you when you go to a design office
is your theory is ok,
but unless you know how to design it after the
theoretical results you are not considered an engineer.
So, I would say it is not like doing a research project.
It's it's different when you do a consulting. Right
Practice, it is different.
And my experience it is all with consulting, not research.
So, the the practical aspects of it is more important.
And I think a short review of that Sure.
could be very useful for an undergraduate study.
So, what about your hostel life?
You were at Cauvery, right?
I loved my hostel life, I was in Cauvery.
I had some lovely neighbors there,
Krishnadas Nair who was the chairman of Hindustan
Aeronautics Firm was my next next room.
And we used to have a lovely time.
I remember the the problems we had with our food
for the first 6 months,
when we were in not in not in Cauvery Hostel,
but we were in a different hostel in Saidapet.
Little Teachers College Hostel.
And the South Indian guard was not very happy with the food
because most of the food was chapati and sabji.
And so, there was a bit of a hiccup to start with.
But afterwards the food became so good that I used to-
I used to go home on a Saturday morning
because I did not want to miss the breakfast which was very special,
on Saturday morning.
And I used to go home and then I
again I used to come back on Saturday night for two things,
one is for the biryani on Sunday night
and the other one is to see the the Open Air Theater film Right.
which was about 8 o’clock in the evening or something.
So, yes I enjoyed my life at Cauvery very much.
So, what are your best memories of the campus?
What is the thing that you remember the best and?
The best memories of my campus is
the interaction I had with with the faculty.
2-3 professors who I considered my mentors,
Dr. D. V. Reddy
who who did the applied mechanics for us,
then professor of Civil Engineering
who recently passed away.
Professor Verghese. Yeah,
him and Professor Sankaran
who took solid mechanics for me.
They were, they became very good friends afterwards.
But at the time they were real mentors for me.
So, so, so I remember the interaction with them very much.
Especially Dr. D.V. Reddy who helped me
I think it was a third year
when I have suddenly fell very ill during the final exam,
and I could not write the exam,
and he fought for me to have a re-exam
and we came back.
And because of that 2 or 3 other students also
had a chance to write re-write their parts.
And I cannot forget that
because I could have lost a year.
I I had met Dr. Reddy afterwards just while.
He was he was a professor in all sorts of universities in
in the United States,
the final one being in Florida.
And I met him once when he was
travelling through London to Chennai.
And we had lunch meeting and it was very nice.
I met my Civil Engineering professor 4 years back I think.
I went to his house and met him and
and I was very sad when he passed away.
Are you still in touch with your batch mates?
Some of them, some of them.
In fact, I am seeing 1 or 2 on on Saturday.
But it is the the exciting thing about is
it is not just my batch mates, my batch mates yes.
It is not my Civil Engineering batch mates.
I have lots of friends in all the other
different disciplines as well.
Chemical Engineering, Metallurgy, Mechanical,
Electronics and so on.
And one of my closest friend
did his electronics in the the same batch,
but he did electronics, he now lives in
Netherlands and he is he is coming here on Saturday.
And he and I are hosting a breakfast
for some of my friends.
Yes, it is very interesting.
I remember quite quite a few of them.
And when we met for the 50th year over here
that time I met a lot of them
who I hadn't seen after 1964
and that was a great time.
You still recognize them and they recognize you? Difficult.
Some of them were difficult, but
but funnily enough some of them I recognize by their voice
rather than their figure.
Especially, the one Srinivas Nageshwar who
who was my table tennis partner
for doubles. And I I recognized him only by his voice.
Because he had lost all his hair and I could
not I could not recognize him at all, but I recognized his voice.
So, you know the campus has obviously,
changed a lot since your days. It has, it has.
What do you think you think, are you happy
with the way the campus is developed? Our campus is fantastic.
It is really competes with any world campuses.
Anywhere else.
I have been to quite a few in in England and in in the States,
been to Stanford, to MIT and so on so forth.
I think it can easily compete with any of those. Yeah.
It is very quiet serene campus. Right.
Nice atmosphere to study.
So, I I also do want to thank you for
your giving back to the institute.
I know you have made a few gifts in the in the past. Yeah, yeah.
So, what motivates your giving back
and is it something you plan to continue?
Well, I suppose I
I have a basic tendency to help people.
Also, probably because I don't have a family
myself, I can say everybody my family.
It's, it's I find a lot of pleasure in helping people if I can.
So, in particular your contribution and your batches
contribution during the golden jubilee
was helped this centre, the Heritage Centre.
So, what is your opinion about our Heritage Centre?
Is it something we should say- I think it was when it was
intimated to me that this is going to come up,
I thought what a fantastic idea.
It's, it's a brilliant idea.
And I hope all the best for it, the best wishes for it.
I hope it gets bigger and bigger.
So, of course, this year we are celebrating our diamond jubilee. Yeah.
Our institute itself is turning
Yeah. 60
So, looking forward based on your experiences,
what do you think the institute should aspire to be?
I mean are we are we on the right track
or do you would you like to see a
course correction in some ways.
Now, I do not think, I I can say I can give any corrections.
Because I am I am not an educationist
so, so I do not know the ins and outs of
running an institution.
But I only wish, of course, every institute wants to be the best. Right.
In in their country and if necessary a world class.
And I am I am still waiting for the day when
IITs come in the top 10
in the world rather than the top 100.
And I am sure it will happen.
It is a question of time. Sure.
And because there are enough brains in this country to
get that going.
And more of them are staying back with because-
Yes, I think it, I think it is happening now.
At one time there was a dearth of
good inventive jobs
in this country. Right.
But I would say that is not the case anymore
But it can it can still be improved quite a lot.
But I think one of the one of the main things for
people to stay would be the the lifestyle here.
I find simple things are very difficult to achieve
without lot of sweat,
and that that should change
and if that changes I think
lot of people would stay.
And people get frustrated here
because you can't get things done.
The things do not move fast, fast enough.
When you, especially people who come from abroad
and they have experienced things which are happening
just by a phone call or an email or something,
and here you have to go and stand in a queue,.
That's very frustrating.
I think if, that needs to change.
And once that goes I think job front is has changed quite a lot.
So, that is a big incentive.
But once the lifestyle also changes then I think
of course, you cannot do anything about the weather, but.
So, what did you used to do during vacations
when you were a student,
particularly the summer vacations? Summer vacations.
I used to go and visit relatives
because we- that is one thing that these days are different
people try and do some sort of internship or Right,
Yeah. Something to get some practical experience
which I think is fantastic and I should have done it.
I didn't, because we did not think about it that way.
You know when you have a holiday, you have a holiday.
But I think the holidays could be used at least
part of it could be used to to learn your work. Sure.
True, I agree.
I know that you also provided some financial support to
some students who wanted to visit CERN.
Do you do you like this idea of students doing Yes.
Internships not only in India, but also going abroad? Yeah, now
I think I I did contribute a little bit. Yeah.
To couple of students
No, I think it is a great idea.
I think people should should go out and look at
how things are done in
in different places to get an overall view of the world
because it is very easy to get cocooned in a Right.
in your own atmosphere
and not know how people live elsewhere. Right.
So, I think that is a great idea.
So, do you have plans to spend more time in Chennai
and more time on campus?
I I have plans to spend about 4 or 5 months in Chennai
every year because of family commitments.
And there are still the time I will probably be in London,
but I also do visit the States
where several of my relatives are there.
So, I travel a lot.
I travel quite a bit.
Are you in touch with the Civil Engineering Department here?
Have you offered to come?
Have they contacted you about coming in? I have not.
I have about 5 or 6 years ago I did, but after that I have not.
But I should. Yeah. Yes, I agree.
Because we always talk about the 3
piece of giving time, talent and treasure. Yeah, true, true.
Since, you have already given the treasure you know.
It would be great if you can also.
Give your time and talent and.
Yeah, you know I do I am I am quite happy to help whenever I can. Ok.
So, it has been great talking to you and- Yeah, it was great coming here.
Maybe if Professor Swamy has more questions you can Yeah,
yes. go ahead as well so.
Sure, sure.
I need to leave for another meeting. Sure, yeah.
Hope to see you again in the. Hope, yeah, I am sure I will.
Yeah. Yeah, I am sure.
To be I wanted to know about your
teachers in Civil Engineering anybody who remember.
Sorry, come again?
The faculty who taught you Civil Engineering.
Yes. You are the Civil Engineering student.
Yes. Could you remember any of them?
Yes, I remember all of them.
All of them, ok. All of them
Have you met any of them recently? I met them
About 4 or 5 years ago Who?
4 or 5 years ago I met Radha Krishnan
Radha Krishnan, I see Rajagopalan
Professor Varghese Professor Varghese is no more.
Yeah, I know he is no more Yeah, yeah you came for that function?
I came for the 50th year function I see
For the first batch 50th year Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, that time I went to his house met him Yeah, he was
Yeah. Passed only a
Yeah. few months ago Yeah.
And Professor Radha Krishnan is in Adyar at-
Yeah, I need to get their addresses,
so that I can go and see them.
He is in might be the the telephone number is here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah contact number would be fine, Yeah. telephone number
Yeah. But I I know that approximately he is in that
behind that Padmanabha Nagar, you know that
road which goes to Elliot’s beach.
Next to that that Alcott Memorial School.
Yeah, Yeah. That route there is a colony just behind Padmanabha Nagar.
So, there he stays I am not able to get the name
That is, ok Professor E G Ramachandran was also living there.
Yeah. Metallurgy professor
I did not know Professor Ramachandran so
Professor E G Ramachandran is no more he is Yeah, he is no more as well
In fact, there was a function arrays
to establish a chair in his name yeah, yeah.
Last year That is, right, Yeah.
In fact, it is very surprising that just 1 month before
he passed away, he was interviewed here
by the Head of Department of Metallurgy
And he was he came in a wheel chair in the ICSR building.
Yes And perfect memory.
Yeah. Unfortunately, that day I could not come.
I wanted to meet him but
but everything, he had identified, the photographs identified . Yeah.
Everything his memory was tremendous. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Professor Varghese was of course ailing, but quite some time.
Yes, that is right, Yeah. And he was really want to-
Yeah, he was reasonably ok when I met him at his home
In fact, we even wanted to have
an interview in his house, he did not
He wasn't. wanted. You know his son is a
Yeah. Yeah. Dean here, Dean of Administration.
So, but he also said yes, he doesn't like to.
Maybe he written something about his
experiences here something.
But I am told the function that was held later in a memory
was a very big success. Yeah.
By the time you left Dr. Srinivas Rao had already joined, is it not?
P Srinivas Rao, he is also success man,
he came from-
No, I do not remember that name. Should not-
I think he joined 60 Maybe it was a next year.
He came from originally if IIT, Kharagpur
and German PhD doctor, engineer.
And he was almost right hand to Professor Varghese
I see. He took over the structural engineering lab.
The professor. The the youngest faculty member I remember was
Rajagopalan. Ah Rajagopalan.
He he joined IIT, when I was doing my final year
He was joined an associate lecturer That is right, Yeah.
Then he he took his PhD actually from Germany That is right, Yeah.
Yeah. Correct.
He Yeah.
In fact, about a year and a half back,
we had Professor Radha Krishnan, Professor Rajagopalan
and one of juniors maybe about 7-8 years juniors,
one Kalyanaraman who had become a professor here.
He took- His brother was 1 year or 2 year junior to you.
Yes, I forget his name he was metallurgy,
metallurgy or mechanical engineering.
So, he has a shop in in a shopping center here. I see.
So, at he did all the three had a, we had a group discussion.
In fact, I retired in 96.
So, I lost my wife in 2002, somehow about 2 years back,
I thought I came here and
thought why not do something here.
So, what I have taken up is to prepare a list of faculty
who have served this institute right from the inception.
Yes. Of course, the getting information was not so easy.
Not, not that easy. So, we have almost completed the job.
Oh, very good. So, maybe we will release it before.
Yeah. See, diamond jubilee years closes by 31st July
So, in fact,
I was connected with The Archives
cell in Indian Institute of Science where I did my PhD
so, that I had given some idea in that direction.
So, initially I thought Heritage Centre will do some archival work
but that is going to start a separate thing now.
I our, a German professor is there
and he is a he has collected lot of information of German side
with respect to IIT, Madras.
Sure. So, he wants to collect all the
documents available, scattered all over.
And try to bring some order and bring out some
and I told him we can then do archival research.
So, take up a- Yeah, Yeah. Small thing and then
Yeah. Development of particularly field of specialization.
Yeah. In any branch of engineering
Yeah, yeah. Which happened in IIT
Yeah, yeah. I remember the German professors, Professor Hahn
Yeah. Professor Koch
And my hydraulics professor
Professor Rouve is it Rouve
Professor Rouve Gerhard Rouve
Oh, yeah, Yeah. Gerhard Rouve
I remember him very well.
And, yeah, you would certainly remember Ebert.
Yes, Ebert, Yeah. Who was in workshop.
Workshop, so yeah
and only other there was one
yeah, you would not have the applied mechanical Professor Haug.
Professor Haug, he joined in 62 or 63 before you left. Yeah, Yeah.
Now, never we we I remember another German professor
who did machine drawing. Ah that is Scheer.
Scheer, Professor Scheer,
Dr. Scheer Yeah.
see Professor Rouve is no more
His grandson was here about month back.
Rouve’s grandson.
Rouve’s grandson.
Really It is very nice.
He came and said my grandfather
was mentioning about it. So, he came.
That is very nice.
He came to the. Now, we know the he Yeah.
there was a towing tank built during his after you left,
but that was been closed down.
Now that the Ocean Engineering is a very big
Yeah Yeah. Is a tank and all that so,
we have generator and all that and of course,
you I think must have been knowing Abdul Kadhar
Yes Yeah, he left for Singapore,
after his doctorate after he never came back.
And yeah there are T P Ganesan . No.
You do not remember that. He was around the same time
maybe he became later after retirement he joined SRM college
and then he was a pro-chancellor
and a huge auditorium built there is in his name
T P Ganesan auditorium, SRM college in SRM.
And in the hostel, you remember any of your batch mates,
mischievous batch mates.
There used to one V Raghavan, you remember? V raghavan, yes.
Lean person, Chemical Engineering Yeah, Yeah.
In fact, he could not complete along with you he.
Went to the next year and he completed.
So, he was a very character by himself. Yes,
Yeah. And in your juniors there was one Rajamani.
Remember he went for the Republic Day parade selected.
No, I do not know. Same fellow, he was there in a Chemical Engineering.
That is second batch next Could be yeah.
I do not know much about the second batch.
What about Muthukrishnan?
No, I don't know.
The only one I know is because I met him later on
they call him Ghost.
Who? He is he is his name is
Narayanan Narayanan, yes.
Narayanan Narayanan,
Yeah. Oh, Narayanan, yeah, Yeah.
His nickname is Ghost
I do not know why, but- Yeah, that is second, second batch.
He is in second batch Yeah.
He is the only one I know
from the second batch No, he used to be in the first floor somewhere so.
And I was Assistant Warden. Where were you in that?
I I was on the first floor
I see. of Cauvery hostel, one of the wings
I forget their room number now
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.
Because I went to Cauvery hostel,
but I could not recognize my room.
So, you could not locate your room So, I did not know where it was.
You did visit in- I went all around
I could not recognize them.
Now, because on the mess side there was some 3-
There are some changes there Yeah.
in the mess side.
And the some of the batch mates who are
settled in Madras, you have met? Yes.
Srinivasan Srinivasan, Mahadevan,
Mahadevan Neelakantan
Yeah, Amudachari Amudachari
Yeah, because this- Prabakaran
Ramkumar Yeah, yeah, yeah that is that is correct.
Are you anyway associated with a Campastimes? No.
You were not contributing, but you were reading?
When I was a student here
I wrote an article in in the journal.
Campastimes Campastimes.
I think was was it called Campastimes at that time?
Campastimes is a monthly newspaper isn't it is called- Right
Monthly or weekly. I do not think, it was at that time.
Annual number at one time It was an annual number at one time.
I see, I see And I wrote in one of them I wrote an article
You remember which annual number it was?
So, was it a your second, third, fourth year somewhere between 1962, 63
Something like that annual number 62 or 63; you have gone, it is the one is it
62 Oh, you wrote an
I wrote an article which basically was trying whimsically to
to imagine what it would be if light waves
travelled the same way as sound waves
Oh, I see.
Oh, this is- Because sound you can hear
any- from anywhere even with an obstruction in between.
Yes But you cannot see.
And I I wrote a a funny article
basically what happens if you can see through everything. Right.
and Yeah, it is here, The Chemistry of the Engineer. It is right?
Is it the one?
Chemistry of the Engineer.
That is not my initial.
It's not yours?
I don't think so.
Ok Thank you very much. Yeah, sure.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
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