Remembering my Mandapam days

It is now more than four decades since I stepped into the corridors of CMFR Institute at its erstwhile HQ at Mandapam Camp, as a research scholar of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. When I look back at my career spanning more than thirty years, I have a nostalgic feeling of my tenure at this narrow strip of land in the midst of Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar. The area was full of thorny bushes, venomous cobras and vipers as well as star tortoises. When I joined in 1964, Dr. Santhappan Jones was the Director. He was affected by polio and both legs were disabled. He moved around on a wheel chair. He was certainly a great visionary and a Karmayogi