50 years later, students meet Professor

CHENNAI: Not everyone gets an opportunity to meet his or her teacher 50 years after graduating. Surely something like that would be a special moment. On Thursday, as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the School of Architecture and Planning Alumni Association (SAPAA) of the Anna University, students of the first batch (1957-62) met and honoured their teacher of 50 years ago, Professor Kasturi.‘Students’ who participated included TV Prabhakaran, Anwar Sherif, Prof B Bhaskar Rao, Haji Mohammed Mustafa and A Krishnaswamy.President of SAPAA, TV Prabhakaran introduced students of his batch (then department of architecture under the Madras University) and their teacher. Travelling down memory lane, he recalled how Professor Kasturi demystified the theory of structure and structural design for the students.He narrated the memorable learning experience during the days of Prof V S Jayaraman and Prof Desai.Prabhakaran noted with satisfaction that the first batch students were successful in their respective ventures, be it teaching, the profession of architecture or trade ventures. “When we met the students of the fiftieth batch last month, it was very special,” he noted. Later, Professor Kasturi was honoured with a memento and a shawl.Suresh Kuppuswamy, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning (SAP), Anna University traced the history of the institution. Set up in 1957 as a department of the University of Madras, it was initially located in the Alagappa college of technology premises offering five year degree in architecture.Eminent architect C N Raghavendran was the chief guest and P Mannar Jawahar, vice chancellor of Anna University presided.