KV Sir -PSG's Immortal Legend
Every man’s life ends in the same way, it is only the details of how he lived that distinguishes one man from another -Earnest Hemingway

It is neither the salary you get nor the awards in appraisal of your work that term your success in life. It is the love and inspiration you provide and the affection and admiration you get back, that denotes the success you have had as a human being. A person's death denotes his period on earth. For an exemplary few like Dr K Venkatraman, fondly known as KV Sir, death denotes an Era- an era where they have lived, loved, served and achieved exceptionally.
KV Sir was born on 13.5.1928, completed his undergraduate degree from Bangalore and joined PSG Tech in 1951 for his first job. He requested the management to allocate him with the subject Geometric Design. When asked for the reason he said that he was not really satisfied with the way it was taught to him, so he wanted to teach it extraordinarily well to his students. This was the beginning. His teaching era not only witnessed thousands of students benefiting from his great knowledge, but also did it see the compilation of the world renowned PSG's Design Data Book, which still serves as the Bible to every engineer in the world. His contribution to the book had been immense. The book is one of the major landmarks that mark the pride of this institution.


Not only was he an ace in teaching the mechanical subjects, very few know that he had directed plays for district culturals that won the best play trophy on a hat-trick. He was an all-rounder who proved to be the best in all that he pursued. As a teacher, he was the most feared in the whole institution, but, interestingly, he was also the most loved and the most looked-upon. All his students unanimously agree that he is the best teacher a student could ever have. Every student has a unique memory with this legendary teacher. One of his students mentioned that KV Sir never had the habit of bringing the attendance register to class. He would call out the students by their names according to their numbers from day one, without any reference or hesitation.

This fact isn't just showing the brilliance of his memory, but also it is something which just proves the immense interest he had towards his students and his profession. No leaf was ever left unturned in Sir's class. He hasn't only mentored his students, but also he proved to be a mentor for so many faculty members of PSG Tech.
In the condolence meet recently organized by PSG Tech one could visibly see the amount of love and respect his colleagues and students have for him. The anecdotes mentioned by the retired faculty and alumni made his students long to go back to the time when they could experience his classroom teaching. Also, it made the current students of PSG Tech wish that they had the opportunity to be his students.
So many poems and so many cherished memories filled the meet. One of his students said that he prays to God to allot him with a seat in the last bench in KV Sir's classroom in heaven, for one is sure that even God would have recognized this great teacher. KV Sir's demise is the best example of these words by Garth Stein,"He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learnt what it came to learn and then was free to leave."
We thank Ms AKILA SIVAKUMAR (B.E, 1985-1989), Mr M SAMUTHIRAPANDY (B.E Production, 1982-1986), Mr C. KARUPPUSAMY (B.Tech, 1967-1971 and M.Tech, 1971-1973) for their valuable contribution towards writing this article.